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Tackling land tenure in the emergency to development transition in post-conflict states from restitution to reform
... Land disputes around customary land rights have been a causal factor in the majority of conflicts in Africa since the 1990s. Wily (2009) reports that only in three out of 30-plus conflicts were customary land rights disputes, not "a fundamental grievance driving people to war and emerging out of war as a concrete target of remedy". Unruh (2008) shows that land issues were a significant source of the overall conflict in Sierra Leone. ...
... However, in post-conflict situations, they are also more fluid and open than perhaps at any other time and, thus, the post-conflict period poses many operational tensions (Clover, 2007in Buchanan-Smith et al., 2013. Wily (2009) makes the point that, if peace is to last, the focus must be on reforming property relations where these were at the heart of the conflict rather than focusing on post-conflict restorative justice and on restitution of property to the displaced. Valuable lessons can, indeed, be learned from what has worked or failed in peace processes around the world. ...
Chapter published in The IPBES regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for Africa, pp. 1-76
... And in all but three of the more than thirty intrastate conflicts that occurred between 1990 and 2009, land-related issues played a substantial role (UNFT 2012; Alden Wily 2009). The shift to intrastate conflicts in resource-dependent regions has increased the associated risks: studies show that conflicts related to natural resources are more likely to relapse than those that are not, and do so twice as quickly (UNFT 2012). ...
... 1 Such disputes, which can become violent, have exacerbated the wider war and have complicated and weakened efforts to promote peace in the country. In Africa, 48 percent of civil conflicts that occurred during the first decade of this century were in areas where access to rural land matters deeply to the survival of the majority of the population (UNFT 2012; Alden Wily 2009). The conflict in Darfur, for example, is inextricably intertwined with competition over water and fertile land, and climate change is expected to exacerbate competition over these scarce resources (UNEP 2009). ...
Since the mid-twentieth century, armed conflict has changed: instead of involving
wars between different countries, armed conflict is more likely to involve govern-
ments and opposition groups; moreover, it usually occurs in regions where people
depend on land and natural resources for their livelihoods. Of the thirty-seven
armed conflicts under way in 2011, for example, only one was interstate, nine
were internationalized internal armed conflicts, and thirty-four were located in
developing agrarian economies (Themnér and Wallensteen 2012; UCDP n.d.).
And in all but three of the more than thirty intrastate conflicts that occurred
between 1990 and 2009, land-related issues played a substantial role (UNFT
2012; Alden Wily 2009). The shift to intrastate conflicts in resource-dependent
regions has increased the associated risks: studies show that conflicts related to
natural resources are more likely to relapse than those that are not, and do so
twice as quickly (UNFT 2012).
... But despite the urgency, the international legal basis, and the very significant contributions to peace, food security, and economic recovery that effective HLP restitution makes, technically and legally re-attaching returnees to their lands and properties through a viable land tenure system 4 continues to be among the most significant challenges (e.g. Alden Wiley, 2009;Fay and James, 2009). This is primarily due to the difficulties dislocated populations have in regaining or re-establishing rights to their lands and properties by way of proving previous occupancy, use, access, rent or ownership with forms of attestation (evidence, proof) that work in a war-torn setting (Unruh, 2006). ...
... Land law reform usually always follows civil war (e.g. Alden Wiley, 2009;Huggins, 2009;Stigall, 2012), with the 'consultation' or 'legal research' phase (to determine what people are doing 'on the ground') always needing a significant amount of time -frequently years. However if approaches to HLP restitution which interact significantly with local populations are applied early, this can provide a valuable head start on this important phase, potentially reducing the time needed and speeding up postwar HLP legal reform. ...
... Research chronicling the return strategies of refugees and displaced people (RDPs) in other contexts indicates that they do not necessarily return to their pre-conflict residence. Instead, many choose to relocate to ensure physical and economic security (Alden Wily, 2009; Bascom, 1996; Jansen, 2010; Kibreab, 2002; Stefansson, 2006). Two general trends describe the voluntary relocation strategies of displaced people. ...
... The first possible explanation is that livelihood choices change with the displacement/return experience. This has been noted in other contexts (Alden Wily, 2009). Household demographics may change during displacement and this can have a bearing on livelihood choices. ...
After decades of civil conflict leading to massive internal displacement of people, Northern Uganda is peaceful again and hundreds of thousands of displaced people are relocating. Using data from maps and satellite imagery, we examine the placement of homes before, during and after the conflict. Examining two study sites, one that experienced a great deal of violence over an extended period of time and one where the experience of violence was more limited, we observe the clustering of home placement in the post-conflict period. As resettlement occurs, there is also evidence of increased location of homes in close proximity to roads in the site with high levels of violence. This research informs what we presently know about the choices of returnees and has implications for service provision and the reclamation of property rights after conflict.
... In turn, Security addresses the high rate of returnees in conflict areas and the overlap of statutory and customary tenure systems, tackling directly or indirectly issues of land security, accessibility, and distribution, in support of landless, conflict-affected displaced population and returnees. In this sense, the common debate is between land restitution or compensation, although many authors call for more customary-sensitive reforms (Alden Wily, 2009;Pritchard 2016), as valid instruments to address sustainable return, livelihood restoration, reducing disputes, abuses, and the possibility of relapse. ...
Conflicts have a strong impact on land tenure, use, distribution, accessibility, and governance; consequently, a sustainable strategy for peacebuilding requires the set-up of land-based institutional arrangements from the peace negotiation phase onwards. Based on the concept of territorial peace, these arrangements have a key role in the reconstruction of the collective, productive, and symbolic functions of the territory after conflicts, and in addressing conflict root causes related to land inequality. This paper contributes to the development of the concept of territorial peace by providing a framework for its operationalisation, based on three categories of arrangements, and testing it, to qualitatively explore and compare two comprehensive peace agreements: Colombia and the Philippines. Land may take the role of peacemaker in addressing territorial peace’s collective dimensions, especially when it is at the core of a peace agreement; however, its implementation remains volatile if it lacks trust, security, and technical capacity.
... Land tenure: Almost all the rangelands are owned by the Afghan Government, and pasture land rights are still being reviewed (Alden Wily 2009). The pastures are used by all communities who keep their herds throughout semi-arid lands. ...
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... I have chosen here to use the term customary tenure, both in cognizance that this remains the major form of community systems in Africa and elsewhere, and because this is the major system practised in Africa, and the term is well known. This includes countries where customary tenure has been formally abolished, usually to rid the system of feudal relations, especially in Asia ( Alden Wily, 2009 ). In Africa, Egypt, Libya, Eritrea and Mauritania have outlawed customary tenure, in the last instance due to sustained enslavement under its norms. ...
This book delivers new conceptual and empirical studies surrounding the design and evaluation of land governance, focusing on land management approaches, land policy issues, advances in pro-poor land tenure and land-based gender concerns. It explores alternative approaches for land management and land tenure through international experiences. Part 1 covers Concepts, debates and perspectives on the governance and gender aspects of land. Part 2 focuses on Tenure-gender dimensions in land management, land administration and land policy. It deals with land issues within the interface of theory and practice. Part 3 covers Applications and experiences: techniques, strategies, tools, methods, and case studies. Part 4 focuses on Land governance, gender, and tenure innovations. Case studies discussed include China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Germany, Mexico, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Korea, etc. Themes include Islamic tenure, reverse migration, matriarchy/matrilineal systems, structural inequality, tenure-responsive planning, land-related instabilities and COVID-19, urban-rural land concerns, women's tenure bargaining, tenure-gender nexus concerns in developing and developed countries. This book: · Includes theoretical or empirical studies on land governance and gender from a diverse group of countries.· Provides the basis for a new land administration theory to be set against conventional land administration approaches.· Offers, in an accessible manner, a range of new tools for design and evaluation of land management interventions.The book will be valuable for students and researchers in land governance, urban and rural planning, international development,natural resource management, agriculture, community development, and gender studies. It is also useful for land practitioners, including those working within international organizations.
... I have chosen here to use the term customary tenure, both in cognizance that this remains the major form of community systems in Africa and elsewhere, and because this is the major system practised in Africa, and the term is well known. This includes countries where customary tenure has been formally abolished, usually to rid the system of feudal relations, especially in Asia ( Alden Wily, 2009 ). In Africa, Egypt, Libya, Eritrea and Mauritania have outlawed customary tenure, in the last instance due to sustained enslavement under its norms. ...
This book delivers new conceptual and empirical studies surrounding the design and evaluation of land governance, focusing on land management approaches, land policy issues, advances in pro-poor land tenure and land-based gender concerns. It explores alternative approaches for land management and land tenure through international experiences. Themes include Islamic tenure, reverse migration, matriarchy/matrilineal systems, structural inequality, tenure-responsive planning, land-related instabilities and COVID-19, urban-rural land concerns, women's tenure bargaining, tenure-gender nexus concerns in developing and developed countries.
... I have chosen here to use the term customary tenure, both in cognizance that this remains the major form of community systems in Africa and elsewhere, and because this is the major system practised in Africa, and the term is well known. This includes countries where customary tenure has been formally abolished, usually to rid the system of feudal relations, especially in Asia ( Alden Wily, 2009 ). In Africa, Egypt, Libya, Eritrea and Mauritania have outlawed customary tenure, in the last instance due to sustained enslavement under its norms. ...
This book delivers new conceptual and empirical studies surrounding the design and evaluation of land governance, focusing on land management approaches, land policy issues, advances in pro-poor land tenure and land-based gender concerns. It explores alternative approaches for land management and land tenure through international experiences. Themes include Islamic tenure, reverse migration, matriarchy/matrilineal systems, structural inequality, tenure-responsive planning, land-related instabilities and COVID-19, urban-rural land concerns, women's tenure bargaining, tenure-gender nexus concerns in developing and developed countries.
... I have chosen here to use the term customary tenure, both in cognizance that this remains the major form of community systems in Africa and elsewhere, and because this is the major system practised in Africa, and the term is well known. This includes countries where customary tenure has been formally abolished, usually to rid the system of feudal relations, especially in Asia ( Alden Wily, 2009 ). In Africa, Egypt, Libya, Eritrea and Mauritania have outlawed customary tenure, in the last instance due to sustained enslavement under its norms. ...
This book delivers new conceptual and empirical studies surrounding the design and evaluation of land governance, focusing on land management approaches, land policy issues, advances in pro-poor land tenure and land-based gender concerns. It explores alternative approaches for land management and land tenure through international experiences. Themes include Islamic tenure, reverse migration, matriarchy/matrilineal systems, structural inequality, tenure-responsive planning, land-related instabilities and COVID-19, urban-rural land concerns, women's tenure bargaining, tenure-gender nexus concerns in developing and developed countries.
... 16 Even the principles of restitution and compensation established in international documents such as the Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons (the 'Pinheiro Principles') and the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement can be problematic in practice. 17 For instance, to whom should land be returned in cases where dispossession and new occupations cut across generations, and where more than one person has a valid claim over the same parcel of land? Moreover, international legislation stays away from issues such as economic and social inequality caused by previous regimes, which authors have highlighted as the missing link of transitional justice, and in which land plays a central role. ...
This article discusses the inherent limitations of law in transitional justice processes regarding land grievances. Through analysis of the case of Timor-Leste (East Timor), a country marked by post-colonialism, post-authoritarianism, and post-conflict. The article shows how complex transitional justice regarding land grievances can be, and argues that a legalist perspective gives a limited view of these grievances, both for studying and finding solutions to them. The article employs the concept of ‘wicked problems’ to overcome the limitations of law. First, it shows how these grievances should be studied through a multi-disciplinary approach instead of a purely legal one. Second, it argues that transitional justice regarding land grievances is primarily a political issue, and creating adequate arenas for political negotiation should be prioritized. Finally, the article shows that, due to its complexity and political nature, transitional justice for land grievances is ultimately a search for acceptable, rather than optimal, solutions.
... Addressing land conflicts features prominently in stabilization and peacebuilding agendas (see e.g. Alden Wily 2009). This should come as no surprise. ...
Land disputes in conflict-affected settings are often considered as a security threat, to be addressed through mediation and strengthening the rule of law. This overlooks the roots of land conflicts in longer-term processes of agrarian development and worsening conditions of land and labour access. A case-study of a dispute between former plantation labourers and concession holders in eastern DR Congo shows mediation's incapacity to counter perceived structural injustices in land access and difficulties in making a living. While dispute resolution may temporarily calm down tensions, it cannot substitute for fundamental political choices vis-a-vis wider questions of agrarian development and justice.
... After recognising the problems in domestic land governance capacity in conflict-affected regions, international donors step in. These donors engage with land issues as part of broader post-conflict peace building and development policies, especially in countries where land conflict is seen as a driver of violence [36]. On the one hand, peace-building policies often include land law reform, to be effectuated by the state with support from international donors. ...
Civil war and violence often force large numbers of people to leave their lands. Multiple waves of displacement and (partial) return generate complex overlapping claims that are not easily solved. As people return to their regions of origin—sometimes after decades—they tend to find their land occupied by other settlers, some of whom hold legal entitlements. In the places of arrival, displaced people affect other people’s access as they seek to turn their temporary entitlements into more definite claims. The overlapping claims related to displacement pose serious dilemmas to land governance, which existing land laws and land governance institutions are not well-equipped to deal with. This paper outlines the main challenges for land governance as a first step to move the debate forward. The paper summarises the key challenges around three tensions: first, between short term conflict resolution and structural solutions; second, between state and customary/community-based governance; and finally, between principles (such as the right to return or restitution) and acknowledgement of the new situation.
... However, these initiatives have fallen short from addressing the multiple issues associated to land use, access and control which often are part of the root causes of violence [68]. In fact, restitution processes have contributed to sanction previously existing tenure systems disregarding their possible exclusive nature [69]. Moreover, restitution is not a solution to IDPs without previous property rights or those unable to demonstrate their claims over land. ...
The chapter highlights the situation of IDPs as a vulnerable group and the limits of humanitarian action in preventing and resolving displacement. Given the increasing number of IDPs in the world and the protracted nature of displacement there is a need to address the gaps that continue to limit their protection. In this context the search for durable solutions to internal displacement is understood as a complex process addressing human rights, humanitarian, development, reconstruction, and peacebuilding challenges. In this context, when the state is unable or unwilling to fulfill its responsibility to protect, the role of the international community is critical. Moreover, durable solutions require a human security approach that builds on the efforts and capabilities of IDPs. In order to put an end to internal displacement, it is necessary for professionals and academics to better understand the precise impact of the idea of sovereignty as responsibility and the rights-based protection approach on current international politics.
... It also emphasizes the importance of ensuring durable solutions, including the need to provide IDPs with integration assistance, whether they return or resettle, and to ensure they have equal access to public services (Oduwoye and Fadeyi, 2013). In all these cases, the focus on land and property issues must be much broader and integrated within the overall humanitarian and recovery response (Alden-Wily, 2009). For example, in the period of 2007-2011, durable housing solutions of 732 residential buildings were built for 23,344 families in Georgia while 5,517 were given a one-off financial assistance amounting to USD10, 000 (Ministry of Internally Displaced, 2012). ...
With millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs) around the world, there is need to implement durable housing solutions post-conflict, that involves sustainable integration and sustainable reintegration using long term shelter programmes in the rural and urban areas. The study aims to assess designers’ assessment of post conflict housing schemes (PCHS) for internally displaced persons. Using a cross-sectional survey, the study utilized a questionnaire instrument distributed to one hundred (100) design professionals that have cognate field experience in the design, construction and management of post-conflict housing schemes. Statistical tools of bar chart, principal component analysis, categorical regression and one-way analysis of variance by SPSS v.21 was utilized. The study revealed that designers considered features such as external design and services, socio-cultural and space and maintenance features in the design of PCHS. Generalized factors considered in the selection of these features include demands of the household, choice/selection of building materials and population of IDPs. The study revealed that the failure of PCHS could be because of politics/partisanship, lack of international assistance/aid, need to make profit and non-involvement of IDPs in the rebuilding process, while the success of the scheme could be engendered by adequate participation of IDPs, effective monitoring mechanisms and increased government and non-governmental organizations’ (NGOs) participation. In conclusion, the study developed a framework for the design of PCHS for IDPs. The study recommended that professional designers should objectively consider the contributions and characteristics of IDPs in the design of PCHS. In addition, international bodies should increase pressure on government to increase commitment in re-settling IDPs. NGOs should not relent in their efforts.
... Those conflicts often emerged in reaction to "repressive" policies of the government in Khartoum, particularly those that infringed on land rights of rural communities (Johnson 2011). At a certain point, those policies resulted in the state claiming ownership of up to 80 per cent of the total land area of the country, mostly in rural areas (Wily 2009). The foundation of most of those policies was laid by colonialism. ...
Following South Sudanese independence in 2011, land reform became a major aspect of state building, partly to address historical injustices and partly to avoid future conflicts around land. In the process, land became a trigger for conflicts, sometimes between communities with no histories of “ethnic conflict.” Drawing on cases in two rural areas in Yei River County in South Sudan, this paper shows that contradictions in the existing legal frameworks on land are mainly to blame for those conflicts. These contradictions are influenced, in turn, by the largely top-down approach to state building, which has tended to neglect changes in society and regarding land resulting from colonialism and civil wars. © 2017, GIGA German Institute for Global and Area Studies. All rights reserved.
... Land tenure issues and land conflict are often core concerns in peace processes and post-conflict reconstruction (cf. Alden Wily 2009). Yet, vested interests may make power holders hesitant to address land grabbing and take action. ...
... In relation to return movements it is necessary to ask -return to what and under what conditions? (Alden Wily, 2009). Likewise, international and national efforts have been put into securing that Liberian ex-combatants are making a living away from the gun and reintegrating into society -but reintegration into what? ...
... Research chronicling the return strategies of refugees and displaced people (RDPs) indicates that they do not necessarily return to their preconflict residence. Instead, many choose to relocate to ensure physical and economic security (Bascom 1996;Alden Wily 2009;Kibreab 2002;Stefansson 2006;Jansen 2010). In a 2010 survey of displaced families in Colombia, only 5.8 percent intended to return to their municipality of origin. ...
There is currently in international law an overstatement of the tie between property and identity. International conventions have folded property into a set of immutable human rights. There needs to be greater flexibility and nuance in this perspective. In this article, we identify two approaches to property rights: the first, which argues that property and identity are necessarily bundled together and considers property to be a human right; and the second, which understands them as explicitly separate and views property as a commodity. Empirically, we observe a transition between these two competing ideas. We posit that this transition happens voluntarily, with market development, or involuntarily through displacement due to conflict and disaster. The relationship between property and identity changes based on time, circumstance, and individual choice. Rights-based norms regarding property, and more specifically the restitution of property after displacement, need to be sufficiently flexible to encompass changes in identity and context.
Despite their longevity and direct impact on peasants, land conflicts in Eritrea remain neglected. By scrutinizing conflict cases reported to and deposited at Adiquala sub-region and by probing more through interviews, conducting focus group discussions, and selecting empirical conflict cases in Mailafo area, which registered 42.3% of the total cases, this study examines land conflicts and contestations. Close examination of the cases shed light that the peri-urban nature of the area and state’s weakness to implement the 1994 land proclamation, to distribute tiesa, and to prepare town master plan as the main causes. Moreover, beyond the need for economic/material motivation, the conflicts show that the society is a never-give -up litigant society and the state is weak. The recursive processes and/or dyadic relations brought various disputants and state institutions closer to everyday forms/practices of claims and counter-claims and everyday forms/practices of governance, which sheds more light on the nature of state–society relations in rural Eritrea.
The exploitation of its forests, to a considerable extent, funded Liberia’s bloody civil war. In response, the UN Security imposed timber sanctions for the first time in its history. These sanctions and academic literature on land conflicts triggered fundamental reforms of the Liberian forest and land legislation after the end of the war. The transplantation of legal norms is common in such complex post-conflict contexts and FPIC was one of these transplanted norms. The chapter traces the negotiation of FPIC in the Liberian forest and land sector. It shows that power relations, strategic alliances, and discourses play a central role in legal transplantation processes. The emerging FPIC norms are essentially a compromise: they protect the land rights of communities to a greater extent than ever before without fundamentally touching upon questions of sovereignty.
How are patterns of armed control and dispute by armed actors related to land concentration, land property rights, and distribution? We argue that armed actors affect land tenure by using different land transfer mechanisms to distribute the land, which reflects the dynamics of control and dispute during civil conflict. We test this argument by studying the case of Urabá, a region in northwestern Colombia, using a mixed-method strategy. First, using extensive qualitative fieldwork, we find that armed actors systematically applied different land transfer mechanisms in areas where they held control. Armed actors strategically changed from employing one land transfer mechanism to another in relation to the level of dispute, political and economic objectives, and alignment with the state, among others. In our fieldwork, we identify how these land transfer mechanisms led to patterns of territorial control and land tenure structure. We then analyze an original dataset of rural plot ownership in Urabá, based on official cadastral information, to empirically verify our qualitative findings. We estimate a village-level fixed effects model that shows that disputed territories and those under paramilitary control had larger plots, higher land inequality, and fewer land transfers. In contrast, territories with established control by left-wing insurgents exhibit a small landholder scheme. These results offer important insights into the relationship between civil armed conflict and land and the logic of rebel governance.
¿Cómo se relacionan los patrones de control armado y de disputa por parte de los agentes armados con la concentración de tierras, los derechos de propiedad de las tierras y su distribución? Argumentamos que los agentes armados ejercen un efecto en la tenencia de tierras utilizando diversos mecanismos de transferencia de tierras para distribuir las tierras, lo que refleja la dinámica de control y de disputa durante un conflicto civil. Ponemos a prueba esta hipótesis, utilizando una estrategia de método mixto, a través del estudio del caso de Urabá, una región en el noroeste de Colombia. En primer lugar, hallamos, utilizando un extenso trabajo de campo cualitativo, que los agentes armados aplicaron sistemáticamente diferentes mecanismos de transferencia de tierras en las áreas donde tenían el control. Los agentes armados fueron cambiando, de manera estratégica, el uso entre uno u otro mecanismo de transferencia de tierras en función del nivel de disputa, de los objetivos políticos y económicos, y de la alineación con el Estado, entre otros factores. En nuestro trabajo de campo, identificamos cómo estos mecanismos de transferencia de tierras provocaron patrones de control territorial y de estructura de tenencia de la tierra. A continuación, analizamos un conjunto de datos originales, basado en información catastral oficial, de propiedades parcelarias rurales en Urabá con el fin de verificar empíricamente nuestros hallazgos cualitativos. Estimamos un modelo de efectos fijos en las aldeas que demuestra que los territorios en disputa y aquellos bajo control paramilitar tenían parcelas más grandes, mayor desigualdad de tierras y menor transferencia de tierras. En contraposición, aquellos territorios cuyo control está establecido por insurgentes de izquierdas exhiben un pequeño esquema de terratenientes. Estos resultados ofrecen información importante acerca de la relación entre el conflicto armado civil y la tierra, y acerca de la lógica de la gobernanza rebelde.
Quels sont les liens qui unissent les schémas de contrôle armé et de conflits des acteurs armés à la concentration et la distribution des terres, ainsi que les droits à la propriété foncière? Selon nous, les acteurs armés ont une incidence sur le régime foncier en utilisant différents mécanismes de transfert des terres, qui reflètent la dynamique de contrôle et les oppositions lors d’un conflit civil. Afin de vérifier cette hypothèse, nous appliquons une stratégie aux méthodes mixtes pour analyser le cas d’Urabá, une région au nord-ouest de la Colombie. D’abord, à l’aide d’un travail de terrain qualitatif approfondi, nous observons que les acteurs armés ont systématiquement appliqué différents mécanismes de transfert de terres dans les régions qu’ils contrôlaient. Ils passaient stratégiquement d’un mécanisme de transfert des terres à l’autre, notamment selon l’intensité du conflit, les objectifs politiques et économiques ou leur accord avec l’État. Dans notre travail de terrain, nous identifions comment ces mécanismes de transfert de terres ont engendré des schémas de contrôle territorial et une structure de régime foncier. Ensuite, afin de vérifier empiriquement nos observations qualitatives, nous analysons un ensemble de données original de la propriété des parcelles rurales à Urabá, en nous appuyant sur les informations officielles du cadastre. Nous élaborons un modèle des effets fixe au niveau d’un village qui montre que les territoires disputés, et ceux contrôlés par des forces paramilitaires, se caractérisent par de plus grandes parcelles, une inégalité foncière plus marquée et des transferts de terres plus rares. À l’inverse, l’organisation des territoires non disputés et contrôlés par des rebelles de gauche favorise les petits propriétaires terriens. Ces résultats fournissent des renseignements importants sur la relation entre un conflit armé civil, les terres et la logique de gouvernance rebelle.
O artigo analisa as políticas de reparação para vítimas de violações de direitos humanos cometidas por agentes públicos e privados em decorrência de conflitos agrários durante a ditadura empresarial-militar de 1964-1985 no Brasil.
This article explores how Brazilian transitional justice has handled land dispossession suffered by peasants and Indigenous peoples during the dictatorship of 1964–1985. The article contextualizes the repression suffered by social movements fighting for land before and after the 1964 coup. Despite the fact that the National Truth Commission created a Working Group to investigate violence against peasants and Indigenous peoples, land dispossession was not considered a serious human rights violation. We also analyze the difficulties that peasants and Indigenous peoples have faced to access reparation programs implemented by the Brazilian state. Finally, we highlight the setbacks undertaken by the current and former federal governments (of Bolsonaro and Temer) in the field of transitional justice, which contribute to the continuation of violence and impunity in the present.
This book enquires how local communities affected by large-scale land deals make use of legal norms to protect their interests. It combines legal, social mobilisation and business management approaches to identify conditions that promise success in this respect, which are explored in four case studies from two countries: Sierra Leone and the Philippines. The findings of these studies show the relevance of the national legal opportunity structure, strong support networks and the specific characteristics of a company in this regard. The role of political elites and the unity of local actors are also discussed.
This book is especially relevant for academics and practitioners interested in the relationship between legal frameworks and local reactions to foreign investors. It also contributes to the research literature on legal mobilisation by going beyond the Western world. Finally, the book offers perspectives on the ‘middle ground’ of social mobilisation phenomenons, which are neither social movements nor everyday resistance.
La participación de los pueblos indígenas en las negociaciones multilaterales que dan forma a las polí- ticas climáticas empezó tan pronto como la Cumbre de la Tierra de Río de Janeiro en 1992. En efecto, los pueblos indígenas en el ámbito global participan en diversos procesos nacionales, regionales y mul- tilaterales que conforman las políticas públicas necesarias para gestionar los “bienes comunes globales”. En el espacio multilateral, los pueblos indígenas han logrado impulsar nuevos instrumentos políticos y ampliar el reconocimiento de sus derechos humanos y colectivos. A partir del consenso de la Declaración de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas (aprobada en la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas en 2007), se han ido difundiendo los derechos colectivos en el marco del derecho ambiental. ¿Cómo trabajan las organizaciones indígenas para lograrlo? ¿Cuál es el impacto de su acción? ¿Qué conclusiones pueden sacarse para la política contemporánea? Este documento se centra en la tra- yectoria de las organizaciones indígenas que, a lo largo de 20 años, han conseguido que se les reconozca como actores clave en la reducción de la deforestación y la generación de alternativas para un desarrollo bajo en carbono. El reconocimiento de su sabiduría ancestral es una pieza fundamental en este esfuerzo. Las ideas de desarrollo y los procedimientos políticos en el proceso de la Convención Marco de las Na- ciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC) todavía no se ajustan a lo que defienden sus or- ganizaciones, pero se pueden observar cambios sustanciales.
This study was designed to investigate the effect of land related conflicts on crop production in Delta State, Nigeria. Communities that have and are still experiencing land related conflicts were purposively selected for this study. The community and opinion leaders in such communities were also purposively selected for the study. This resulted to the selection of 255 respondents. Data were collected with the use of questionnaire and structured interview schedule. All the conflicts were at inter-community level and were caused by boundary disputes. The conflicts took serious dimensions. Arable crop production was adversely affected, but picked up after resolution of the conflicts in most communities. Agricultural activities were negatively affected by the conflict incidences. The conflict cases were managed with adoption of negotiation, security agents, and governmental agencies’ intervention and judicial injunction. However they were resolved through legal procedure, intervention of Ministry and Land Survey, and Land and Boundary Commission’s intervention. There were significant differences between level of crop production before and after conflicts; significant relationships between magnitude of land conflicts and some socioeconomic characteristics of respondents. Seriousness of land conflicts had inverse significant relationship with agricultural activities. It was recommended that government agencies should properly define boundaries between communities, Land and Boundary Commission should promptly wade into land related disputes before they escalate; and communities are required to contact the relevant government agencies to report any matter of disagreement relating to land boundaries with other communities; and extension agency needs to integrate anti-conflict education in their interaction with farmers.
Land is fiercely contested in the densely populated and ethnically heterogeneous eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Competition over land is intimately intertwined with violent conflict and simultaneously constitutes root cause, sustaining factor and consequence of war and human suffering. For the great majority of the rural population, access to land is the primary condition for subsistence. Frequently, the same piece of land is claimed by various parties, but legal pluralism hampers the unambiguous determination of the legitimate owner. The state and its judicial structures being largely absent after almost two decades of armed conflict and insecurity, law and order have widely been replaced by the right of the strongest. Since a few years, there has been increasing acknowledgement of the urgent need to address the land issue if the country is to sustainably recover from conflict. National and international actors have initiated programs directed at the prevention and resolution of land-related local conflicts, with the long-term objective of fostering more comprehensive and secure access to land for the Congolese population. This paper examines the problem of contested land and its manifestations in the province of North Kivu and reviews and analyzes the corresponding national and international land-related intervention in order to identify gaps, opportunities and future challenges.
Compulsory acquisition of land by the state for public purposes is an entrenched feature of national constitutions. Yet the scope of private property is rarely defined. This is problematic in agrarian economies where millions own land under non-statutory arrangements that were historically excluded from recognition as property. This study examines the case in Africa where more than 650 million people are untitled customary landowners. Despite vibrant constitutional change, protection of these rights remains disappointing, while the grounds for taking land have expanded. However, this article concludes that reining in the scope of public purpose is not the most useful way forward. It would be more productive to persist in bringing constitutional force to bear on the standing of customary rights, along with democratizing procedures towards full community participation in deciding how public purpose acquisitions should proceed. The result would be greater tenure security, good governance and more peaceful relations between the state and people regarding land.
Forced migration has become commonplace in the international political landscape. In 2015, 60 million people were displaced by violence, more than ever before recorded (UNHCR, 2015). While we know that violence leads to displacement, we know little about return migration after conflict – who comes back and where they settle. This article seeks to engage and supplement the literature on return migration after conflict, advocating for a broader understanding of the security choices made by displaced people. Emphasized here is the importance of a local understanding of safety and the role played by enclave communities in providing a secure context in which people can enjoy the society of their co-ethnics.
Rising competition and conflict over land in rural sub-Saharan Africa continues to attract the attention of researchers. Recent work has especially focused on land governance, post-conflict restructuring of tenure relations, and large-scale land acquisitions. A less researched topic as of late, though one deserving of greater consideration, pertains to how social differentiation on the local-level shapes relations to land, and how these processes are rooted in specific historical developments. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Teso sub-region of eastern Uganda, this paper analyses three specific land conflicts and situates them within a broad historical trajectory. I show how each dispute illuminates changes in class relations in Teso since the early 1990s. I argue that this current period of socioeconomic transformation, which includes the formation of a more clearly defined sub-regional middle class and elite, constitutes the most prominent period of social differentiation in Teso since the early 20th century.
The end of displacement is a main goal of international peacebuilding strategies, with increasing financial and human resources committed to it. Nevertheless, protracted internal displacement remains unabated, necessitating a review of the responses provided thus far. Durable solutions to internal displacement require a safe, permanent and secure place to settle, which puts security of tenure at the centre of any sustainable option. This article emphasizes the limited understanding of the factors that contribute to secure tenure as one of the main flaws in a predominantly legal approach to the right to restitution and the right to adequate housing in responses to internal displacement. It calls for the design of contextualized and inclusive strategies to align the de jure, de facto and perception dimensions of tenure security to support the sustainable settlement of internally displaced persons as well as the construction of peace.
While processes of land dispossession - or ‘land grabbing' - have garnered significant attention from researchers in recent years, local reactions to instances of land alienation have received insufficient scrutiny. This paper focuses on small-, mid- and large-scale land dispossession in the post-conflict Teso region in Uganda, and considers how people assert their agency when their tenure rights are infringed upon. I argue that those who lose tenure rights through small-scale land dispossession are primarily focused on reacquiring tenure rights and meeting the demands of their basic social reproduction. In these cases, there is little resistance that is definitively ‘political'. In contrast, a ‘politics from below’ more clearly emerges in the cases of mid- and large-scale land alienation, which I attribute to particular structural conditions.
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 post-conflict 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 post-conflict 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 post-war 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 post-conflict state building. This phenomenon needs in depth and evidence based research.
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. Land was identified as a critical gap in international response capacities and awareness about the importance of addressing the housing land and property issues in the emergency and early recovery period has increased. Experiences show that there are only a few cases where land issues were addressed in the post-conflict period. The South East Europe region’s history acknowledges facts where conflicts were substantially present in the past which just goes in alignment with relevancy of the topic for this region as well. This paper makes an overview of the causes and characteristics of conflict and post-conflict period, war torn societies and issues related to land administration in such environment. ‘Land administration in post-conflict environment’ in this research paper is recognised as land administration performing in peace - normal life conditions - but loaded with the characteristics of the post-conflict environment. At the end this paper underlines the importance of the topic of the Land Administration in post-conflict environment and identifies it as one of the elements of the overall process of post-conflict state building.
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