Support To Housing, Land And Property Rights For Idps In Nineveh

Alignment with on-going efforts in Iraq: The proposed program is fully in line with the United Nations Recovery and Resilience Programme (RRP), where United Nations agencies in Iraq work on nine components requested by the Government of Iraq for 2018-2019 period aiming to fast-track the social dimensions of reconstruction. The RRP has a component to promote sustainable returns, co-chaired by UN-Habitat and UNHCR, by addressing vulnerabilities specific to returnees and tackling grievances, including housing and land claims. The proposed program will also contribute to addressing the priorities of The Government of Iraq and World Bank Reconstruction and Investment Framework (2030) by: a) including the private sector land industry to implement aspects of the program, b) by supporting MoJ to develop the capacity of the land management system focused on minority IDP returns, and c) by targeting Nineveh governorate, which is identified as one of the governorates with the highest needs for housing reconstruction.  This program also fits with the priorities of the Iraq HLP sub-cluster, chaired by UN-Habitat in Iraq. 

Response to the challenges faced by most vulnerable IDPs to return home in Iraq: While no comprehensive profiling of IDP minorities HLP rights and claims currently exists in Iraq,  UN-Habitat has a broad range of experience and information on their needs in Nineveh Governorate. Since the onset of the IDP crisis, it has conducted extensive surveys and mapping exercises across this Governorate, including Sinjar, Nineveh plains and Mosul. In 2015, UN-Habitat conducted a study of the Yazidi HLP rights issues.  It explored how the convergence of several circumstances, related to past discriminatory policies excluding minorities from enjoying land tenures rights, forced relocation to collective townships in the plains, double displacement and lack of tenure security could affect the prospects of return of the Yazidi community to Sinjar. In 2017, UN-Habitat conducted a comprehensive assessment and mapping of HLP in Mosul and surrounding areas. This assessment and internal reports show that a majority of claims are related to compensation that people expect from the government (Mosul), secondary occupation (Telkaif), loss of ownership documentation, or absence of legal documentation for the current living place. Many minorities in the Nineveh plains, such as in Hamdaniyah and Telkaif where Christians, Yazidis and Shabaks lived, fled their towns because of the ISIL occupation in August 2014. In early 2018 a significant number of families in these areas have already returned.  However, due to a lack of services and livelihood opportunities, the destruction of homes and insufficient resources to cover rental costs, some are returning to the camps, triggering a second displacement .