The UN Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons (The Pinheiro Principles): Suggestions for Improved Applicability

摘要

The 2005 UN Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons articulate the right of refugees and displaced persons to repossess property lost as the result of armed conflict. These principles are significant because they reverse the international community’s explicit approval of permanent war-time deprivation of property during the first half of the twentieth century. They consolidate the norm of post-conflict restitution of property and they also provide a set of standards for property repossession regimes to be applied worldwide. However, examined in the context of two of the most extensive attempts to restore property to refugees and displaced persons—Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, post-1995—the Principles do not adequately address six key issues. These are: the lack of desire of many of those dispossessed to return to their pre-war place of residence, the displacement of secondary occupants, where responsibility lies for property during its occupation, temporal limitations on repossession, differing conceptions of property, and co-ordinating regional restitution regimes. This article proposes further consideration of these six issues and their refinement in the Principles in order to enhance the Principles’ effectiveness and applicability.