NRC I Displacement, HLP and access to civil documentation in the south of the Syrian Arab Republic Women’s housing, land and property rights, access to legal identity and civil documentation The assessment also explored women’s housing, land and property rights and access to legal identity and civil documentation both prior to and during the current conflict. Securing HLP rights for women plays an essential role in economic and social outcomes for them and their families. As NRC has documented in other conflict-affected states, women face specific challenges securing their housing, land, property and civil documentation at all stages of armed conflict. Discriminatory norms and practices around ownership, inheritance and decision-making prior to a conflict also influence and often exacerbate the challenges that women face.22 Failure to identify these issues and seek integrated solutions increases the longterm costs of conflict. As a result of conflict, social norms and legal practices, women’s claim to housing, land and property that was theirs prior to displacement, is generally weaker than that of their male counterparts.23 This was corroborated by survey data. Only 9 per cent of female respondents reported that their name alone appeared on the documentation of their residence prior to displacement (compared with 68 per cent of male respondents). Only 10 per cent of women were the sole decision-makers for their residence prior to displacement compared with 59 per cent of men. Researchers for this assessment were told that males in the household would often make decisions, regarding their place of residence prior to displacement, without consulting female members of the household. 22 See the Displaced Women’s Rights to Housing, Land and Property project for more information. Available at: http://womenshlp.nrc.no/ 23 Nadia Forni, 2001, Land Tenure Systems Structural Features and Polices, FAO, p.33 and, Norwegian Refugee Council, 2016, op. cit., p.14. 18 I NRC Assessment Report