Attachments
Effective humanitarian action aims to address suffering, save lives, and preserve the rights and dignity of crisis-affected populations. As a core cross-sectoral issue, maintaining and improving access to housing, land, and property (HLP) rights is key to this. While the fundamental causes of displacement and humanitarian needs cannot be addressed without considering HLP rights, humanitarian actors often forego due diligence processes. These processes ensure access to land and minimize risks to affected communities and implementing organizations. HLP due diligence is both critical and possible in contexts with severe time and resource constraints and is not solely the remit of HLP experts — it is a key responsibility for all humanitarian actors.
HLP matters for crisis-affected populations
Access to housing, land, and property is essential for a safe and dignified life. This access has economic, social, and cultural significance on a global scale. Having ownership, use, or access rights over these assets is invariably linked to economic and social status as well as resilience, protection, and durable solutions. Humanitarian actors rely on secure access to HLP rights to deliver assistance and achieve outcomes for affected people. Yet this is often viewed as a specialized area of practice. However, HLP rights are not solely the remit of specific technical experts. They are central to various sectors in humanitarian response. Whether a conflict or disaster, crises often lead to the loss of housing, land, and property through forced displacement, dispossession, destruction, or the loss of documentation. This manifests in destroyed buildings, forced evictions, and challenges accessing property after returning from displacement. Increased competition over land and resources due to climate impacts or historical grievances around housing, land, and property are also common drivers of violence and conflict, especially in fragile contexts.