NRC I Displacement, HLP and access to civil documentation in the south of the Syrian Arab Republic Housing, land and property at place of origin Overview of the Syrian HLP legal framework The system and practice of land administration put in place during the Ottoman Period heavily influenced Syria’s current land tenure systems. Examples include the use of the tabou7 to represent ownership rights over land and property; the use of witness testimony where documents were lost; and the role of Shari’a Courts to effect the transfer of property rights. Significant law reforms were put in place after World War II, responding to demands for more equitable access to land. These policies established maximum amounts of land that could be held by individual families, with the aim of giving access to land to peasants, and ensuring that farmers obtained fairer shares of production in the case of sharecropping.8 The Syrian Civil Code of 1949 has played an important role in the development of the current land tenure system. The Code divides land into five categories: 1. mulk – Land “susceptible to full ownership lying within the perimeter of administratively determined built-up areas;”9 2. amirié (or miri) – Land owned by the State; 3. métrouké murfaka – Land owned by the State but subject to a right of use in favour of a collectivity of people, usually governed by local customs or administrative regulations; 4. métrouké mehmi – Land that belongs to the State at the governorate or municipality level, and which is part of the public domain; 5. khalié mubah – Amirie land that has not been inventoried and delimited, and on which the first occupant with the State’s permission acquires a right of preference. These categories still apply today; however, substantial overlap of different types of tenure coexists. Although officially abolished in 1958, customary laws, institutions and practice were very strong and influential before the crisis. Customary law is fused with Islamic law in Syria as it is throughout the Muslim world. Before the crisis, customary institutions had authority over rangeland management and benefited from implicit recognition by the State; accordingly, HLP dispute management and resolution was also a key function they performed.10 Sixty-nine per cent of respondents reported owning their primary residence at their place of origin, of whom 89 per cent reported that before displacement they were in possession of written documentation such as a tabou, a court decision or a contract of sale. The practice of renting was 7 Tabou is a technical term for a title deed in Syria. However, focus group discussions revealed that the same word is commonly used to refer to a range of less binding documents that might contribute to legal proof of property ownership. 8 Maximum Limit of Individually Owned Landholdings under Agrarian Reform Laws or Decrees of 1958, 1963, and 1980 (i.e. Law No. 161 of 27 September 1958; Legislative Decree No. 88 of 23 June 1963, With the Changes Made in Legislative Decree No. 31 of 14 May 1980 in parentheses) and Agricultural Relations Law (Law No.134) of 1958. 9 Syrian Civil Code, Art. 86(2). 10 Norwegian Refugee Council, 2016, op. cit., p.7 – 8. 10 I NRC Assessment Report