Press Releases

Right to housing and property restitution neglected in search for solutions to Palestinian refugee issue

BADIL Resource Center
7 October 2003
For Immediate Release


The right to housing and property restitution has largely been absent from recent debates and initiatives on seeking durable solutions to the Palestinian refugee question, says BADIL, the Bethlehem-based resource center for Palestinian residency and refugee rights.

 

BADIL takes a rights-based approach to the issue of Palestinian refugees and is sponsoring a series of Expert Forums to improve the understanding of this approach; build a network of experts supporting this view; encourage research on the issue and enhance the understanding of and support for a rights-based approach among policymakers, politicians, the media and Palestinians themselves.

 

The most recent seminar, the second 2003 BADIL Expert Forum, was held in Geneva, Switzerland, 2-5 October.   Co-organized by the Graduate Institute for Development Studies (IUED), University of Geneva, its theme was Law and mechanisms available for housing and property restitution in durable solutions for Palestinian refugees.  Proceedings of the seminar and summaries of key papers presented will be available on BADIL’s web site later this month (www.badil.org).

 

The Geneva seminar:

  • reviewed the scope of 1948 Palestinian refugee property in Israel and Israel’s expropriation laws and policies;

  • looked at lessons learned from experience with housing and property restitution, particularly in former Yugoslavia;

  • developed a set of guidelines to promote Palestinian refugees’ right to housing and property restitution; and

  • examined relevant international law to bolster the legal argument for refugees’ right to housing and property restitution.

 

An earlier BADIL seminar was held at the University of Ghent, Belgium on the Role of International Law in Peacemaking and Crafting Durable Solutions for Refugees.  Legal experts, researchers and human rights activists from academia, the UN, NGOs plus representatives from the Canadian Government, the European Union and the PLO agreed that the degree to which international law is incorporated into the peacemaking process depends on the political will of the dominant participants: the United States, Israel and Europe.

               

Seminar participants suggested a number of ways of instilling the political will to include refugee law and UN Resolution 194 on the right of return in the process.

 

The findings of the Ghent seminar are on BADIL’s web site.  As well, print copies of four key papers presented at the seminar are available from BADIL:

 

The Role of International Law and Human Rights in Peacemaking and Crafting Durable Solutions for Refugees: Comparative Comments  by Lynn Welchman, Director, Center of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, SOAS, University of London

 

Justice Against Perpetrators, the Role of Prosecution in Peacemaking and Reconciliation by Alejandra Vicente, Asst. Legal Officer, International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

 

The Right to Housing and Property Restitution in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Case Study by Paul Prettitore, Legal Advisor, OSCE, Bosnia-Herzegovina

 

Popular Sovereignty, Collective Rights, Participation and Crafting Durable Solutions for Palestinian Refugees by Karma Nabulsi, Nuffield College, University of Oxford

 


Print copies of the individual Ghent papers listed above are available for $5 per paper from [email protected].

For further information contact:  [email protected]   Tel/Fax: 970-2-274-7346

                                     

BADIL is a community-based Palestinian organization providing alternative information on Palestinian refugees and the search for a durable solution for Palestinian refugees based on the right of return.