News on Land

Complaint Linked to World Bank Loan Alleges Land Seizures, Damage to Water Sources

Last week, 13 rural communities in Guinea made public a complaint against the World Bank’s private lending arm over a loan to one of country’s largest bauxite miners, alleging its operations have destroyed ancestral farm lands and polluted vital water sources.

Ethiopia never seems to catch a break when it comes to land and land related problems throughout its political and economic history. Land has been the maker and breaker of Ethiopian politics beginning from the time of Emperor Haileselassie I to the toppling of the Derg, from the protests across the country for consecutive three years since 2016 leading to the division within EPRDF to the resignation of PM Hailemariam Dessalegn and the coming to power of Abiy Ahmed (PhD). But, not at once has the nation been devoid of protests and upraises related to land to this point in time.

In more than a decade of working on women’s land rights, I have often been asked the question “where is the evidence?” While we have more and more insight into how secure land rights benefit women, men, and communities, the question remains “how to get there?”: we don’t know as much as we should (or would like!) about what works, or does not, to improve land rights for women.

Liberia is in the throes of finalising one of Africa’s most progressive land rights laws but its potential will be thwarted if women are excluded

In the 42-year history of International Women’s Day, there have been huge advances in women’s rights across the world. But despite these strides, many are still fighting for basic human rights, including to life and security.

This is certainly true in my country, Liberia.

These are dark days if you care about justice. New estimates reveal that over 5 billion people live outside the protection of the law. These are people who can be driven from their land, intimidated by violence, and excluded from society.

Against the backdrop of this staggering figure, community paralegals offer hope.

Community paralegals demystify law and empower people to advocate for themselves. They are at the heart of the growing global movement for justice. But to date, they have been largely ignored by scholars and writers.

Such has been their determination to reclaim their rights, particularly land rights, that even the government of Karnataka has acknowledged the force of these women

Her hair is white, her face wrinkled. But her spirits are high as she belies her age to play the drum hanging around her neck. As she twirls round and round, the beating of the drum becomes more frenzied. The message is loud and clear; playing the drum, once considered a symbol of their caste untouchability, is no longer a stigma.

WINDHOEK - There is a need to look at ways on creating avenues that would result in more women occupying roles in traditional authorities. This would address some of the social ills women in rural areas are experiencing because of laws that do not necessarily favour women. 

This is according to Wilhelmina Tameca Gaoses, the project manager for the One World, No hunger project at the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. 

KASSERINE/TUNISIA: Souad Gharsalli lives in a rented flat in the center of Kasserine, in western Tunisia, baking and selling artisanal bread to make money. But she should be growing olive trees for a living, she says.

Gharsalli, 47, grew up with three brothers and six sisters on her family’s 7 hectares (17 acres) of land in the region of Kasserine, on which they grew olive trees and grains.

When their father died in 1997, Gharsalli and her sisters inherited half as much land as their brothers, in accordance with Tunisian law.

If the main purpose of government is to provide for the common security of its citizens, surely ensuring the security of the food system must be among its paramount duties.

The United Nations identifies the food crisis as one of the primary and overarching challenges facing the international community today. It is inter-related in complex ways to the current global economic crisis and the longer-term environmental and climate crises that stand before us.

PENAMPANG: The country’s first indigenous Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjum may get a “tweak on the ear” when the United Nation Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples makes her official visit to Malaysia.

Senator Adrian Lasimbang said on Monday that Malanjum’s appointment to the top post of the judiciary has been one of the highest recognition to the vulnerable and minority indigenous communities in Malaysia.

He believes the Sabahan’s top judge’s appointment has also been one of the many positives under the new government of the country.

Monrovia – A three-day Experience and Lessons sharing workshop on a range of land tenure topics, including Land Administration Reforms, Customary Land Rights, Land Administration Systems, and Spatial Planning is being convened at a local hotel in Monrovia.