Case: Afghanistan
TENURE TYPE: occupancy without legal status
INTERVENTION: SHELTER REPAIR
TENURE DURATION: MEDIUM-LONG TERM
In Afghanistan, land registration laws grant the government ownership to all unregistered land holdings. Many lost ownership documents during displacement, leaving a large population of IDPs and returnees living in informal settlements without occupancy agreements. A joint Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) – Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) shelter project was halted when community members claimed that land allocated to project recipients belonged to them and the project recipients had invalid ownership documents.
Key actions
Legal and Regulatory Analysis
Shelter and ICLA actors worked together to utilize regulations passed by the Afghanistan Land Authority intended to formalize ownership in informal settlements to assist target groups in obtaining certificates of occupancy. While these are not documents of ownership, they provided protections against forced eviction.
Identifying Community dispute resolution pathways:
Local Shuras and Jirgas were engaged to conduct trainings on dispute resolution strategies and land ownership laws to reduce the risk of eviction.