| This booklet contains the full text of an important new international standard which outlines the rights of refugees and displaced persons to return not only to their countries when they see fit to do so, but to their original homes and lands as well. The Pinheiro Principles are the culmination of more than a decade of international and local activities in support of the emerging right to housing and property restitution as a core remedy to displacement. Official statistics now point to more than 12 million refugees worldwide, with an additional 25 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) dispersed in camps, slums and temporary shelters within the borders of their own countries. Some of the most serious problems facing displaced people around the globe are the loss of land, housing and property rights during their displacement and the consequent inability to return to their original homes and lands once they choose to voluntarily repatriate. For virtually all of the worlds displaced, their main wish is to return to their original homes in safety and dignity. These issues are at the centre of the entire restitution equation; whatever its cause, displacement must always be treated as a phenomenon in need of remedy and redress when those forced from their places of habitual residence determine the time is right. The process of housing and property restitution provides this remedy within a legally sound, coherent and practical framework which should bring displacement – and often its causes – to a permanent, sustainable and just end. People displaced by forces beyond their control should never face the prospect of losing their housing, land or property rights simply because they were violently forced to leave or otherwise fled an insecure situation in search of protection. And even when actual return and repossession is not considered safe, desirable or possible by the displaced themselves (for instance, when refugees choose to seek asylum, resettlement and permanent residence in a safe third country), few displaced persons willingly renounce their rights to the places they called home before fleeing, even if they have no intention of actually returning. Nor should they have to. And yet, housing, land and property disputes between the displaced and those currently living without their consent in their homes (the process of secondary occupation), inadequate legal protection and remedies for returnees and a range of other problems often act as strong impediments to the exercise of the right to return and related rights to housing and property restitution. Consequently, millions of refugees and displaced persons who desperately want to return to their original homes are unable to do so because restitution rights are not treated with due seriousness by the relevant authorities and international actors in the countries concerned. Ultimately, the concept of restitution provides a source of hope and a wellspring of potential justice. Restitution offers the displaced the promise that a history of injustice, the abuse of basic rights, or terror and harassment can actually, at least in this one important respect, be reversed. In what must be seen, then, as a major advance within the global human rights code, this aspiration to recover and repossess the dwelling, land or property the displaced called home when their displacement began, has emerged in recent years as a distinct and claimable right applicable to all displaced persons who wish to invoke it. The broader right to voluntary, safe and dignified return is now understood to encompass not merely returning to one’s country of origin, but to one’s original home as well. This is one reason, for instance, why UNHCR and other international and national agencies are now paying greater attention to the restitution elements of return than ever before. PinheiroPrinciples_eng.pdf
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