Excerpt from Expert Study: Housing and Property Issues for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons in the Context of Return - Key Considerations for UNHCR Policy and Practice

This study argues that in most circumstances, conditions of safe and dignified return will not and cannot be met without adequate safeguards designed to protect the rights to housing and property restitution of returnees. Building on this perspective, this paper suggests that UNHCR should refrain from promoting voluntary repatriation to countries of origin unless housing and property restitution issues are sufficiently understood and clarified, to the maximum possible extent, prior to return.