From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Benchmark 10 Establish the Conditions and Provide the Means for IDPs to Secure Durable Solutions
the Resolution of Real Property Disputes (CRRPD) in
2006 to settle property disputes arising from displacement
caused by the Ba’ath regime’s policies between July
1968 and April 2003. By October 2009, it had received
over 156,000 claims and ruled on almost 43,000; therefore
nearly three of four land and property disputes
still awaited resolution. 79 Property destruction is not
addressed by the CRRPD, meaning that groups such as
Marsh Arabs and Kurdish communities whose entire
villages were destroyed are not included in the scope of
the commission. In early 2010, legislation was passed
to replace the CRRPD with the Real Property Claims
Commission, which is to include a compensation program
for movable and immovable property expropriated
or damaged under the former government.
To encourage returns, in 2008 the government of
Iraq passed Prime Ministerial Order 101 and the accompanying
Council of Ministers Decree 262, aiming
at private property restitution. Under the decree, the
Ministry of Displacement and Migration provides a
stipend of 1,000,000 Iraqi dinars ($850) for eligible
IDP and refugee returnees and a rental compensation
package (for a period of six months) to registered IDPs
who have been residing as secondary occupants; it also
assists or refers returnees to ministries for assistance
through its return assistance centers. 80 However, these
programs have been inadequately implemented. In July
2009, the Iraqi government initiated its Diyala Return
and Integration Initiative with the United Nations in accordance
with Prime Ministerial Order 54 to establish
conditions for durable return for over 95,000 displaced
79 For a more in-depth discussion of the CRRPD, see Peter van
der Auweraert, “Land and Property Issues in Iraq: Present
Challenges and Future Solutions—Discussion Points,” pp.
27–37, in Resolving Iraqi Displacement: Humanitarian and
Development Perspectives, 18-19 November 2009, Doha,
Qatar, edited by Elizabeth Ferris (Washington, D.C.:
Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, April
2010 (www.brookings.edu/reports/2009/1119_iraqi_
displacement.aspx).
80 Eligible refugees must have spent eight to twelve months
outside the country. IOM, Iraq Displacement and Return
Mid-Year Review: 2008 (www.iomiraq.net/iomdmyear.
html).
143
Iraqis displaced between 2006 and 2007; the initiative
included support for nearly 17,000 jobs as of February
2010. 81 According to RSG Walter Kälin, the initiative is
“a positive model for returns and reintegration” and is
intended to be replicated in three key areas of return
in Baghdad as well as in Salaheddin governorate. The
Diyala program was significant in that it mobilized the
efforts of development actors to create economic incentives
for providing jobs for returnees, but the program
seems to have stalled. Gaps in the program point to the
need to address inadequate returnee assistance, to enhance
coordination structures and improve the capacity
of governorate institutions, as Kälin has advocated.
In addition, Kälin has called for solutions for allocating
land for IDPs who will not return. 82 With a housing
shortage of approximately 2 million units for Iraq’s
population as a whole, housing is clearly not an issue
for IDPs only. While the government has developed,
in partnership with UN HABITAT, a national housing
policy, the policy falls short of addressing internal
displacement. Hence UN HABITAT has developed a
national shelter strategy with the government. 83
The government of the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC) has largely fallen short of its responsibility
to establish the conditions necessary for IDPs to
81 Order 101 was extended to Diyala through Prime
Ministerial Order 54, which also stipulates that return is to
be conducted with the support of international agencies.
UNHCR Iraq: UNHCR Monthly Highlights, August 2009,
31 August 2009 (http://reliefweb.int/node/326601).
82 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Representative
of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally
Displaced Persons, Walter Kälin—Addendum: Visit to Iraq,
February 2011. Randa Jamal, “Iraq: The Diyala Initiative:
Facilitate the Reintegration of Returnees,” UNAMI (http://
reliefweb.int/node/346131).
83 UNAMI, “Press Statement: Iraq Ministry of Construction
and Housing delivers Iraq’s National Housing Policy in cooperation
with UN-HABITAT,” 7 November, 2010 (www.
uniraq.org/newsroom/getarticle.asp?ArticleID=1448);
Peter Van der Auweraert, “Displacement and National
Institutions: Reflections on the Iraqi Experience,” Middle
East Institute, June 2011 (www.refugeecooperation.org).