Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) released A Short Guide to Dealing with Property Rights Violations in Syria as part of the Beyti Project—which seeks to preserve property rights and document relevant breaches across the country. This specialized document is published to raise awareness about housing, land, and property (HLP) rights.
This short guide first introduces the concept of property rights, providing a general and simplified definition. Next, the guide puts the concept within its legal frames, which both define and regulate property rights locally and internationally, reviewing related international and regional treaties. The guide also sheds light on operative Syrian laws applicable to the subject matter.
Because there are diverse forms and patterns of property rights violations, multiple potential perpetrators, and various laws the perpetrators might use to infringe on the rights of both individuals and groups, STJ opted for inscribing examples of practices labelled as property rights violations under different legal frameworks.
However, STJ acknowledges that the incorporated examples are uncomprehensive and limited to recurring activities that resonate closely with the Syrian context. In other words, the selected examples demonstrate potential forms of property violations, describe some of their common patterns in times of peace in general, elaborate on the divergent legal characters they take in the particular cases of international and non-international armed conflicts, and highlight the legal framework applied in cases of foreign occupation, as is the current situation in some Syrian territories.
Additionally, the guide lists recommendations and measures that individuals, concerned organizations, and local initiatives can follow to protect and preserve property rights.
Furthermore, the guide redefines some of the common property rights-related terms and concepts, and explains their exact legal implications to put the recommendations and measures in perspective for the victims, spare them misinterpretation of terminology, help them better document the violations, and guide them towards proper legal measures to protect or recover their rights in the future.