Jon Unruh, PhD. is a professor in the Department of Geography at McGill University in
Montreal. He has over 25 years experience in developing and implementing research,
policy and practice on war-affected land and property rights in the Middle East, Latin
America, Africa, and Asia, and has published widely on these topics. His specialty is
housing, land and property (HLP) restitution claims in war-affected scenarios. Most
recently he has assisted the UN in a mass claims HLP restitution project in Yemen; and he is
currently working on an approach for mass HLP restitution claims for Ukraine. Dr. Unruh has also conducted research and policy work regarding HLP in, Syria, Sudan, Liberia, Somalia, Mozambique, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Madagascar, Cambodia, Angola, Cameroon, Jordan, Colombia, Peru, Zanzibar, Kenya and Saudi Arabia, and remotely on Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. He has worked with the UN, The World Bank, USAID, DFID, and other multilateral and bilateral donors and NGOs.
Interests: Postwar land tenure
Details
Location
The legislative and institutional framework for war affected land rights in Iraq:
Land and property rights in Iraq are an important component of recovery, particularly subsequent to the ISIS conflict. The return of 3.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to the ISIS conflict are encountering claimants who were dislocated from
previous wars and expropriations. This results in numerous land conflicts that if not dealt with will contribute to the country’s instability. Of primary importance in this regard is an ongoing discussion in government and the international community which
Mass Claims in Land and Property Following the Arab Spring: Lessons from Yemen
The Arab Spring uprisings have released a flood of land and property conflicts, brought about by decades of autocratic rule. Expropriations, corruption, poor performance of the rule of law, patronage and sectarian discrimination built up a wide variety of land and property transgressions over approximately 30 years. The result has been the creation of longstanding, acute grievances among large components of national populations who now seek to act on them.