Returning Home: Housing and Property Restitution Rights for Refugees and Displaced Persons

Book excerpt: This volume is a unique effort to cover the topic of the restitution of housing and property in light of lessons learned in the Balkans, South Africa, East Timor, and in a range of other countries that have made the shift from conflict to peace. Individual chapters by authors with direct experience dealing with housing and property restitution in particular contexts will bring into focus the legal and human rights aspects of this question. All parties involved in human rights, refugee assistance, post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation, and property rights will find this volume to be an indispensable resource now that housing and property restitution is viewed as an essential element of post-conflict reconstruction and a primary means of reversing “ethnic cleansing.”