This report for the European Parliament discusses the human rights issues raised by large-scale land deals for plantation agriculture (‘land grabbing’) in low and middle-income countries – a serious issue requiring urgent attention. The study assesses the link between land deals and human rights, reviewing relevant international human rights law and discussing evidence on actual […]
On 8 February 2017, the Constitutional Court of Colombia has found in favour of the Embera Chamí people in a centuries-old fight for their territory. The court granted the petition for the protection of constitutional rights requested by the of the Indigenous Resguardo Cañamomo Lomaprieta, in western Colombia. The Colombian Constitutional Court is the final […]
Ruling by the Constitutional Court of Colombia on the right of indigenous peoples to participate through consultations in decisions that may affect them. The court ruled on Feb 3 1997 that consultations with indigenous people on economic and development projects affecting their land are fundamental rights of the peoples concerned. The Colombian Ministry of Environment […]
Securing Forests, Securing rights (2014): Report of the International Workshop on Deforestation and the Rights of Forest Peoples, Held in Palangka Raya, Indonesia, March 2014. Report available on website of Forest Peoples Programme.
This article explores land reform that integrates statutory and customary tenure. It examine what this implies for tenure security of customary landholders. Land reform inevitably feeds into institutional multiplicity and competition, and serves as a venue for the renegotiation of land governing authorities and regulations. In Uganda, through such reform, customary authorities are delegitimised and […]
The paper proposes that reports of pervasive competition and conflict overland in sub-Saharan Africa belie a current image of negotiable and adaptive customary systems of landholding and land use but, instead, reveal processes of exclusion, deepening social divisions and class formation. Cases of ambiguous and indeterminate outcomes among claimants over land do occur, but the […]