Back to Contents 10. Access to land, housing and shelter 10.1. Do stateless Palestinians have the right to property on an equal basis with Lebanese citizens? What are the obstacles they face to access housing? Walaa Kayyal, a researcher living as a Palestinian in Lebanon whom we interviewed for this report in October 2022 gave the following explanation regarding Palestinians’ access to property: “All Palestinians who bought houses before 2001, they can register it and it legally belongs to them. But after 2001, Palestinians were forbidden to own any property. However, you have people of other nationalities who own properties but not Palestinians. For example, Syrians can own a house, Yemenis can own a house, Saudis can own a house, Kuwaitis can own a house. But Palestinians cannot own a house. And it is in the Lebanese law, it’s written this way: Palestinians are not allowed to. Currently I do not know of any steps taken to improve this situation for Palestinians.” (Source: Walaa Kayyal, interview record, 31 October 2022) Mr Ziad El Sayegh, Executive Director of the Civic Influence Hub in Beirut and former Policy and Communication Advisor to the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee [a Lebanese inter-ministerial government body formed in November 2005 to implement the policies of the Lebanese government towards Palestinian refugees in Lebanon] whom we interviewed for this report considered that: “This is a very complicated story. In 2002, we didn’t allow anymore for the Palestinian refugees to buy a house,[..]. And between 2016 and 2018, this was one of the key frameworks we discussed within Lebanese national dialogue towards the Palestinian refugees issue, and we suggested a solution to legalize all the lands and houses bought before 2002 and after to think of scenarios of long-term leasing that can allow the Palestinian refugees to have houses.” (Source: Ziad El Sayegh, interview record, 31 October 2022) In a statement by Badil Resource Centre, submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, it was noted that: “Living Conditions for Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are facing rapidly increasing levels of [...]poor housing conditions, poverty, as well as a lack of access to [...] gas, electricity, and heating. The legal status given to the more than 479,000 Palestinian refugees [figures from UNRWA], where they are still categorized and treated as foreigners rather than refugees, [...] further prohibits Palestinian refugees from owning real estate, generating over-crowdedness in the 12 refugee camps while forcing others to live in ‘informal housing.’” (Source: Badil Resource Center: “Written statement* submitted by BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, a nongovernmental organization in special consultative status”, 23 May 2022, p. 2) The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs published a statement by the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on his visit to Lebanon in November 2021: “Deprived of the right to own any real estate, almost a half of Palestinian refugees (45 per cent) live in one of the 12 official Palestine refugee camps, and the rest reside in the so-called “gatherings” near the camps or informal housing. In all of these settings, Palestinian refugees are often subjected to overcrowded, unsanitary and unsafe conditions, with minimal access to infrastructure and basic services.” (Source: OHCHR, “Statement by Professor Olivier De Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, on his visit to Lebanon, 1 – 12 November 2021”, 12 November 2021, p. 1) 10. Access to land, housing and shelter 111