SUMMARY
There is a very specific correlation between land and conflict; they meet each other on every
point of the cycle of the armed conflict and in the post-conflict period. Although land was
identified as a critical gap in international response capacities and the awareness about the
vital importance of addressing the housing land and property issues within the context of postconflict
peace building has increased, experiences show that there are only a few cases where
land issues were addressed in the post-conflict period, and humanitarian organizations in this
period mainly focus on internally displaced persons and refugee’s related issues, and
restitution of the situation as it was before the conflict.
There is an identified need to ensure that land issues are put on the agenda of the international
community and that they are tackled in the peace treaty document or national land policies of
the states emerging from conflict. As the goal of a ’land administration process is to support
the implementation of land policy using the aspects of land management’, land administration
is the appropriate instrument for implementing land related parts of the peace treaty document
or national land policies of post-conflict states.
Post-conflict period is complex, fluid and enormously difficult. After a war sometimes a new
state is formed or the old one is coming out from the conflict. Both need to follow a postconflict
state building process. State-building is defined as purposeful action to build capacity,
institutions and legitimacy of the state in relation to an effective political process to negotiate
the mutual demands between the state and societal groups. Main characteristics of the postwar
society are: institutional weaknesses, economic and social problems, and serious security
problems. ‘Land administration in post-conflict environment’ in this research is recognised as
land administration performing in peace - normal life conditions - but loaded with the
characteristics of the post-conflict environment.
Having an overview of the post-conflict situations, the potential of land administration as an
instrument for implementing land policies, the concepts of state building and the
acknowledged characteristics of war-torn societies, it could be derived that land
administration can be seen as one element – facilitator – of the overall process of