Uncharted Territory

Disputes over land often start conflicts; and land is often a key issue when refugees and internally displaced people attempt to return home when the conflict is over. Access to land affects people's choice to return and their prospects of recovery. Yet humanitarian agencies largely neglect these wider issues on the basis that they are too complex and politically sensitive, and that they lie in the mandate of development or human rights organizations. Uncharted Territory bridges the humanitarian and land tenure divide and seeks to understand how housing, land and property issues can and should be practically incorporated into humanitarian responses. The book explores the theoretical nexus between land, conflict and humanitarianism, discusses the challenges for a more integrated response, and presents the findings of case studies from Angola, Colombia, Rwanda, and Sudan. This book should be read by humanitarian aid workers, policy analysts, academics, and government officials in developing countries.