Since the outbreak of the conflict in 2011, Syria has experienced widespread destruction of housing, infrastructure, and productive assets, resulting in large-scale displacement and a significant deterioration in living conditions. The conflict has also led to extensive violations of Housing, Land and Property (HLP) rights, including the loss and destruction of property records, insecure tenure, unlawful occupation and dispossession, damaged land administration systems, and reduced access to HLP documentation and dispute resolution mechanisms. These challenges continue to undermine the right to adequate housing, tenure security, and equitable access to land and property.

Following the political transition in late 2024, opportunities have emerged to address longstanding HLP grievances and support inclusive recovery and reconstruction. However, Syria continues to face significant HLP challenges, including widespread housing destruction, complex tenure arrangements, weakened land administration institutions, and unresolved HLP claims. While more than 1.8 million internally displaced persons and over 1.5 million refugees have returned since late 2024, approximately 5.5 million people remain internally displaced. Strengthening HLP governance, land administration systems, tenure security, and access to HLP rights remains essential to enabling voluntary, safe and dignified return, preventing future disputes, promoting social cohesion, and supporting sustainable urban recovery and development.

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the UN agency dedicated to promoting socially and environmentally sustainable urban development and adequate housing for all. Mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1978, UN-Habitat brings over four decades of expertise in addressing urban growth challenges. It plays a key role in implementing the New Urban Agenda, adopted at Habitat III in 2016, and advancing Sustainable Development Goal 11 to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

Since 2015, UN-Habitat Syria has supported urban resilience, recovery and HLP programming across the country. Following the political changes of late 2024, the programme has expanded its support to land administration, tenure security, and land sector reform and urban development as part of Syria's humanitarian-development-peace nexus, helping address HLP challenges that are critical to recovery, voluntary return, social cohesion and sustainable development.

UN-Habitat works to strengthen legal frameworks that protect Housing, Land and Property (HLP) rights across the conflict cycle. Its HLP approach addresses challenges such as restitution, adjudication and dispute resolution caused by tenure insecurity and weak land administration. UN-Habitat also develops policy directions on HLP solutions, including documentation measures that help resolve and prevent displacement. This work supports tenure security and the right to adequate housing through improved governance, legal certainty and evidence based HLP practices. Overall, UN-Habitat promotes HLP sensitive urban law and documentation systems to prevent violations and protect people’s access to their rights.

HLP rights are not only of great concern to UN-Habitat globally, but also in Syria. Since 2017, significant part of UN-Habit’s response in Syria has included, under several projects, either stand-alone HLP projects or projects with important HLP components. With the dramatic changes the country has witnessed since late 2024, the HLP geographic scope has grown to cover most of the country thus HLP actors’ access is anticipated to increase to address HLP-related needs.

In this context the position of the HLP legal Officer will be highly important towards contributing to UN-Habitat overall strategic direction in safeguarding HLP rights and providing technical HLP legal expertise on operational level.

This vacancy is open to National Personnel Only, Applications from non-nationals will not be considered.

To improve the security of tenure in Syria through efficient service to HLP rightsholders and rights claimants. This will be achieved through technical HLP legal contribution to HLP unit strategizing, fundraising, HLP projects’ design, implementation and quality assurance of HLP projects and through provision of HLP legal support to UN-Habitat’s coordination efforts in different forums such as HLP TWG and other thematic WGs with support of the HLP team at HLP unit.

The HLP legal Officer will work under the direct supervision of the Senior Urban Land Expert and in coordination with the HLP Programme Specialist, the HLP Unit Leads and under the overall supervision of the Deputy Head of UN-Habitat Syria Program.

Functions required by the HLP legal Officer are:

Strategic Advisory & Policy Alignment

• Provide strategic legal advice to support the development and implementation of the HLP Unit’s strategy, workplans, and priorities ensuring alignment with UN-Habitat’s mandates and country strategic frameworks.

• Lead the integration of HLP legal considerations into project designs and project lifecycle, and support the review of technical outputs to ensure compliance with applicable national and international legal and regulatory frameworks.

Representation & Inter-Agency Legal Leadership

• Contribute to UN-Habitat’s co-leadership of the HLP TWG by providing legal expertise, supporting technical discussions, and advancing key HLP priorities.

• Lead UN-Habitat’s legal engagement in the TJ TWG by providing legal expertise and technical support vis-à-vis transitional justice, HLP, participatory urban recovery and housing.

• Lead UN-Habitat’s legal and institutional engagement with official state counterparts, including legislative departments within the General Directorate of Cadastral Affairs (and its governorate-level sub-directorates), as well as legislative affairs directorates at both the governorate and municipal tiers.

Legal Analysis, Knowledge Management, and Rights-Based Advocacy

• Oversee the continuous, systemic analysis of HLP-related legislative frameworks and emerging challenges to cultivate institutional understanding of evolving HLP dynamics.

• Direct the conceptualization, production and dissemination of high-impact legal knowledge products, including HLP-related policy briefs, advocacy papers, academic research publications, and comprehensive analytical reports.

• Strengthen UN-Habitat's rights-based urban advocacy and serve as the principal internal peer reviewer for outsourced or partner-shared knowledge products.

Capacity Building, Synergy, and Portfolio Management

• Design targeted HLP mainstreaming initiatives, delivering high-level legal training sessions and workshops on HLP laws and policies, to key stakeholders, including government authorities, TWG members, INGOs, NGOs, and sister UN agencies.

• As part of the HLP Unit, coordinate with other UN-Habitat units to build programmatic synergies and strengthen integrated HLP and urban recovery programmes.

• Support project coordination and HLP activity management through donor engagement and contribution to the development of concept notes, proposals, and donor reports.

• Other tasks as required.

Required:

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in law, social sciences, political sciences with HLP background or any other field relevant to the UN-Habitat programmes.

• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree or equivalent) in combination with two additional years of qualifying work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.

Required:

• A minimum of 5 years of work experience in the fields of legal framework and HLP rights in humanitarian, early recovery and/or development contexts.

• Experience working with UN agencies and international NGOs working on HLP rights or related topics.

• Experience leading capacity-building, awareness-raising, advocacy, legal support, legal research, and other HLP related programs.

Desired:

• Demonstrated experience and understanding of the Syrian legal framework with special focus on aspects related to HLP rights, land administration and land development.

• Knowledge of the HLP international frameworks.

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