Legal assistance for IDPs and Returnees

Legal counseling services are available to help individuals understand their rights and navigate legal challenges.

Lawyers assist with various legal issues, including:

• Civil Law
• Personal Status Law (e.g., marriage, divorce, and custody)
• Civil Affairs Law
• Criminal Law
• Housing, Land, and Property (HLP)

These services help individuals:

• Explore their legal options.
• Claim their entitlements.
• Understand and follow legal procedures.
• Find the best mechanisms to resolve legal problems.

Legal counseling is provided at:

• Legal Centers and Community Centers.
• Through partners’ hotline numbers.
• At mobile units and protection facilities operated by partners.

All legal counseling services are free of charge and tailored to assist vulnerable individuals.

One of the main objectives of the Legal Assistance Program is to conduct regular awareness raising sessions to targeted population on specific legal issues in order to enhance their general awareness of essential issues and empower them to play an active role in the decisions that affect their lives. Main topics for these sessions may relate to the relevant Syrian Laws such as Personal Status Law, Civil Affairs Law, HLP laws, Civil Law, and Penal Code.

The Legal intervention before courts or other governmental bodies is carried on behalf of vulnerable individuals who are more likely to be in need of assistance due to their lack of knowledge on the required legal procedures, having protection concerns, inability to reach the administrative and legal bodies, poverty and financial difficulties. Legal assistance covers the following matters:
• Documenting personal civil events (marriage, birth, divorce and death);
Partners’ lawyers may assist vulnerable individuals on documentation-related issues. The intervention in such cases may take place before civil registries for the issuance of identity cards and family booklets either for the first time or as a replacement for lost or damaged ones. Intervention may also take place before the Syrian courts and then at the Department of Civil Affairs for cases that require registering and documenting personal status events such as authentication of marriage, divorce, or death, when these events have already taken place without being officially registered.
• HLP legal matters:
UNHCR’s partners provide HLP-related services under certain conditions. Partners shall provide HLP counselling and awareness raising sessions according to the same rules that regulates these two activities.
Administrative interventions for HLP matters may include assisting vulnerable PoCs in issuing basic cadastral documents such as issuing replacements of lost/damaged cadastral documents/ownership deeds or copies of power of attorney/ratified sale contract issued by the notary public.
Intervention before courts may include providing support and legal assistance in actions such as restoring real-estate court cases that have been damaged due to the crisis upon ensuing the good faith of the requesting party, authenticating sale contract where the seller acknowledges the contract.
• Legal issues related to the protection/safety of women and children (custody, alimony, inheritance, domestic violence…etc.);
Since women and children still face some protection concerns in many life situations, UNHCR has expanded access to legal assistance and legal remedies to address GBV and CP cases which were either identified by partners’ lawyers and LORVs or referred to them by other units, ORVs, relevant authorities or other NGOs or UN agencies.

• UNHCR provides the Syrian citizens for whom UNHCR works (including IDPs, returnees and host communities) free legal aid through its local partners: Syrian Arab Red Crescent and Syrian Development Organization.
• The legal aid is provided in all Syrian governorates through a legal team present in legal centers and community centers or through mobile activities in different areas where the people for whom UNHCR works are present.
• The legal team comprises experienced lawyers supported by legal ORVs, who are law school students or retired lawyers and willing to use their expertise to serve those in need of legal aid.
• Legal aid is free:

The legal aid includes legal counseling, legal awareness sessions, and legal representation of the most vulnerable individuals before courts and other administrative bodies (civil registries, cadastral offices, general security authorities, etc.)

• The provided aid includes the following legal matters:
• Birth registration and issuance of identity documents (such as IDs and family booklets).
• Registration of personal status events, such as marriage, birth, divorce, and death.
• Issuance of real estate documents and proofs of ownership.
• Protection incidents that affect the safety and security of vulnerable individuals, especially women and children.

If you have any challenges/inquiries in relation to the above-mentioned legal matters, you can seek legal counselling and aid by visiting one of UNHCR partners’ legal offices or calling the hotlines from Sunday to Thursday, between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm.

Legal Partners’ Hotlines