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We document, report and analyze HLP rights
violations in Syria.

Green Tabu

Introducing Green Tabu
03-09-2026
Some stories don’t fit into a news cycle. Housing, land and property rights in Syria are exactly that kind of tale, sprawling across legal texts, official sources, field reporting and institutional publications, and rarely brought together in one place, with the depth they deserve. That’s why we’re launching Green Tabu, Syria’s first HLP journal. Read its first issue here.

Reports & Papers

From Urbicide to Ecocide: Spatial Justice and Environmental Violence in Sweida, Syria
13-04-2026
What does it mean to destroy not just a city, but the very conditions that make return possible? Spatial planner Marh Echtai examines the July 2025 assault on Suweida through the interlocking frameworks of urbicide, domicide, and ecocide, arguing that the violence visited upon the Druze community was not a security operation gone wrong, but a deliberate, layered strategy of spatial erasure.

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

Decision No. 2462 of 1986 ordered the expropriation of properties in the city of Hama that had been destroyed during the military operations carried out by regime forces in 1982.

News

Backlash Over Reconstruction Plan for Jobar and Qaboun
31-03-2026
On March 13, the Damascus Governorate held a meeting to present a reconstruction project for “the revival” of the areas east of the capital, including Jobar, Qaboun, and Bab Sharqi. Around 30 people attended the meeting, including members of neighbourhood committees, dignitaries from Qaboun and Jobar (but not from Bab Sharqi), as well as lawyers and engineers.

Analysis & Features

Explained: Procedures for Auctioning Real Estate Within Compulsory Enforcement
27-01-2026
This article offers a detailed examination of the subsequent stage of compulsory enforcement, namely the procedures for selling the property at public auction, including the mechanisms of announcement, participation requirements, the conduct of bidding sessions, assignment decisions, and the resulting legal effects on ownership and the rights of creditors and debtors.

Reports & Papers

Report: Ownership, Planning, and Population Transformations in Damascus’ Informal Settlements, and Their Impact on Women’s Rights
30-11-2025
This paper begins from a central question about how issues of ownership and its documentation, the need for new planning schemes, and population shifts linked to displacement and return, reveal the challenges faced by returnees and residents in these informal settlements - especially women - in securing their rights to housing and property and to living in stable environments after the fall of the Assad regime.

Directory

Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management
28-10-2025
The Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management is a newly established Syrian government body responsible for coordinating national responses to emergencies, natural disasters, and humanitarian crises.

News

Ayn Tarma Master Plan Undergoes Expansion
31-03-2026
The local council in the city of Ayn Tarma in Rural Damascus has proposed a new revision to the master plan based on expanding the city’s boundaries and increasing urban density. This will be done by incorporating unzoned areas and allowing the construction of residential towers, with an increase in the number of permitted storeys, and permitting the construction of residential towers throughout the entire city and not only in the damaged areas.

Analysis & Features

Explained: Compulsory Enforcement Against Real Estate
20-01-2026
Compulsory enforcement against real estate is a legal means used by a creditor to recover a debt established by a final court judgement or a debt instrument. Compulsory enforcement is resorted to in order to strip a property from its debtor owner through the Civil Enforcement Department affiliated with the court within whose jurisdiction the property is located, and to sell the property at public auction so as to enable the creditor to satisfy their debt.

Reports and Papers

  • Delayed Justice: How Syria’s Transitional Administration is Managing HLP
    This paper analyses how the transitional administration has dealt with the housing, land and property (HLP) file in Syria following the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. It points to the continued rights violations despite some initial positive steps taken by the transitional government. While acknowledging the difficulty of the current phase and the short span of time since the new administration assumed power, the current approach remains circumstantial and transitional, lacking a unified vision or a clear rights-based path.
  • Forgery and Dispossession in Aleppo Countryside
    This report, exposes the widespread forgery of civil and property records in Azaz after 2017, including ID cards, legal powers of attorney, and property deeds, which were used to sell the properties of absent and deceased owners without their knowledge. The report also highlights the profound impact of these practices on trust in property institutions and on investment in the area, in addition to the disputes arising between original owners and new buyers.
  • Land Registry Violations in Azaz and Al-Rai
    This report, examines two interconnected cases: the seizure of properties and lands belonging to displaced people from Afrin after the “Olive Branch” operation and the construction of new villages on them, as well as the appropriation of privately-owned lands in rural Idlib for the construction of camps.

The Official Gazette

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More articles

National Committee Formed to Prepare Infrastructure for Returnees
24-03-2026
Syria’s Transitional President, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, issued Decree No. 57 on March 8, forming a national committee to rehabilitate infrastructure in heavily damaged areas. The aim is to allow displaced people to return, as well as to close various displacement camps, amid growing criticism directed at the  government due to the deteriorating conditions in the camps and the decline in support from international organisations.
Returnees Face Legal Battles to Take Back Usurped Properties in Damascus
24-03-2026
Returnees to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp and the nearby Tadhamon neighbourhood south of Damascus face complex problems relating to their property ownership after discovering that their properties had been sold or seized under forged contracts or through security pressure during the years of their absence. Networks including brokers, owners of real estate agencies, and sometimes lawyers exploited the circumstances of some displaced people, and the loss of their personal and property documents, and defrauded them in order to strip them of their possessions.
Transitional Government Prepares New National Building Safety Code
17-03-2026
The transitional government is preparing a new “Syrian National Code” for safety standards in the construction of housing, industrial facilities, and tourist establishments. The new project aims to establish a more comprehensive framework for safety standards in construction, including requirements for earthquake-resistant design, fire safety, and resilience to natural disasters, as well as ensuring the structural safety of buildings.
Syrians Fleeing Lebanon War Face Housing Crisis at Home
17-03-2026
An increasing number of Syrians residing in Lebanon have returned in recent days alongside escalating Israeli bombardment across wide areas of Lebanon, including the southern suburbs of Beirut. Many of the returnees are going back to damaged homes that require renovation work, or buildings that have been completely destroyed and require rebuilding.
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