Legal Identity and Housing, Land and Property Rights of Syrian Refugees from a Durable Solutions Perspective Challenges and Opportunities Section 2 Legal Analysis 14 See: https://www.unhcr.org/protection/ conferences/543fdff96/sharjah-principles.html (accessed 28 October 2021). 2.1 International legal frameworks on the rights to legal identity and HLP The right to a legal identity is enshrined in international law; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) set out the right to recognition before the law. The ICCPR and the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) stipulate the right to birth registration, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) provides for the equal and non-discriminatory right to recognition before the law. These treaties have been ratified by Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq.12 Regionally, the Arab Charter on Human Rights promotes the right of all persons to legal identity,13 and the Sharjah Principles on Protecting Refugee Children in the Middle East and North Africa specify that all refugee children should be registered and documented at birth.14 Civil registration establishes the existence of a person under the law and is the fundamental means of confirming legal identity, which safeguards a multitude of rights.15 Birth registration is the most clearly articulated civil registration procedure under international human rights law.16 Marriage registration has been referenced by the CEDAW Committee.17 There is no explicit reference to the right to death registration under any international or regional human rights treaty. However, death registration is commonly connected to economic and social rights, such as the right to inheritance.18 HLP rights are a compound set of rights with their origins in the main international human rights treaties, 15 United Nations Human Rights Council, Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the law, A/HRC/19/L.24 (15/03/2012), par. 4. Civil registration is described by the United all of which have been ratified by Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq.19 The two most relevant aspects for Syrian refugees, due to their displacement, are the right to adequate housing and the right to reparation for HLP losses and violations experienced as a result of conflict. The right to adequate housing is set out in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)20 and defined as “the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity”.21 Under international law, displaced Syrians have the right to receive reparation for the HLP rights of which they were arbitrarily or unlawfully deprived during the conflict.22 The right to reparation is set out in article 2 of the ICCPR and further elaborated in the 2005 Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law (Basic Principles).23 The right to reparation is a distinct right held by refugees, regardless of whether they choose to return to Syria or not.24 Nations as “the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events”. United Nations (2001), Principles and recommendations for a vital statistics system, Revision 2, p. 4. 16 See UN Human Rights Council, 2012, Birth registration and the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the law, A/HRC/RES/19/9 (15/03/2012); UN General Assembly, Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 19 December 2011; 66/141. Rights of the Child, A/RES/66/141 (04/04/2012), par. 43(f). 17 The CEDAW Committee has noted that “[r]egistration of marriage protects the rights of spouses with regard to property issues upon dissolution by death or divorce” (UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), General recommendation on article 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Economic consequences of marriage, family relations and their dissolution), 30 October 2013, CEDAW/C/GC/29, CEDAW, par. 25. 18 See, for example, the 2014 UN Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System available at https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/standmeth/ principles/m19rev3en.pdf, and the Sustainable Development Goal Indicator no. 17.19.2 G 17 indicator: Proportion of countries that (a) have conducted at least one population and housing census in the last 10 years; and (b) have achieved 100 per cent birth registration and 80 per cent death registration. 19 For an overview of the countries’ status of ratification, see: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/MENARegion/Pages/ MenaRegionIndex.aspx (accessed 29 October 2021). 20 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), UN Doc. A/6316 (1966). Article 11 (1) of the ICESCR requires states parties to the Convention to “recognise the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions”. 21 12 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) was ratified by Syria in 1969, by Iraq in 1971, by UN General Assembly, Basic Principles on the Right to a Jordan in 1975, and by Lebanon in 1972. The Convention Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was ratified by Syria in International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of 1993, by Iraq in 1994, by Jordan in 1991, and by Lebanon International Humanitarian Law, UN Doc. A/Res/60/147 in 1991. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms (2005), Principle VII.b and Principle IX.18. of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was ratified by Syria in 2003, by Iraq in 1986, by Jordan in 1992, and by 13 22 UN CESCR, General Comment 4 (1991), par. 7. 23 UN General Assembly, Basic Principles on the Right to a Lebanon in 1997. For an overview of the countries’ status Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of of ratification, see: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/ International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of MENARegion/Pages/MenaRegionIndex.aspx (accessed 28 International Humanitarian Law, UN Doc. A/Res/60/147 October 2021). (2005), Principle VII.b and Principle IX.18. The Arab Charter on Human Rights was ratified by Syria in 24 UN General Assembly, Basic Principles on the Right to a 2007, by Iraq in 2012, by Jordan in 2004 and by Lebanon Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of in 2011. International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, UN Doc. A/Res/60/147 (2005), Principle VII.b and Principle IX.18. 6