CONTENTS Page 1. Executive Summary 2 2. UN Guiding Principles On Internal Displacement, Principle 21 9 3. Legal systems in the conflict-affected areas 10 4. Legal Analysis of property-related problems in the conflict-affected areas: 12 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Loss or destruction of title deeds and problems of ownership Displaced owner wishes to return to property occupied by another Displaced tenant/lessee returning to the property previously occupied Property completely or partially damaged and cannot be occupied Property rendered uninhabitable as a result of unexploded ordnance or mines in the region 6. Tenant cultivators returning to the land for cultivation 7. Other ancillary property rights of returning displaced persons (Servitude) 8. Property subject to mortgage or any other encumbrance 9. Partition of property 10. Lands bought by relatives or others with moneys sent by people residing overseas and such people now claim the lands on their return 11. Forcible transfer of properties 12. Non-existent boundaries of property or encroachment of the lands 13. Succession of property where the owner died during the conflict period 14. The married woman’s incapacity to deal with her property without her husband’s consent under Tésawalamai 15. The lands given under Crown Grants and Permits occupied by unauthorised persons 16. Landless IDPs or refugees 17. The control and maintenance of the places of worship 18. Properties within the High Security Zones 12 16 20 22 24 25 27 28 39 44 46 48 50 52 54 59 59 63 5. An assessment of the infrastructure and resources of the Judiciary in the war-affected areas 64 6. Recommendations for the establishment of an alternative dispute resolution mechanism 68 2