Iraq - Context and Land Governance

^{A man working in the Iraqi Marshes, photo by UNDP, Licence CC BY-ND 4.0.0.}

The legal framework for land rights in Iraq draws on multiple resources. The Islamic and Ottoman era law continue to influence land issues, as well as European models of law and administration from the past.²[a] This resulted in a blend of Western and Middle Eastern legal traditions that is embraced by its civil law system³.

Iraq is striving to transition from stabilization to sustainable development. While the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been territorially defeated in Iraq, the consequences continue to define the country’s ability to move forward as a stable, resilient, cohesive state.⁴

Land and property rights (HLP rights) in Iraq are an important component of recovery subsequent to ISIL conflict. The most recent one had destroyed 138.000 homes and around 6 million Iraqis fled their homes.⁵ However, those who managed to return to their original towns are still struggling to secure access to property.

Around 3.3 million internally displaced persons (IDP) are encountering claimants who were dislocated from previous expropriations.⁶ Looking at special groups like women, they were found to suffer poverty, inadequate shelter, fear of eviction and inability to claim HLP rights. The situation is complex as displaced people often reside in inadequate housing without any formal lease agreements which makes it hard to consent property claims and to seek compensation⁷. In this regard, particular attention has been paid to the ability of the current laws and institutions to provide for a stable socio-political environment that can manage different priorities regarding land and property rights.

Before ISIL, the housing market was inaccessible for the poor and middle income groups, which resulted in a couple of thousands of informal settlements especially in large cities, exacerbating tenure issues post-ISIL.

The Iraqi government is aspiring to build a diversified economy. They developed the 2030 vision which all ministries and local governments should adhere to and implement strategic programmes to deliver on this vision. The Legislative sector is also supporting the vision and a recent statement issued in 2023 by the Iraqi federal supreme court committed to eliminate discrimination among citizens seeking the right of ownership and to fulfill the government’s objective of providing land to all citizens.⁸

Land conflicts & displacement

Historically, conflicts across religious groups have marked the contestation over property rights. They have been particularly pronounced in the Northern areas, strongly affecting Sunni and minority groups.

In the context of the Arabization campaign, the government moved Arabs into settlement areas of Kurds and other minorities at a large scale. During the 1970’s, Yazidiz groups were forcibly evicted/deported and resettled in 11 collective towns after their villages were destroyed.⁹ The ‘Revolutionary Command Council Decree’ RCCD provided the legal basis for this programme that authorized the confiscation of property belonging to supporters of the Kurdish National Movement. This aimed to discourage Yazidis from supporting the movement and facilitated their urban control. Land in those towns was never formally registered as the Bathiest system (the Iraqi state between 1968 and 2003) forced Yazidis to abandon their nomad lifestyle. The government barred Yazidi communities from formal property ownership in Sinjar, and, after the defeat of ISIL, all official land allocation processes there were frozen due to the political conflict between central authorities and the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

In practice, due to this discriminatory policy that had been in place until 2003, successive Iraqi governments have delayed the implementation of Article 140, which outlines a roadmap to define the final boundaries of the territory to be administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government¹⁰. Accordingly, Yazidis had no access to a ‘TAPU’ property document, and were unable to apply for construction loans. In contrast, Arabs could officially register their properties under the ruling Baath Party¹¹, but only around 10% of those living in Ninewa had formally registered their properties¹².

Post 2003, the government canceled most of the long-term agriculture contract between Iraqi states and Sunnis that moved to minority areas during the Arabization Campaign. In 2003, the Iraqi Property Reconciliation Facility (IPRF), was established with the aim to collect “real property claims and promptly resolve such claims on a voluntary basis in a fair and judicious manner.”¹³ As a successor of IPRF, the Iraqi Interim Governing Council (IGC), approved the establishment of a new body – the Iraq Property Claims Commission (IPCC) in 2004. It provides the settlement of property claims arising between 1968 (when the Ba’ath Party seized power in Iraq) and 2003. ¹⁴ In the post-conflict, lack of legal evidence and records related to HLP ownership in Sinjar created challenges for groups to return, and Sinjar was characterized as one of the lowest return areas in Iraq. Only 34% of inhabitants returned to Sinjar in contrast to around 78% of total Iraqis returning home from other areas in 2019.¹⁵

Recent ongoing discussion between the government and the international community focuses on the current legislative and institutional framework in the context of the historical-to-present trajectories of land rights problems and development of land and property laws and institutions¹⁶. The Iraqi government had used legal tools to deal with property rights in the post conflict period. One of them is to provide IDPs with a small economic incentive to shift from irregularly occupying real estate property of other IDPs as stated by the Council of Ministers Decree 262 of 2008.¹⁷

Also a compensation program was set by Law 20 for households that provide evidence of property destroyed as result of conflict. The law, amended in 2015, applied from 2003 till present. Multiple Land Registry offices had been looted by IS leading to destroying cadasters and records of property rights. The intentional acts were meant to undermine Iraqi legal institutions and reclaim ‘Muslim land’, however, the reissued property documents by IS were not legally recognized by the Iraqi government.¹⁸ Long processing times and challenges of carrying out restitution remains an obstacle for the implementation of the compensation program¹⁹. Corruption in the land system, especially in the liberated governorates, led to looting of state land and destruction of historical sites (Ninewa Wall etc).

Land legislation and regulations

Iraq is a rich country in terms of relevant legislations to housing, land and property rights (HLP) laws.²⁰ Dealing with the aftermath of conflict and in response to displacement, the Iraqi state created several formal legal institutions that were categorized by a high degree of uncertainty due to the limitations of rolling them out evenly²¹.

Most of the sensitive areas affected by Arabization are covered by a legal remedy inscribed in Article 140 of the Constitution, which requires a referendum in the disputed geographic area. After the invasion of the USA in 2003, the ‘Iraqi Property Claims Commission’ was established to address the property rights violations.

The Constitution of the Iraqi Republic from 2005 stipulates in its article 27 that a law shall regulate the provisions related to the preservation and management of state property. By 2010, over 75% of restitution and compensation claims over property were still pending since before the Property Claims Commission was created and only around 8.2% of its decisions were enforced as of March 2015.²²

The history and practices of land laws in Iraq goes back thousands of years, starting from the Babylonian period during the reign of Hammurabi 1810 BC, through the period of the Ottoman Caliphate rule that began in the middle of the sixteenth century AD 1534. In the Ottoman era, special departments were established to undertake the registration of real estate disposals, called the Khakani Daftar Department. The land system in that period was called the Tabu System (title deed) and the department concerned with real estate registration was known as the Tabu Department. However, further grants of title were prohibited after 1881, and the Ottomans made numerous attempts over the next 30 years to recover the lands²³.

During the British Mandate period, which lasted for more than a decade, from 1920-1932 AD, there was a tendency to cooperate with tribal leaders and give them wide powers. The land systems supported feudal rules in land ownership, which left many peasants without land and property. During this period, the Land Registry was established and an order was issued to review land titles ‘Tabu’²⁴ .

Iraq’s Pluralistic legal system draws on state and customary institutions in addition to ‘Sharia’ law. Established by the Ottoman empire, it strongly focused on reinforcing existing political power through the allocation of large land holdings to influential individuals backing the regime²⁵. A series of land reforms expropriated Iraqi oligarchs after a military coup in 1958 that granted power to the Baathist regime. These large scale land reforms were implemented in rural areas of Iraq, enacting limitations to the size of land holding and enabling collective property ownership²⁶. The religious islamic system had established its own land laws, regulating ownership in specific administrations and across the Muslim majority²⁷.

^{Fig. 1 28 Iraqi Main factors influencing the local land tenure system}

The Coalition Provisional Authority established the Iraq property Claims Commision that mainly focused on collecting and adjudicating real property claims. This was then replaced by The Commission for the Resolution of Real Property Disputes (CRRPD). The ‘CRRPD’ received over 164,000 claims nationwide and a commission in Baghdad was appellate allowing around 24,350 Arabs (Wafidin) to apply for compensation to the Article 140 committee. Approval for compensation was granted to 16,500, and about 8,602 Wafadin received compensation and returned to their original provinces²⁹. In the period between 1991-2003, a large number of lands were distributed in the cities to the soldiers, martyrs, and officials, which encouraged speculation in the lands.³⁰

Land tenure classifications

While the statutory land administration system is legally covering the entire country, the system is centralized and there is difficulty in enforcing the administrative system in peripheral areas. Land in Iraq has traditionally been organized into categories derived from Sharia law as shown in table 1.

Most land is classified as ‘miri’ - technically owned by the state, but can be possessed and used by individuals, who also have transfer rights (or ‘tasarruf’). ‘Miri’ is not articulated in Sharia law, but it is regulated by the state code. Communal land around the village is commonly used by village members and plot tenure refers to a form of residence rights that are close to ownership rights.

Also, leases are a form of tenure with variations of time periods. During the late Ba’athist period, supporters of the regime had received government land. Processes for transacting property, registering and applying for improvements were lengthy, but apparently effective. As of 2005, around 96% of land owners had registered their properties and less than 3% had mortgages.³¹ However, fraudulent titles had become increasingly common following the second Gulf War due to the deterioration of authorities and institutions.

^{Table (1) Land Tenure Categories, Practices and Legal source (Alossmi and Ahmed 2015)32}

Multiple ownership claims and destruction of public records had also added more pressure after the fall of the Ba’athist regime in 2003.³³ The inability to provide fundamental land rights and address inappropriate regulatory frameworks and weak financial mechanisms led to tenure insecurity in Iraq.

As a consequence of the political situation, a high number of people migrated within Iraqi cities and abroad. According to a UNRWA report, in 2012 around 19 million people sought refuge inside Iraq in addition to 2.2 million that crossed the borders into neighboring countries.³⁴ The dislocation resulted in significant problems for millions of households to secure their land tenure rights as well as for authorities to control such migration amid the political instability.

The official institutions responsible for land registration and titling are the Land Administration Department of the Ministry of Justice and the local Real Estate Registration Departments ‘RERD’. The RERD is responsible for recording and validating real estate transactions, ensuring that land development is in accordance with land use policy.

The government of Iraq had acknowledged the importance of resolving land and property disputes of the former regime to address structural challenges and adopt a holistic approach to ensure the success of sustainable reconstruction and rehabilitation.

Several country assessments identify the absence of good governance, the spread of administrative and financial corruption, and weak accountability/transparency as responsible for low government efficiency and effectiveness and the poor quality and responsiveness of public services in Iraq.³⁵

Most recent government interventions have focused on land and property restitution. Decree 262 and Order 101 were issued for the facilitation of return and displacement claims due to the conflict since ISIL incursion in 2014.³⁶

Land tenure administrations have historical foundations that are rooted back to different periods, however the current land systems are greatly influenced by conflicting policies that control land reforms and development programs. State insecurity and inter-communal violence had contributed to land tenure insecurity. While the statutory land administration system legally covers the entire country, the system is centralized, and enforcement is challenging in peripheral areas.³⁷

The new Real Estate Law for 2022 provides Iraqi citizens with the right to register their properties. Unlike the previous laws that included a long process for registration, the facilitated procedures approve registration of properties regardless of ensuring evidence for sequence ownership and require only the possession of 5 years or more. The law also allows the possibility to separate real estate disposal tax upon registration.³⁸

^{Fig. (2) Iraqi Real Estate Registration form39}

Interventions by donors and the international development community have been robust since 2004. Agencies such as the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), UN-Habitat, OHCHR and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) have played a vital role in terms of persuasively raising land issues with the Ministries of Finance and of Agriculture, and advocating for a swift resolution of the Yazidi caseload.⁴⁰ During the last 2 years, NRC has repaired and rebuilt houses for more than 5,200 people in Mosul. And through their legal assistance program, they supported more than 6,000 people to obtain and retrieve civil documents. However, the lack of resources allocated by the government makes the process extremely long and challenging for families to return back to their homes.⁴¹

According to a study conducted by Prindex, 29% of Iraqis feel that their land tenure is insecure.⁴² People holding formal land documents represent 78%, holders of informal documents account for 8%, while those who remain with no documents are 14%.⁴³

The Commision of the Resolution of Real Proper Disputes (CRRPD) aims to resolve land and property violations incurred under the former regime.⁴⁴ The process was intended primarily to benefit those whose land was confiscated as part of the Arabization program and other policies of sectarian displacement by receiving claims till 2007.

The Central Statistical Organization in Iraq (‘CSO’) is affiliated to the Ministry of planning. It conducts an annual statistics activity in the building and construction sector that provides important indicators for national indicators and estimates gross domestic and capital accounts. This is essential for planning future development and projects while being acquainted with the current statistics of cost for construction and labor and the potential for private sector contribution in the development of the construction sector in Iraq.

Additionally, CSO runs a demographic survey every 4 years in order to update the demographic data base for the country considering economic and geographic aspects.⁴⁵ In 2023, CSO announced their contribution as main partner in the Social Upgrading Program in addition to other official authorities and international organizations aiming to develop a methodology for standardizing systems for social security and developing a Social Protection Database. The program, supported by the European Union and other international organizations, will expand the coverage of social protection networks targeting 2 million applicants, reflecting around 62,000 families to be covered during 2023.⁴⁶

Land use trends

Land use had been strongly influenced by its role in the economy. The area of ​​agricultural land in Iraq is 9.25 million hectares, or 21.3% of the total land area of ​​the Iraqi country, 42% of which is used for grazing, and the area of ​​irrigated land is 37% of the total agricultural land. It is concentrated in the central and southern regions and is mostly used for the cultivation of vegetables and fruits. The lands cultivated with the winter rains, which are concentrated in northern Iraq, in Kurdistan, produce about a third of the country's food grains. Forests cover small areas of Iraq, with an area of ​​​​825 thousand hectares or less than 2% of the country's area.

Due to the conversion of large areas of pastures to the cultivation of food grains during the siege in the 90’s of the last century, the number of livestock in Iraq has deteriorated significantly⁴⁷ About a third of Iraq's reclaimed agricultural land is located in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Irrigation systems and agricultural infrastructure have deteriorated significantly since 2003. While an estimated part of the land has become degraded due to soil salinity, movement of sand dunes and desertification, associated with unsustainable production practices, causing land degradation and soil erosion in Iraq. Combined, these factors caused the deterioration of the quality and quantity of natural vegetation cover, removal of topsoil, and as a result the total cultivated area decreased and land productivity and food production decreased in Iraq.⁴⁸

Land use is strongly influenced by its role in the economy. 34 million hectares that represents about 77.7% of the total national area are not agriculturally viable. Approximately 9.5 million hectares, representing 22%, is devoted to agriculture, however half of them are of marginal utility for seasonal livestock grazing.⁴⁹ Current data on land distribution is scant as the multiple waves of dislocations had significantly reworked the distribution of land in the country with the ongoing returns and dislocations.⁵⁰

Soil salinity, movement of sand dunes, and sand and dust storms are some of the most common active phenomena causing land degradation and soil erosion in Iraq. Combined, these factors have caused a deterioration in the quality and quantity of natural vegetation cover, removal of topsoil, and a decrease in land productivity and food production in Iraq. The construction of dams upstream also reduced the flow of water, causing swamps and lakes to dry up and creating sediments that are the source of dust in the area.⁵¹ The loss of food security threatens a large number of Iraqis. About half a million people have urgent humanitarian needs, including food, especially in the governorates of Nineveh and Anbar.⁵²

One of the main causes of the rapid change in land use and land cover is the increasing population. The rising demand for settlement has converted natural land covers into other land use types.⁵³ The urban land area is about 1.25 million hectares, or 3% of the total area. 71% of the total population live in urban areas, and the urbanization rate in Iraq is growing at a rate of 3% annually. The area of ​​fallow land is estimated at 8.4%.⁵⁴

Due to urban development and the overlapping of agricultural lands and orchards with the urban area in Baghdad and its municipalities, a law was enacted in 2015 to establish ownership in agricultural lands and orchards that are excluded from settlement areas. This law allows the establishment of rights on those lands adjacent to, surrounding, or located within the urban area, and the transfer of agricultural lands. It also allows changes in their purpose, and for authorities to conduct settlement and registration in those lands. According to the Iraqi Ministry of Planning, there are no less than 4,000 random compounds throughout Iraq, and half a million families living in these slums, equivalent to about three million Iraqis. A quarter of these are in Baghdad alone.⁵⁵

Iraq is committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.⁵⁶ Within the Iraq Vision 2030, the National Development Plan (NDP) for 2018-2022 addresses the distinct recovery and reconstruction challenges in the liberated areas while at the same time recognizing the reconstruction and development need for broader national reforms, including those who are indirectly affected by the conflict. The Reconstruction and Development Framework (RDF) for 2018-2027 outlines the Government’s commitment and approach for moving from humanitarian assistance and stabilization to recovery, reconstruction and development. It ought to progressively implement coherent institutional, financing, prioritization, policy development, and program management structures. This also aligns with the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), 2018-2022, that is mostly anchored in the Sustainable Development Goals.

^{Life in Iraq's marshlands, photo by UNDP Iraq, License CC BY-NC 4.0}

The history of land issues & agricultural productivity

The complex land tenure system in Iraq and the inefficient government implementation of land reform have contributed not only to major land governance challenges, but also to the low productivity and growth of the agricultural sector over the years. The Ottoman Land Code of 1858 attempted to impose order by establishing categories of land including surveys and registrations of land holdings. However, limited registration had been accomplished and land titles were insecure by World War I and the state retained ownership of the land under the system of tribal tenure.

By 1930, the agriculture expansion had increased the demand for securing titles for large landowners. In response, the government promulgated a law in 1932 for issuing land titles and speeding-up the registration process that resulted in titling land for a number of tribal leaders and village headmen. After the 1958 revolution, more than two-thirds of Iraq’s cultivated land was concentrated in 2% of the holdings and the rest covered about less than 10% of the cultivated land. The Agrarian reform was one of the high priorities for the new government as they were aware of the inequalities that affect sharecroppers against landowners.

The new regime issued a law in 1957 that limited the maximum amount of land an individual owner could retain to 100 hectares of irrigated land or twice the amount of rain-fed land. Holdings above this limit were expropriated by the government - it reached 75% of all privately owned arable land. After ten years, about 1.7 million hectares had been expropriated, but fewer than 440,000 hectares of such lands had been distributed. And nearly 55,000 families allocated 645,000 hectares in which several hundred hectares of government land were included in the distribution. The chaotic situation led to rural-urban migration due to the lack of funds and expertise by the government that led to the stagnation of agricultural production in the 1960s.

In 1970 the government issued a law that reduced the maximum size of holdings between 10-10 hectares of irrigated land and between 250-500 hectares for non irrigated land and any holdings above the maximum were expropriated. In 1975, an additional reform law was enacted to break up the large estates of Kurdish tribal landowners. By 1983, the government enacted a new law for encouraging both local and foreign Arabs to lease larger plots of land from the government and as a further incentive to productivity, the government instituted a plan to lease and sell state collectivized farms from 1987 to the private sector.⁵⁷

Land investment

According to the National Development Plan in Iraq, the government had allocated US 31 billion for improving housing buildings and infrastructure. The Five-year National Development Plan (2010-2014) by the National Investment Commission eagerly aimed to boost private investment in various relevant projects creating many opportunities for foreign investment. However, the procurement practices are still maturing and the tendering and decision making remain challenging.⁵⁸

The Iraqi government has previously taken temporary policies and measures to alleviate the housing crisis, such as securing residential plots of land at subsidized prices, especially for employees and some other segments, providing credit facilities and loans for the implementation of housing units, exempting residential homes for rental purposes from taxes for limited periods of time. However, all these incentive policies stopped in the mid-eighties and the years that followed as a result of the war with Iran, the economic blockade and other wars.⁵⁹

The new investment law for 2006 grants foreign investors great privileges and guarantees. According to Article(10) Iraqi and foreign investors have the right to use land for housing projects and for a sum to be determined between them and the land owner as long as they follow the rules set forth by the National Commission for Investment and the approval of the Council of Ministers. Required land for housing projects shall be allocated by the commission, while the housing units shall be allocated for ownership by Iraqi nationals after the completion of the project.⁶⁰

Article 10 in the Investment law No. 13 of 2006, had given the right for Iraqi and foreign investors to own land and properties for a revenue based on a special system for the exclusive purpose of executing housing projects. In case of any failure to fulfill their obligations in the period specified in the agreement made with the Investment commision, the Real Estate Registration Administration would revoke the registration and return the land or property to its former owner in return for paying back the sale price.⁶¹ However, there are some discrepancies, for instance only Iraqi investors can purchase land that is being allocated for industrial projects.

The law also falls short of offering land for allocation. Studies have shown that the majority of investment projects have failed due to failure to allocate land even after obtaining an investment license.⁶² Resolving this major problem requires Cabinet-level intervention, including a revision of current policies.

The National Investment Commission of Iraq has proposed 2 million acres of agricultural lands for direct investment by foreign companies aiming to alleviate the stress of degradation while promoting new technologies that can contribute to revival and potential cultivation of different types of agricultural crops in different regions of Iraq. Most farmers in Iraq are smallholders and practice both rainfed and irrigated farming as well as animal husbandry.⁶³

The government aims to allocate more money to support farmers to develop their lands and to eliminate the problem of peasant migration from their territories by investing in cultivation of different crops at high competitive prices. The plan includes 5 million acres of agricultural land ready for reclamation and prepared for cultivation by drip irrigation and sprinkler and water recycling, noting that the cost of speculative investment in these territories is estimated at 18 $ billion and is open for direct investment or by company investment. However, the plans for increased agricultural production are challenged by the declined amounts of water quotas, the scarcity of good varieties of seeds and weak support to farmers.⁶⁴

Land Acquisitions

The ba’ath regime promoted the modernisation of rural areas in 1970 by confiscating privately owned land. Land acquisition primarily took place in the northern part of the country in order to solidify control over oil and arable lands. This development was part of the ‘Arabization’ movement, which targeted minorities along with their land and property and led to displacement and relocation. In addition, the Algeria Agreement of 1975 led to the forced displacement of ethnic minorities to collective townships, where they were not allowed to register their assigned parcels (PCI 2016a). The Arabization policy was followed by occupation of vacant land by Arab settlers (Mufti 2004). The Iraqi constitution attempted to protect ‘tasarruf’ rights holders, who comprised 70% of all land in Iraq, from expropriation without compensation (Wiss and Anderson 2009).⁶⁵ By 2014, the brutal violence by ISIL had led to more displacement and by the end of war against ISIL in 2017, around 1.2 million people remained displaced and those who returned still face various tenure challenges.⁶⁶

^{Iraqi village by taji iraq taken from a blackhawk helicopter photo by Aubrey Arcangel, Licence CC BY-ND 4.0.0.}

The Real Estate Registration Law No. 43 was amended in 1971, provided the right to acquire real estate is restricted to Iraqi nationals only and does not extend to foreigners. Kuwaiti nationals also were allowed to acquire real estate pursuant to law No, 19 of 1952 and other Arab nationals to law No.5 of 1955. This has resulted in many prime locations in Iraq owned by kuwaitis and other Arab nationals. Also foreign corporate entities may acquire real estate pursuant to Article 152 /153 of the real estate registration law. Non Iraqi nationals were permitted to own real estate till 1994, however this was reversed with the issuance of a decision by the Revolutionary Command Council which suspended all laws and decrees that allowed their ownership. And this right persisted to be denied as well after the permanent constitution in 2005 rather than Iraqi nationals.

In 2006 The Iraq Investment Law No. 13 was amended to retain the right of ownership to foreign nationals as well as Iraqis. They were provided the right to acquire land reserved for residential projects and owned by the state and private sector in addition to land reserved for agriculture or industrial use. And they can develop partnership agreements for financing and management purposes with the public sector. The law had prohibited the expropriation or nationalization of an investment project except for public interest and in this case they shall be entitled to a fair compensation.⁶⁷

The donors' interventions are coordinated under the Housing, Land and Property Rights ‘HLP Sub-Cluster’ that operates under the Global Protection Cluster ‘PCI 2016b’ led by the Norwegian Refugee Council ‘NRC’.⁶⁸ The guideline for property compensation was released by HLP sub cluster in March, 2020, based on Law 20, 2009, that was amended for the second time in 2020. The law governs the compensation of all Iraqi citizens affected by the destruction of their properties. The guideline serves as a technical support to advise humanitarian actors working on HLP related issues. According to Article 1 of law 2 of 2020, the compensation committees are to approve or refuse recommendations reviewed by subcommittees and report conclusions to the Ministry of Finance (MOF), which is responsible to handle the disbursements of the monetary allocation to successful claimants.⁶⁹

Women’s Land Rights

Land and property rights for women remain an ongoing challenge. With only secondary rights to HLP, women have few alternatives in a postwar environment. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi women displaced by war remain unable to return back to their homes because of systemic injustices, traditions and norms that prevent them from claiming ownership of their property.⁷⁰

The Iraqi Constitution of 2005, in Article 14 of it, affirms the equality of all Iraqi women and men before the law and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, and indicates that the right to dispose of land is equal between women and men. In 1986, Iraq ratified accession to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), with reservations to Article 9 of the Convention that states “The submission of a complaint in itself constitutes a claim of rights.”⁷¹ It grants women equal rights to men in acquiring and retaining their nationality regardless of their marriage to non Iraqis.⁷²

Rural women in Iraq are able to benefit from all laws without discrimination, including the Agricultural Reform Law No. 117 of 1970 AD, which gives them the right to exploit and reclaim the land and to obtain the necessary loans from the Agricultural Bank as well as the Real Estate Bank, just as the Agricultural Associations Law No. 43 of 1979 AD has granted women a right Equal to men in participating in peasant associations.⁷³

Women are considered as the most affected group by displacement and forced migration, as they and their families are exposed to harsh conditions of living in inadequate housing, the risks of changing unfair rental conditions, in addition to their inability to claim their rights and the rights of their families to housing and land ownership. All this makes it more difficult for women to return to their homeland, or even to obtain permanent housing solutions. The distribution of land is quite skewed with 26.2% of land owned by women and 73.8% owned by men (FAO 2017).⁷⁴ About 10% of internally displaced Iraqi women reported that their ownership of land in their place of origin was taken over during their absence by influential members of society or the state.⁷⁵

Women face notable difficulties in re-claiming HLP rights after forced dislocation. Also, in case of decease of the male family member, there is a challenge to prove women’s possession due to the lack of land documents resulting in an inability to claim relevant property (PCI2016b).⁷⁶ In the southern regions of Iraq, land tenure rights follow the rules of tribal ownership, where it is customary for the land to be registered in the name of the men, excluding women.⁷⁷ Women in Iraq fear displacement and expulsion from their homes, especially women who have returned to their homes after conflicts. A fifth of women in Iraq suffer from the fact that they do not have rights to inherit land, and the same percentage of women feel insecure in obtaining housing in the event of divorce. These challenges require great efforts in the customary and tribal fields and at the level of religious leaders to develop and support the concept of women's rights on the ground.⁷⁸

In the context of the National Construction and Development Framework (2018-2030), which aimed to restore access to basic social services after conflict and manage the influx of IDPs, national programs and reform priorities were tailored for the most vulnerable households, particularly women and youth. It included cash transfer programs, the development of databases for government-led social assistance programs, the implementation of a social insurance law, and social protection microfinance programs.⁷⁹ Women's rights in the legal, institutional and even customary and tribal system, including access to land and property, were also a part of these programs.

The government is looking to put women’s property rights at the center of its reconstruction process and expedite dispute resolution through procedures to solve the backlog of cases created by Covid-19. HLP Sub Cluster intends to give attention to document such challenges and to support women by developing guidance for reclaiming their properties along with legal assistance to women via NGOs. Still, donor support is needed for establishing forms of legal support for women including the derivation and implementation of female specific HLP remedies.⁸⁰

Land governance innovations

The Ministry of Construction, Housing, Municipalities and Public Work had confirmed a scheme to construct a National Data Center for Land Management early in 2023. The statement was announced over a meeting of the Permanent Committee for Lands. The center would employ a uniform system for counting and administering land including land use and ownership. It will function as a database at the service of any formal institution for future development planning. Meanwhile, discussions with stakeholders and specialized companies are taking place regarding geographic information systems (GIS), digital mapping, and developing spatial systems.⁸¹

Also, FAO and the Ministry of Water Resources launched a project in 2022 for Monitoring Water Productivity using Remote Sensing. It is monitoring water productivity with data derived from open-access remote-sensing data and open source algorithms in some areas in Iraq. It aims to sustain agricultural production to ensure food security.⁸²

Where to go next?

The author’s suggestions for further reading

Land and property rights in Iraq are an important component of recovery after the ISIL conflict. To understand the dynamics of the specific Housing, Land and Property (HLP) sector, a report published in 2017 by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) uses the findings of a one-month assessment to propose an inclusive, transparent mechanism to resolve HLP disputes based on rule of law principles.

For an extensive overview about the challenges faced by returnees of displaced people working in agriculture after ISIL conflict, an analysis brief, also carried out by IOM Iraq, explores the dynamics and the degree to which conflict, economic, and climate-related factors play a role in the decline of agriculture as a livelihood, and the implications of this change for sustainable reintegration.

The inherited agriculture economy plays a vital role in Iraq, however, the mismanagement of resources has worsened the situation in addition to the vulnerable climate-related violence. An article by Safaa Khalaf published in August 2023 by ‘The Century Foundation’ discussed the two most interlinked crises of climate change and water scarcity.

The land use standards of Iraqi cities are still not aligned with recent technological advances and are not sustainable. A publication in 2020 by Nabil T. Ismael and Areej Muhy Abdulwahab analyzes the current and future land use, aiming to identify the gap between traditional and sustainable land use plans.

Timeline - milestones in land governance

1800s BC Babylonian Empire

The reign of Hammurabi, records testify to the existence of land ownership types; tribal; private; and religious.

641 A.D - The Islamic period

The right of tenancy of some land divided among Muslim soldiers, while uncultivated land (mwat) granted to people for agriculture. A new system for land tax (karaj) was introduced.

1258 A.D - Mongolian Period

The desert bedouins encroached on rural lands where it created chaos over the control of agricultural land with Iraqi tribes.

1534-1917 - Ottoman Empire

The beginning of a land reform attempt. Land Registry was established and an order was issued to review land titles; Tabu System (title deed), the department concerned with real estate registration. Land systems supported feudal rules in land ownership, which left many peasants without land and property.

1917-1932 A.D. - British Mandate period

After World War I, Iraq was an Independent country with constitutional monarchy. Declaration No. 24 (1920) the establishment of two directorates for real estate registration. Law No. 50 (1932) was issued for Land Rights Conciliation where new land rights were created (Ameriya, TAPU, Alezma).

1958- Baathist regime

Iraq as a Republican country - Agrarian Reform Law was issued to empower the government to take away lands from the large landowners enacting limitations to the size of land holding and enabling collective property ownership. An amendment was issued in 1970 for a new Agrarian Reform Law. Real Estate Registration Law 1974; replacing old TAPU system- Ottoman Permanent Title Deed with a new Title Deed document. It created an improved title issuance system and established Real Estate Registration Departments (RERDs)

1974 - State Organization for Soils and Land Reclamation (SOSLR)

The government established the ‘SOSLR’ for implementing all land reclamation activities, however, it was interrupted in 1987 due to lack of financial resources for the maintenance of field drains.

1987 - Shore Coastal Exploitation

Act No. 59 of 1987 regulated types of water resources; it was amended with Act No. 7 of 1990, setting disciplines to flood discharges

1987 - Agricultural Land Settlement

Act of 1987 for building small irrigation systems administered by farmers to maintain system administration.

2009-2020 - Compensation for displaced communities

Law on Compensation (Law 20 of 2009, Law 57 of 2015 and Law 2 of 2020). The Iraqi Government compensated all citizens, including IDPs, whose properties were affected by war-related incidents. Article of Law 2 of 2020; Ministry of Finance shall pay the compensation through concerned governorates for the successful/affected claimants for their damaged properties based decision date approval by Compensation Committee.