The Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution organises a dialogue meeting entitled "Eligibility criteria for housing units in funded projects and their impact on women's rights to property and housing"
The Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution organised a dialogue meeting on Tuesday 28 March 2017 entitled "Eligibility criteria for housing units in funded projects and their impact on women's rights to property and housing"
The meeting was part of the activities of the project "Promoting and improving women's rights to property, housing and land", implemented by the Palestinian Center in partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Mr. Ahmed Hassouna, a lawyer at the Centre, chaired and facilitated the dialogue meeting. He welcomed the participants and guests and highlighted the project on promoting and improving women's rights to property, housing and land and the services it provides to women and the local community, then spoke about the importance of these dialogue meetings. Hassouna stressed the importance of funded projects in meeting citizens' needs for adequate housing in accordance with the Basic Law, and their impact on women's rights to housing and property through correct and duly followed legal procedures.
After his address, Mr. Ahmed gave the floor to Dr. Jawad Al-Agha, director general of cooperative housing at the Ministry of Public Works, who thanked the Palestinian Center for this meeting and for addressing an important subject that responds to people's needs. He set out the rules and criteria for eligibility and the distribution of housing units, explaining that there are two models: one targets middle-income citizens, under which buildings are constructed for them and ownership is transferred through monthly instalments, with the citizen owning the unit after paying all instalments, which may take up to 17 years, that is, rent converted into ownership; the second model provides adequate housing for social cases unable to pay instalments for flats. These cases do not own the unit but receive a usufruct contract for one year, reviewed annually to confirm that they are still in need and still meet the eligibility conditions, that is, free rent for a year, renewable.
In an intervention by Eng. Moeen Miqdad, director of the housing unit at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, on the Agency's role in strengthening women's access to ownership in housing projects, Miqdad began by thanking the Centre for the meeting and stressed that UNRWA provides emergency housing services to those affected by the war and ordinary housing for the poor, and that it does not transfer ownership but grants the right of use of the housing unit. He stressed that in the current rehousing projects in Gaza, UNRWA follows a joint signature policy for husband and wife, meaning that both are required to sign the contract so that the whole family benefits from the housing unit.
The floor was then opened for discussion. Ms. Mona Abdel Aziz of the Norwegian Refugee Council asked whether the government is able to meet citizens' needs, particularly the poor who live in cemeteries and on encroachments on government land, and why these areas are not regularised and housing projects built there. Mr. Khalil Shaheen, director of the economic and social rights department, also made an intervention.
At the end of the dialogue meeting, participants put forward a number of recommendations and stressed the need to take them into account:
- Increasing the number of housing projects to meet needs and provide adequate housing.
- Allocating a number of housing units to women.
- Working to clear informal settlements in order to free land for building.
- Adhering to the principles of transparency and equality.
- Easing the conditions for citizens to benefit from housing units.
- Working to improve housing conditions in the camps (UNRWA).
- Allocating a number of housing units to women with disabilities.
Cooperation between institutions to create a database of those with no income (the poor and the most destitute).
