Settling Disputes Close to Home: Youth Skills and Community Mediation

AYP Committee Brief 2026/07 · Committee on Life Skills & Community Mediation

Desk-research brief · Published November 2026
Afghanistan Youth Parliament (AYP) – Think Tank Center

About this brief: a desk-research brief prepared by the AYP Think Tank Center for the Committee on Life Skills & Community Mediation. It rests only on published sources and is not a record of any meeting or committee decision. Review: internal desk review, November 2026 · Funding: none · Partners: none · Data: published secondary sources · Corrections: none to date. Not peer-reviewed.

Summary

Most disputes in Afghanistan, over land, inheritance, debt, rent or family matters, are settled close to home by elders, shuras and jirgas rather than in formal courts. These community mechanisms can keep the peace and save time and money. They can also exclude women and young people, and sometimes produce decisions that harm the weaker party. Mass returns are adding new disputes over land and housing. Young people cannot replace community elders, nor should they try, but with the right skills they can help disputes be handled more calmly, more fairly and with better records. This brief reviews the evidence and proposes practical steps.

Research for the United States Institute of Peace concluded that the vast majority of disputes in Afghanistan are settled outside the formal state system, often by tribal elders, shuras or other community forums. When they work well, these mechanisms prevent and reduce conflict. The same research warned that their decisions do not always follow the law, may reinforce existing inequalities, and in some cases have led to serious rights violations, particularly against women, children and minorities (Gaston, Sarwari and Strand, 2013).

Key facts

People choose different routes for different reasons. In a 2022 study of housing, land and property disputes in four cities, 70% of respondents in Kabul preferred the informal system, mainly because it was faster, while 83% of respondents in Herat preferred the formal system. All the women interviewed in Herat preferred the formal system, and shura and jirga members said they handled only a small share of cases brought by women (NRC, 2023).
The most common disputes are everyday ones: land ownership, inheritance, recovery of money from land deals and landlord disputes, including threatened eviction (NRC, 2023).
Returns add pressure on land and housing. More than half of returnee households surveyed by UNHCR lacked essential civil documents, and returnees from Pakistan were more likely to rent and struggle to pay rent (UNHCR, 2025). Plans for returnee settlements, with 58 townships reported established by May 2025, add questions about land allocation and ownership (BICC, 2025).
Hybrid approaches have been designed before. Research led by Professor Ali Wardak at the University of South Wales developed a “hybrid” model linking state justice, jirgas and shuras, and human rights institutions. Its recommendations were taken into a 2010 draft law on jirga and shura dispute resolution, and the work is credited with helping to reduce the practice of baad, in which a female relative of an offender is given in marriage to the victim’s family to settle a dispute (University of South Wales, 2021).
Self-regulation skills can be taught. In Liberia, a randomised trial with criminally engaged men found that eight weeks of cognitive behavioural therapy focused on self-control and a non-violent identity, followed by a US$200 cash grant, reduced crime and violence for at least a year; either element alone had effects that faded (Blattman, Jamison and Sheridan, 2017).

What it means for young people

Young people are often parties to disputes, over a plot of land after a father’s death, a debt from a failed business, rent in a city they have just returned to, or a family conflict about marriage. Yet they rarely have a voice in the forums that decide these matters. Young women have even less.

Disputes that drag on, or are settled unfairly, cost young people money, time and sometimes safety. A returnee who cannot prove ownership of family land, or a tenant who is suddenly evicted, may lose the only stable base they have.

At the same time, young people bring useful skills: literacy, the ability to write down an agreement, knowledge of documents and procedures, and often a calmer, less entrenched view of old family quarrels. With training and the respect of elders, they can help rather than compete.

Practical options for AYP and partners

Teach core life skills: listening, managing anger, negotiating. Short courses on active listening, controlling one’s reactions, separating interests from positions and writing simple agreements are useful in daily life and in disputes. The Liberia evidence suggests that practical self-regulation training can change behaviour when combined with real opportunities.
Train young people as assistants, not judges. Young volunteers can help parties prepare for a community hearing: gather documents, write a clear summary and record the agreement in writing, with copies for each side. They should support existing community mechanisms, not set up parallel ones.
Know when to refer. Cases involving violence, abuse, forced marriage or the rights of children must never be mediated informally by volunteers. AYP should provide a clear referral list and train volunteers to recognise these cases.
Include women. Where women cannot attend community forums, women volunteers can help women parties prepare their case and make sure their written statements reach the forum.
Focus on returnees’ housing and land questions. Simple guidance on documents, rental agreements and inheritance, in Farsi-e-Dari and Pashto, can prevent many disputes before they start.
Learn from what exists. The hybrid model and earlier research offer tested ideas. AYP’s Chambers of Expertise can invite legal and mediation experts, inside the country and abroad, to review training materials.

Next steps and questions for discussion

What kinds of disputes do young people face most often today, and where do they take them? A short anonymous module in the AYP youth survey could ask this, without collecting details of individual cases.
How do community forums currently handle cases brought by young returnees who lack documents? Published research from NRC, UNHCR and others is the starting point.
What written agreement templates, for rent, debt repayment or division of inheritance, would be most useful, and how can they be checked by legal experts before use?
How can volunteers be trained to recognise cases that must be referred, and which organisations can receive referrals safely?
How can women’s voices reach community decisions where women cannot attend in person?

AYP will treat these as open questions. Training materials will be reviewed by legal and mediation experts before use, and volunteers will never be asked to act as judges or to handle cases involving violence.

Limitations

Much of the research on community dispute resolution in Afghanistan predates 2021, and the role of formal and informal mechanisms has changed since then. The NRC study covers four cities and housing, land and property disputes only. The Liberia trial concerns a different population and context. This brief does not give legal advice.

References

Blattman, C., Jamison, J. C. and Sheridan, M. (2017). Reducing Crime and Violence: Experimental Evidence from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Liberia. American Economic Review, 107(4), 1165–1206 (NBER Working Paper 21204). nber.org
BICC – Mielke, K., Schmeidl, S. and Schetter, C. (2025). Responding to Mass Returns in Afghanistan. Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies. bicc.de
Gaston, E., Sarwari, A. and Strand, A. (2013). Lessons Learned on Traditional Dispute Resolution in Afghanistan. United States Institute of Peace, Building Peace series no. 3 (CMI record). cmi.no
NRC (2023). Resolving HLP Disputes: NRC assessment on housing, land and property disputes in Afghanistan. Norwegian Refugee Council, June 2023. nrc.no
UNHCR (2025). Afghanistan post-return monitoring survey report, December 2025. data.unhcr.org
University of South Wales (2021). A hybrid model of justice system in Afghanistan. REF 2021 impact case study (research led by Professor Ali Wardak). southwales.ac.uk

Afghanistan Youth Parliament (AYP) – Think Tank Center
AYP Committee Brief 2026/07 – November 2026
Corrections and comments: [email protected]