Resource information
This report is part of a broader comparative effort by As the author worked with colleagues in Rwanda,
two other important dimensions of the Rwandan
experience became clear. Refugee return and land
access in Rwanda has been an extraordinarily
complex matter, with some refugees leaving just in
time for others returning to take up their homes and
lands. Rwanda has important lessons to teach us
about the need to maintain flexibility in dealing with
complexity, and raises questions about whether
obviously well-meant but very specific requirements
in international conventions can be applied with full
rigour in all cases. In addition, the Rwandan
experience highlights the fact that conflict and postconflict
are not two ends of a simple spectrum, but
overlap. Refugee return and economic
reconstruction similarly overlap, and this creates
challenges in framing policy and legal responses
that address adequately the diverse claims and
needs that arise.
the Overseas Development Institute’s Humanitarian
Policy Group on Land Tenure in Conflict and PostConflict
Situations, which aims to inform and
improve the policy and practice of humanitarian
action and to inform related areas of international
policy. It seeks to understand how land issues affect
and are affected by violence and conflict resolution,
what responses are appropriate and what lessons
can be learned from specific contexts of land tenure
interventions, both during and after conflict.
ODI selected Rwanda for one of the country studies
because, as the project document suggests:
The experience of civil strife in Rwanda
presents a stark example of the link
between access to land and the
precipitation of conflict … It also provides an
example of a situation where refugee and
IDP resettlement, land claims and land
reform were major features of the postconflict
setting.
