and displaced persons.”108 Meaning that, restitution could, and should, be enforced even when those displaced decide not to exercise their return. In this framework, restoration of property simultaneously constitutes a freestanding, autonomous right109 and, where return is realized in practice, a corollary of the right of return110. The rights to restitution and return are in fact complementary, but they rely on separate provisions and principles of international law. That means, in practical terms, the right to property restitution is not affected by the choice of a refugee to not repatriate and to resettle in a third country. Equally, the decision to exercise the right of return, is not contingent on returning to previous actual homes, it is a right to return to their homeland generally. While not binding themselves, the Pinheiro Principles reflect widely accepted principles of IHRL, IHL, and the Law of Nationality. As with the right of return, the right to restitution finds its basis in IHRL, IHL and in the Law of Nations, and is expressly considered under refugee law and by several UN resolutions. 1. Under IHRL, the right to housing and property restitution can be derived from both the right to property and the right to adequate housing, with their respective protections against arbitrary governmental interference. The right to property is included in the UDHR and the ICCPR,111 as well as in regional instruments like the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.112 108 Pinheiro Principles, supra note 107, Principle 2(2). The 2007 Handbook uses an even stronger language, stating that “long-term displacement does not extinguish or de-legitimize restitution claims - nor does a decision to resettle or integrate locally”, Inter-Agency Handbook on Property Restitution for Refugees and displaced Persons. (see FAO, NRC, OCHA, OHCHR, UN-HABITAT, UNHCR, Handbook on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons: Implementing the ‘Pinheiro Principles’ (March 2007), 18-20, available at: https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/pinheiro_ principles.pdf 109 Economic and Social Council, Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, The Return of Refugees or Displaced Persons’ Property, Working Paper submitted by Mr. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro pursuant to Sub-Commission decision 2001/122, E/CN.4/ Sub.2/2002/17. 110 For instance, in this regard the Commission on Human Rights for Bosnia and Herzegovina condemned violations of the property rights of displaced persons in light of the circumstance that they “undermine the principle of the right of return”. See UN Commission on Human Rights, Situation of human rights in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), E/CN.4/RES/1996/71, 23 April 1996, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3b00f25638.html [accessed 6 June 2018], para 926. 111 UDHR, supra note 13, art. 12 and 17, ICCPR, supra note 13, art. 17(1). 112 Council of Europe, Protocol 1 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 20 March 1952, ETS 9, available at: http://www.refworld.org/ docid/3ae6b38317.html, art. 1; Banjul Charter, supra note 54, art. 14; Pact of San Jose, supra note 54, art. 21. 41