The objective of the study is to analyze
conflict-induced displacement from the point of view of
vulnerability, using a multifaceted definition of
vulnerability. As many as 10 million people have been
displaced by war in the Europe and Central Asia region since
1990. While many people have been able to return home,
approximately half remain displaced, with no available
avenues for sustainable reintegration. Currently, in five

Global capitalism, vintage early 21st
century, favors the movement of goods and capital across
national borders more than it does the movement of people.
It was not always this way. The first wave of globalization,
in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th,
came with massive international migration. Around 60 million
people migrated from Europe to the countries of the New
World (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the United

 It is well recognized that secure land and property rights for all are essential to reducing poverty because they underpin economic development and social inclusion. Secure land tenure and property rights enable people in urban and rural areas to invest in improved homes and livelihoods. Although many countries have completely restructured their legal and regulatory framework related to land and they have tried to harmonize modern statutory law with customary ones, millions of people around the world still have insecure land tenure and property rights.

Rwanda is developing at a remarkably rapid pace, and with that development has come a multitude of corresponding changes to the orientation and use of land throughout the country. In light of these changes, law n°18/2007 of 19/04/2007 relating to expropriation in the public interest was adopted to provide clear procedures for the government to follow in the taking of privately-owned land for other uses deemed to be in the public interest.

This Policy Brief summarizes the main findings and recommendations of qualitative and quantative research on implementation and outcomes of the 2007 Expropriation Law in Rwanda. Rwanda is developing at a remarkably rapid pace, and with that development has come a multitude of corresponding changes to the orientation and use of land throughout the country.

This report is part of a broader comparative effort by As the author worked with colleagues in Rwanda,
two other important dimensions of the Rwandan
experience became clear. Refugee return and land
access in Rwanda has been an extraordinarily
complex matter, with some refugees leaving just in
time for others returning to take up their homes and
lands. Rwanda has important lessons to teach us
about the need to maintain flexibility in dealing with
complexity, and raises questions about whether

This background briefing reports on a study of land access for returnees in Rwanda, and the impacts of land access policies in the post-conflict period. It also seeks to understand better the roles international humanitarian agencies and NGOs have played, and how their performance can be improved. It is not suggested that Rwanda is typical, but rather that the centrality of land issues there has thrown up a revealing set of broader questions.

To accommodate the needs of hundreds of thousands of returnees after war and fgenocide in 1994, the new Rwandan Government launched a settlement programme, Imidugudu. Since early 1997, this programme has targeted the entire rural population: all scattered households in the country had to be regrouped in villages. What started as a response to an emergency turned into an ambitious but controversial development programme. The programme has been implemented with support from international organizations, including UNHCR and numerous NGOs.

“It is paradoxical but hardly surprising that the right to food has been endorsed more often and with greater unanimity and urgency than most other human rights, while at the same time being violated more comprehensively and systematically than probably any other.”

Richard Cohen, in Causes of Hunger, 1994

The Organising Committee of the Dutch Land Governance Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue has commissioned an investigation into the need and possibility to develop a protocol on fair compensation in cases of legitimate land tenure changes, with a focus on expropriation. This is in line with the Ministry’s role in the Land Governance Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue. This dialogue involves government, civil society, business, finance and academia.

300 familias del corregimiento de Guáimaro que acceden colectivamente a la tierra, luego de ser víctimas de desplazamiento forzado a causa del paramilitarismo y que en un segundo momento, al retornar a su tierra, se enfrentaron con un proceso de desconocimiento y vicio institucional en lo concerniente al proceso de restitución de tierras.

Experiencia familiar de acceso y retorno a la tierra, encabezada por doña Rosa, mujer campesina que de niña llegó a Bogotá. En un barrio urbano, encuentra un basurero, habilitándolo para la agricultura agroecológica, cultivos orgánicos y uso de semillas nativas que se convierte en un espacio de encuentro y minga, donde se comparte saberes: la Granja Escuela Agroecológica Mutualitas y Mutualitos