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News (362)
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Oregon: Nez Perce Reclaim Ancestral Land |
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By :Cassandra Profita, OPB |
| 25 December 2020 |
Nez Perce Tribe reclaims 148 acres of ancestral land in Eastern Oregon
Purchase includes traditional fishing grounds and meeting place.
The Nez Perce Tribe is reclaiming an ancestral village site in the Eastern Oregon town of Joseph more than a century after being pushed out the area.
This month, the tribe purchased 148
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UNSRs Address Israel over Naqab Demolitions |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 21 December 2020 |
After the standard 60-day embargo on releasing such communications, the 12 October joint letter of seven UN Special Rapporteurs (SRs) to the Israeli government is now public. The SRs on adequate housing, cultural rights, human rights defenders, the rights of indigenous peoples, the human rights of internally displaced persons, minority
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Land Times No. 21 |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 12 December 2020 |
What better way to commemorate World Human Rights Day than with HIC’s Housing and Land Rights Network (HIC-HLRN) Land Times? Today’s 21st issue reports on the role of civil society resisting the COVID-19 crisis and supporting the subsistence of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities often targeted with violations of
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India: Farmers Protest, Support Political Prisoners |
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By :Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta, The Wire |
| 11 December 2020 |
`It`s Time We Speak up For Each Other`: Farmers` Group Supports Political Prisoners
"We are confronting a prime minister who is behaving like an exploitative king. All these activists and intellectuals have been arrested on false charges merely because they highlighted the plight of the poor," said the head of BKU
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UK MPs Urge Stop to Evictions in Palestine |
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By :Council for Arab-British Understanding |
| 18 November 2020 |
Four British parliamentarians, representing all major political parties in the UK, have written to the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gabi Ashkenazi and the Israeli Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, urging them to stop forced evictions of Palestinian communities in Firing Zone 918 in the Masafer Yatta region of the
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Azerbaijan: Armenians Burn Vacated Homes |
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By :Associated Press |
| 14 November 2020 |
Armenians burn their homes rather than turn them over to Azerbaijan
KALBAJAR, AZERBAIJAN—In a bitter farewell to his home of 21 years, Garo Dadevusyan wrenched off its metal roof and prepared to set the stone house on fire. Thick smoke poured from houses that his neighbors had already torched before fleeing
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India Govt. Reverses Kashmir Land Reform |
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By :Shakir Mir, The Wire |
| 28 October 2020 |
Modi Govt’s New Land Policy for J&K Overturns 7 Decades of Land Reform
The abolition of the Big Land Estates Abolition Act 1950 clears the decks for the revival of a neo-jagirdari [a type of feudal land grant] system in J&K, say experts, geared this time toward serving the needs of
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“Jammu and Kashmir put on sale” |
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By :The Indian Express |
| 28 October 2020 |
‘Jammu and Kashmir put on sale’: Omar Abdullah slams Centre for amendment in land laws
Hours after the Centre [India’s central government] amended laws allowing people from outside Jammu and Kashmir to buy land in the Union Territory, former chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said the government has
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Zimbabwe: Land, Food and Shelter Now (ZPLRM) |
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By :ZPLRM |
| 27 October 2020 |
Zimbabwe People`s Land Rights Movement (ZPLRM): Land, Food, and Shelter Now
Statement from HIC member, the Zimbabwe People`s Land Rights Movement (ZPLRM), on defending land rights in Zimbabwe’s rural resettlement communities.
Hunger and conflict are the face of the African continent. But it was not always so.
It was the formation of the
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Harvard Fund Involved in Land-grabbing Case |
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By :Caio de Freitas Paes / Translated by Roberto Cataldo |
| 15 October 2020 |
In September, the court in Brazil’s Bahia state ruled that a company in which Harvard University’s endowment fund was invested had illegally acquired the land for a large farm in the Cerrado grasslands.
The Gleba Campo Largo farm, spanning 140,000 hectares (346,000 acres), has for years been the focus of violent
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Palestinian Women in Gaza under Siege |
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By :Al Mezan Center For Human Rights |
| 15 October 2020 |
On the occasion of the International Day of Rural Women, Al Mezan highlights the Center’s work with Palestinian rural women in the Gaza Strip and launches the materials from this collaboration, including a photo gallery and a fact sheet. During this collaboration, the rural women told Al Mezan about the
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COVID Impact on Nairobi`s Food System |
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By :Samuel Ikua, Thrive |
| 15 October 2020 |
The impact of COVID-19 on the food system in Nairobi
There have been far reaching effects on Nairobi’s economy following the COVID-19 crisis, with the informal sector being the most severely affected. Food accounts for almost half of the trade in the city’s informal sector, and the containment measures have been
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South Africa: Official Extort Black Farmers |
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By :Dan Meyer,thesouthafrican.com |
| 12 October 2020 |
The DA say that they have evidence that agriculture officials in Mpumalanga have solicited bribes from emerging black farmers.
Emerging black farmers in Mpumalanga are being harassed and threatened by officials within the province’s Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD), allegedly due to the fact that they refuse
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USA: CSOs Urge Senate Reject SCotUS Pick |
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By :Over 150 organizations |
| 06 October 2020 |
Following the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court, over 150 justice organizations and movements, including advocates for the homeless and defenders of the human right to adequate housing, issued a letter urging the Senate to oppose her confirmation. While the nomination raises a broad
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New from HIC-HLRN: “A Pandemic of Violations” |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 05 October 2020 |
On the occasion of World Habitat Day (5 October 2020) and “Urban October,” HIC-HLRN has produced its annual report from the HLRN Violation Database.
This year’s review of patterns and trends in housing and land rights violation around the world is dedicated to the theme: A Pandemic of Violations: Forced Evictions
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Land Rights of a Buddhist Monk |
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By :Mark S. Cogan, Geopoliticalmonitor.com |
| 05 October 2020 |
During a speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council on October 2, Luon Sovath, a Buddhist monk and human rights activist was repeatedly interrupted by Cambodia’s Permanent Representative in Geneva, An Sokkhoeurn, who questioned the legitimacy of both Sovath’s status as a monk and his claims about land rights in Cambodia. During a meeting of the
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New from HIC-HLRN: "A Pandemic of Violations" |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 05 October 2020 |
On the occasion of World Habitat Day (5 October 2020) and “Urban October,” HIC-HLRN has produced its annual report from the HLRN Violation Database.
This year’s review of patterns and trends in housing and land rights violation around the world is dedicated to the theme: A Pandemic of Violations: Forced Evictions
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China Threatens Christian Converts |
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By :Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor |
| 03 October 2020 |
Communist authorities in southwestern China’s Yunnan province sent a notice to a village warning that any resident who converts to Christianity will face financial penalties or even the confiscation of their land.
The notice sent to Huang Fei village in that province’s Yingjiang County, which is close to the China-Myanmar border,
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New: "Development" Dispossessing Women |
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By :HIC-HLRN, Mazingira Institute, Pamoja Trust |
| 25 September 2020 |
Incidents of Infrastructure Development That Dispossess and Displace People: Baseline assessment of women’s wealth, wellbeing and habitat
HIC-HLRN has just released the outcomes of an unprecedented assessment of impacts from infrastructure development on women in Kenya.
This is the product of a collaborative project of Mazingira Institute, Pamoja Trust and HIC-HLRN on
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Kenya: Impoverishing Women with "Development" |
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By :HIC-HLRN, Mazingira Institute and Pamoja Trust |
| 25 September 2020 |
HIC-HLRN has just published the results of a study on the impacts of infrastructure development that dispossesses and displace women in Kenya. The report is a baseline assessment of women’s wealth, wellbeing and habitat values at stake.
This is the product of a collaborative project of Mazingira Institute, Pamoja Trust and
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500K Rural Tibetans Sent to Labor Camps in 2020 |
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By :Helen Davidson, The Guardian and agencies |
| 23 September 2020 |
In 2019 and 2020, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) introduced new policies to promote the systematic, centralized, and large-scale training and transfer of “rural surplus laborers” to other parts of the TAR, as well as to other provinces of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In the first 7 months
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Zimbabwe: Evicted Villagers’ Living Hell |
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By :Tatenda Chitagu, The Standard |
| 22 September 2020 |
Evicted Lowveld villagers endure two months of hell
By the roadside in the scorching Lowveld heat, a group of women and children sit under a tree, their few belongings scattered all over the place.
Two women have just finished preparing a very small meal of sadza and cow peas, hardly enough to
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CSOs Urge UNGA to End Apartheid in Palestine |
| 22 September 2020 |
Global Response to Israeli Apartheid: A Call to the UNGA
Apartheid is a crime against humanity, giving rise to individual criminal responsibility and State responsibility to bring the illegal situation to an end. In May 2020, a large number of Palestinian civil society organisations called on all States to adopt “effective countermeasures,
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Innovations in Land Administration |
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By :Zoe Tabary, Thomas Reuter Foundation |
| 18 September 2020 |
From Indonesia to Puerto Rico, communities are using open source tools to help contain the coronavirus by mapping handwashing stations and those at risk.
The pandemic has underlined the importance of maps, that remain inaccurate and incomplete in many parts of the world, leaving more than one billion people “invisible,” activists
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Zim: Divorce Law Spurs Women`s Rights Struggle |
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By :Lungelo Ndhlovu, Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 11 September 2020 |
Zimbabwe divorce law spurs women`s fight for property
The law rejects the traditional thinking that only financial contributions count when splitting property, its supporters say
BULAWAYO—When Smangele Tshuma got divorced after five years of marriage, her in-laws forced her out of the home that she had been living in with her husband
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Guatemala: Denouncing Land Defender Murders |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 09 September 2020 |
So far in 2020, four farmer leaders have been murdered, and another one is missing. The organization also denounced the extrajudicial eviction of indigenous communities.
Guatemala`s government withdrew several institutions that enforced and veiled over land rights, such as the Secretariat for Agrarian Affairs (SAA), the Presidential Commission for the Coordination
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Indonesia: Mapping Policy Losses |
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By :A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil, Jakarta Post |
| 04 September 2020 |
Concerns of transparency, inclusivity raised as One Map nears completion
Jakarta—Indonesia`s highly anticipated One Map Policy is inching toward completion with most datasets successfully compiled by the government, but observers are wary of the project`s lack of transparency and inclusiveness and whether the rights of indigenous communities are honored.
Initiated in
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Court to Cape Town: “redress apartheid legacy” |
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By :Murray Williams, news24 |
| 31 August 2020 |
High Court sets aside R135m Sea Point school sale, frees land to address apartheid legacy
· The Tafelberg school property case has been running for five years.
· Finally, the High Court has ruled, upholding the legal challenge by two not-for-profit organisations.
· The sale of the land has now been reversed – much to
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Kenya: New Alternative Justice System Policy |
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By :Moses Muoki, Capital News |
| 28 August 2020 |
Maraga Launches Alternative Justice System to Reduce Case Backlog
NAIROBI—Chief Justice David Maraga has launched the Alternative Justice System (AJS) Policy which is aimed at enhancing access to justice and supporting expeditious delivery of justice to citizens.
Speaking at the Supreme Court on Thursday when he presided over the launch of the
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Land Reform Leads to Eviction |
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By :Anna Majavu, Newfarm.com |
| 25 August 2020 |
An 88-year-old woman has been threatened with the culturally taboo removal of her family’s ancestral graves after being evicted from the farm she worked on for decades.
ight decades of hard labour on a white-owned commercial farm did not pay off for an elderly Eastern Cape woman, who was promptly evicted
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Palestine: Join Al-Haq Law School Program (10/2020) |
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By :Al Haq |
| 24 August 2020 |
Al-Haq International Law School Program, 12–22 October 2020
The Al-Haq Center for Applied International Law is pleased to announce its Sixth International Law Summer School Program for professionals, legal researchers, post-graduates and academics in the fields of international law and human rights.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing uncertainty around international
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Palestine: Join Al-Haq Law School Program (10/2020) |
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By :Al Haq |
| 24 August 2020 |
Al-Haq International Law School Program, 12–22 October 2020
The Al-Haq Center for Applied International Law is pleased to announce its Sixth International Law Summer School Program for professionals, legal researchers, post-graduates and academics in the fields of international law and human rights.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing uncertainty around international
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Indonesia: Indigenous Timor Families Evicted |
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By :Ryan Dagur, Union of Catholic Asian News |
| 18 August 2020 |
Evicted Indonesian families vow to stay put
Dozens of people in Catholic-majority province left homeless as land dispute turns violent
Defiant members of an indigenous community in Indonesia have vowed to stay put after security forces fired tear gas and demolished their homes on Aug. 18 in a bid to
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India: Turning 170K-ha Forest to Coal |
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By :Hannah Ellis-Peterson, The Guardian |
| 08 August 2020 |
India plans to fell ancient forest to create 40 new coalfields
Narendra Modi’s dream of a ‘self-reliant India’ comes at a terrible price for its indigenous population
Over the past decade, Umeshwar Singh Amra has witnessed his homeland descend into a battleground. The war being waged in Hasdeo Arand, a rich and
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Land Times issue 20 |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 08 August 2020 |
HIC’s Housing and Land Rights Network (HIC-HLRN) welcomes you to its 20th issue of Land Times. This milestone edition emphasizes the role of civil society in identifying and remedying housing and land rights problems in the context of a global pandemic.
Amid this protracted crisis, events and developments in the Middle
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Land Redistribution has become ‘Elite Capture’ |
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By :Moira Levy, Illustrator: Anastasya Eliseeva, Newfarme.com |
| 06 August 2020 |
South Africa’s land reform programme was supposed to ensure that the impoverished get to own and work the land. Now, only the politically connected and economically included are benefitting.
he majority of actual beneficiaries of land reform to date are from the urban middle class, according to the Institute for Poverty,
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2019 Deadliest Year for Land Defenders |
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By :Al Jazeera |
| 29 July 2020 |
`More dangerous every day`: Land rights defenders killings surge
Colombia and the Philippines account for more than half those killed in 2019, with Indigenous people at greatest risk.At least 212 people were killed last year while defending their land from being taken over by industry, Global Witness said on Wednesday, making
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Battir, Palestine: Settlers Invade Heritage Site |
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By :Yuval Abraham, +972 mag |
| 29 July 2020 |
‘I want Battir to go to hell’: Settlers move in on Palestinian World Heritage site
Palestinians in the West Bank agricultural village of Battir are encountering armed Israeli settlers trying to push them off their land.
Khaled and Miriam Muammar live in Battir, an agricultural village in the occupied West Bank, just
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India`s Population Transfer in Kashmir |
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By :Al Jazeera |
| 28 July 2020 |
Federal administration in disputed region ends requirement by forces to obtain a special certificate for acquiring land.The Indian administration of Jammu and Kashmir has lifted a requirement set in place by a 1971 circular under which Indian security forces had to obtain a special certificate in order to acquire land
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USA: Esselen Tribe Regains Land after 250 Years |
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By :Mario Koran, The Guardian |
| 28 July 2020 |
Northern California Esselen tribe regains ancestral land after 250 years
The tribe purchased the 1,200 acre ranch near Big Sur as part of a $4.5m deal and will use it for educational and cultural purposes
The Esselen Tribe of Monterey county now owns a small piece of their ancestral land along California’s
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Kashmir: Prolonged Settler Colonialism |
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By :Samreen Mushtaq and Mudasir Amin/The Polis Project |
| 27 July 2020 |
India’s settler colonialism in Kashmir is not starting now, eliminating the natives is a process long underway
From controlling space to regulating movement, from land holdings to resource extraction, from neoliberal policies converging with colonial aims to memory erasures and intensive surveillance, the Indian state has been at it for long.
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Zimbabwe Land Commission Pushes Joint Land Titles |
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By :Patrick Chitumba, Chronicle |
| 21 July 2020 |
Commission pushes for joint land ownership
The Zimbabwe Land Commission has urged couples to ensure that ownership of their land reflects that it is jointly owned to protect the remaining spouses, especially women from being displaced in the event of death.
Surviving spouses can now inherit land if its ownership is registered
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Palestine/Israel: JNF Trees Dispossess Bedouin |
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By :Zafrir Rinat and Almog Ben Zikri, Haaretz |
| 14 July 2020 |
Israel pushing large tree planting in Naqab to disclaim lands to Bedouin
Israel is pushing through a plan to plant trees across a significant swath of the Negev in a bid to deny Bedouin residents from accessing the lands.
The plan is described as “agricultural planting” but local activists and human
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Zim: “We need rights, not foreign trainers" |
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By :Chris Bishop, CNBC Africa |
| 11 July 2020 |
Veteran Zimbabwe farmer pours cold water on $58 million mission from Belarus with love
Veteran Zimbabwe farmer Ben Freeth poured cold water on a plan that’ll see trainers from the former Soviet republic of Belarus train a thousand farmers to till the soil in the former breadbasket of Africa.
This month a
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A Chinese Province Razes Its Countryside |
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By :Alexander Boyd, SupChina |
| 10 July 2020 |
A Chinese province razes the countryside. Why?
How are Shandong villagers being convinced to go along with a provincial plan to raze their homes and move them into high-rises? With promises of economic benefits in the future, and if that doesn’t work, with coercion and threats.
Since March, the provincial government
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USA: Judge Shuts Down Dakota Access Pipeline |
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By :Amy R. Sisk, Bismarck Tribune |
| 06 July 2020 |
A federal judge has ordered the shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline while a lengthy environmental review is conducted of the project opposed by environmentalists and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
The move was requested earlier this year by Standing Rock and three other Sioux tribes in the Dakotas who fear environmental harm from
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UNHCHR Urges Israel Halt Annexation Plans |
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By :OHCHR |
| 29 June 2020 |
Bachelet urges Israel to halt West Bank annexation plans, warning “shockwaves will last for decades”
GENEVA—The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, on Monday added her voice to the wave of international and national calls on the Government of Israel not to proceed with its plans to illegally annex
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South Africa: Relocation Again in Alexandra TS |
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By :Dennis Webster, New Frame |
| 29 June 2020 |
Relocation rears its head: Bringing de-densification home in Alexandra
The American poet GC Waldrep recently described gravity as “a debt … incurred by God”. In the Stjwetla shack settlement in Alexandra, Johannesburg, gravity is God-sent. Built around a series of small rivulets that flow down the western bank of the Jukskei River in the
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Kenya: Ruai Evictions, Why Now? |
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By :Ruai News |
| 21 May 2020 |
Ruai Evictions : Is This Why Government Had To Do It Before September?
Renowned political commentator Allan Kibet has come out to claim that President Uhuru Kenyatta forcefully evicted the residents of Ruai and Kariobangi from the ` public` land so as to commence the construction of Nairobi Metropolitan Services Improvement
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Mozambique: Restored Village Land Flourishes |
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By :Friends of the Earth International |
| 20 May 2020 |
Mozambique Village Adopts Collective, Organic Farming after Land Rights Win
In a quiet region in southern Mozambique, one community’s fight to reclaim their stolen land has led to a more communal way of life, and an approach to farming that embodies agroecology, working in harmony with nature and peoples’ rights.
Peasants from across
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Record Number of Land Conflicts in Brazil in 2019 |
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By :Real World Radio |
| 14 May 2020 |
There were five conflicts per day, representing a 23% increase from 2018, and 32 defenders murdered during the year.
Throughout 2019, the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) recorded 1833 conflicts in the countryside (averaging five per day), 23% more than in 2018. This is the highest number on CPT records in the
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World Distracted, Amazon Keeps Burning |
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By :Agence France-Presse |
| 09 May 2020 |
With world distracted, the Amazon rainforest continues to burn
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit a new high in the first four months of this year, with 1,202 square kilometres of forest wiped out
That was a 55 per cent increase from the same period last year, and the highest figure for
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Brazil: Ashaninka Win Case against Loggers |
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By :YaleEnvironment 360 |
| 01 May 2020 |
Indigenous group wins case over illegal tree logging
The Ashaninka indigenous community in Brazil has won a two-decade federal court dispute against illegal logging interests, receiving $3 million in compensation and an official apology from companies for cutting down thousands of mahogany, cedar, and other tree species in the Kampa do Rio Amônia
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Nicaragua: Assaults on Indigenous Lands |
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By :Oakland Institute |
| 29 April 2020 |
Nicaragua’s Failed Revolution details the incessant violence facing the Indigenous communities in the Caribbean Coast Autonomous Regions, as evidenced by recent attacks against the Alal, Wasakin, and Miskitu communities, and provides in depth information about the actors involved—foreign gold mining firms, national and international actors in logging and cattle ranching industry,
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Evicted Indigenous People in Manaus |
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By :Ignacio Amigo, Mongabay |
| 29 April 2020 |
Evicted indigenous people in Manaus struggle to stay safe amid COVID-19 crisis
A group of about 400 indigenous people were displaced from an informal settlement on the outskirts of Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon in February, reportedly in connection with drug trafficking issues in the area, despite previous promises to regularize
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Guatemala: Evicting Maya Q’eqchi` amid COVID-19 |
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By :Minority Rights Group International |
| 21 April 2020 |
Violent attempt to evict Maya Q’eqchi villagers despite COVID-19 crisis in Guatemala
On 13 April 2020, private security forces suspected of working for Industria Chiquibul, S.A., an agribusiness engaged in the harvesting and extraction of palm oil, attempted to evict 200 indigenous peasant families from their homes in Tierra Blanca, municipality
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Call to Protect Dalit Rights during Pandemic |
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By :International Alliance for Social Justice |
| 16 April 2020 |
Global Call for Protecting Dalit Rights During COVID-19 Pandemic
We, the global alliance of Dalit organizations, strongly urge the Member-States of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), United Nations, civil society, and donor agencies to provide immediate relief to poor Dalits and protect their basic human rights during
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BADIL Palestinian Rights Course |
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By :BADIL |
| 10 April 2020 |
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights
BADIL`s second International Mobilization Course: The Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, West Bank, Palestine, 17 July - 28 July 2020.
This course is an opportunity for international advocates, activists, mobilizers, policy officers and interested individuals, to gain a deeper understanding of a human
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Brazil: Land Defender Zezico Guajajara Murdered |
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By :BBC World |
| 01 April 2020 |
Zezico Guajajara, an Amazon Guardian has been shot dead on 31 March 2020
A member of a protected tribe in the Amazon has been killed by gunmen, authorities in the Brazilian state of Maranhão say.
The body of Zezico Guajajara, of the Guajajara tribe, was found near his village on Tuesday. He
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Palestine: Land Day (joint statement) |
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By :NGOs |
| 30 March 2020 |
On Land Day, Civil Society Urges Accountability and the End to Israel’s Illegal Closure of Gaza
For the past two years,[1] Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip have gathered on a near-weekly basis to participate in the Great Return March demonstrations at the Gaza perimeter fence, calling for an end to
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South Africa: Evictions Despite Moratorium |
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By :Abahlali baseMjondolo |
| 29 March 2020 |
Evictions continue in Durban despite the national moratorium
The national government made a clear promise that there would be no evictions during the national shutdown implemented to slow the spread of the coronavirus. However, today, at around 12:30, Calvin Security returned to the Ekuphumeleleni settlement in Mariannhill, which falls under
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Kenya: Women Resist Custom for a Fair Share |
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By :David Muchui, The Nation |
| 25 March 2020 |
Widows fight customs, biased laws denying them share of family wealth
In Summary
In Meru County and elsewhere, thousands of widows are at the mercy of ruthless in-laws and corrupt government officers.
Human Rights Watch cites discriminatory laws and customs as some of the factors that continue to fuel the violation of women’s
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South Africa: Call for Solidarity amid Crisis |
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By :Abahlali baseMjondolo |
| 22 March 2020 |
Coronavirus: A Call for Solidarity in a Time of Crisis
Abahlali baseMjondolo has held small meetings with elected leaders in all the provinces where we have members to discuss the coronavirus crisis. The best available scientific information has been shared with our members. We have decided to suspend our entire programme
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Liberia: New Land Law Partial Victory |
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By :Jennifer O’Mahony, Mongabay Series: Global Forests, Global Palm Oil |
| 22 March 2020 |
New Land Law hailed as victory, but critics say it’s not enough
Areas allocated to rubber, oil palm and logging concessions cover around a quarter of Liberia’s total land mass.
Liberian activists and the international community have warned that land disputes on oil palm concessions were becoming a time bomb for conflict
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ZA/Palestine: Apartheid 60 Yrs after Sharpeville |
| 21 March 2020 |
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Time to Recognise and End Israeli Apartheid over the Palestinian People
21 March 2020
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination also marks the 60th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre under apartheid in South Africa, on 21 March 1960. At Sharpeville, police opened
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Bangladesh: Church Evicts Indigenous Families |
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By :Rajshahi, UCA News reporter |
| 18 March 2020 |
Five families of ethnic indigenous Catholics are in a frustrating and helpless situation over an attempted eviction by a church’s officials in northern Bangladesh.
Officials of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Musroil village of Rajshahi District have been pressuring the families to leave the land and property they have been living
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Kashmir: India to "Reclaim" Encroached Land |
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By :Safwat Zargar, scroll.in |
| 15 March 2020 |
The Jammu and Kashmir government [under Indian occupation] plans to reclaim at least 1 lakh [100,000] hectares of encroached state land and village commons by the end of this month. About 65% of this land falls in the Jammu division of the newly created Union Territory, revenue department officials told
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Kenya: 500 Taita Taveta Families to Be Evicted |
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By :Brian Ocharo, The Nation |
| 12 March 2020 |
More than 500 families are now facing eviction from land said to belong to former assistant minister Basil Criticos.
This comes after Mr Criticos renewed his plans to repossess the 1,000 hectares of land in Taita Taveta County which he claims was illegally allocated to the residents.
The former Taveta MP on
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Uganda: Thousands Homeless for Land Privatization |
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By :Bill Oketch, Daily monitor |
| 25 February 2020 |
More than 35,000 people from 20 villages are homeless after being evicted from about 9,300 acres of land in Kiryandongo District to pave way for large scale farming.
No one seemingly knows the exact year when the government allegedly gave the land to agricultural companies for large scale farming.
The government says
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India: Evictions in Honor of Trump Visit |
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By :Avinash Nair, The Indian Express |
| 18 February 2020 |
Ahead of Donald Trump’s visit to India, officials serve 45 families in Gujarat slum with eviction notices. The move comes just days after the AMC began building a wall allegedly to cover the Saraniyavas or Dev Saran slum on a route that the US President is likely to take while
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Watch: The Heart of Nuba |
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By :Storyville Global, BBC World |
| 12 February 2020 |
For thirty years, Omar al-Bashir, the former president of Sudan, waged a brutal and bloody war on his own people. This program filmed before al-Bashir was ousted, features Dr. Tom Catena a U.S. doctor and missionary who has been working in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan (South Kordofan) for over
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Bolsonaro`s Ambiguous Amazon Plan |
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By :Luciana Coelho and Gustavo Uribe, Folha de São Paulo |
| 10 February 2020 |
Bolsonaro`s Proposed Amazon Plan Is Vague and Uncertain. Officials improvised the proposed project on eve of Davos event to appease critics.
SÃO PAULO and BRASÍLIA—Bolsonaro`s finalized his plan for the Amazon right before the World Economic Forum in Davis, Switzerland. The government wanted to alleviate investor doubts about the government`s inaction in forest
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HIC-HLRN: New Ways to Work with UN Habitat |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 09 February 2020 |
ABU DHABI—At a networking event in the 10th World Urban Forum (WUF) to consider a new UN Habitat “Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism for Sustainable Development,” HIC-HLRN presented its contribution to the current discussion about the eventual methods and functions of UN Habitat’s partnership with civil society, local governments and authorities, and
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Brazil: President Opens Indigenous Land to Mining |
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By :Amazon Watch |
| 06 February 2020 |
Illegal Bill to Permit Mining on Indigenous Territories Proposed by Bolsonaro to Brazil`s Congress
Yesterday, marking his 400th day in office, Brazil`s extreme-right President Jair Bolsonaro proposed new legislation that would permit industrial mining, oil and gas projects, and hydroelectric dams on protected indigenous lands. The bill – which brazenly violates Brazil`s constitution
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Navajo Pres. Sides with Kit Carson on Palestine |
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By :The Red Nation |
| 02 February 2020 |
Navajo Nation President Nez Sides with Kit Carson on Palestine
The [president of the] Navajo Nation’s partnership with Zionist organizations raises historical questions.
Black men fighting for their freedom once drenched the earth with the blood of white men. We know this history. At the same time, our grandfathers carried guns against
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South Africa: Women’s Landmark Property Rights Ruling |
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By :Kim Harrisberg, Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 29 January 2020 |
For black women married before 1988, the husband owned all matrimonial assets and could sell them without consulting his wife - until a landmark win this month overturned the law
JOHANNESBURG—Facing destitution when her marriage broke down, 72-year-old Agnes Sithole went to court to challenge a sexist law - and won
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How Chevron Crushes an Environment Defender |
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By :Sharon Lerner, The Intercept |
| 29 January 2020 |
How the Environmental Lawyer Who Won a Massive Judgment against Chevron Lost Everything
Last August, during the second-hottest year on record, while the fires in the Amazon rainforest were raging, the ice sheet in Greenland was melting, and Greta Thunberg was being greeted by adoring crowds across the U.S., something else happened
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Criminal Conspiracy of the Century |
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By :HLRN |
| 28 January 2020 |
In joint presentations, US President Donald Trump and pro tem Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu revealed the long-anticipated/-dreaded “deal of the century” today in a White House ceremony. The entitled “Peace to Prosperity” document is now available for scrutiny. The plan, echoing the South African vision of Grand Apartheid, seeks
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Wealth Inequality, not Over-population Causes Climate Crisis |
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By :The Conversation |
| 28 January 2020 |
Stop blaming population growth for climate change. The real culprit is wealth inequality. Consumption by the world’s richest 10% makes up half of the planet’s consumption-based CO₂ emissions. Why we should be wary of blaming ‘overpopulation’ for the climate crisis
The annual World Economic Forum in Davos brought together representatives from government and
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Malawi: Men Still Grab Women`s Land, Despite Law |
| 24 January 2020 |
Malawi men continue to grab land from women - official
Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development director of administration Duncan Chione has said the new land law, which came into effect in 2018, is still facing resistance because men continue to grab land from women.
The official made the remarks in
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Nigeria: Mass Evictions, Protests as Housing Crisis Mounts |
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By :Libby George, Reuters |
| 24 January 2020 |
Mass evictions prompt protests as Nigerian housing crisis mounts
LAGOS—The men in naval uniforms charged into the Nigerian waterfront village of Okun Glass in the morning, chased out the residents, then called in the bulldozers.
De facto village leader, 75-year-old Dauda Musa, said he fled as the men fired guns into the
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Trump Removes More Environmental Safeguards |
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By :Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press |
| 23 January 2020 |
Trump Administration set to remove protections against water pollution
WASHINGTON—The Trump administration appears ready to move ahead with its plan to remove protections for some of the nation’s millions of miles, streams and arroyos, completing one of its most far-reaching environmental rollbacks.
The changes, promised by President Donald Trump in his first
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States Urge Spain to Respect Saharawi Rights |
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By :Western Sahara Resources Watch (WSRW) |
| 22 January 2020 |
As a matter of extraterritorial human rights obligation, Namibia and East-Timor have today recommended Spain to respect the Saharawi people`s right to free, prior and informed consent before any exploitation of Western Sahara`s natural resources.
Spain today went through its third Universal Periodic Review, a peer review in the
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Peru: Indigenous Win Amazon Oil Battle |
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By :Maria Cervantes, Reuters |
| 22 January 2020 |
Peruvian indigenous group wins suit to block oil exploration in Amazonian region
LIMA—A Peruvian judge ruled that the government exclude an indigenous region of the Amazon near the border with Brazil from any oil exploration and exploitation, a legal group said on Wednesday, in a win for native communities that have
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Outrage over Siemens Backing Adani Coal |
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By :Deutsche Welle |
| 13 January 2020 |
Climate Activists Outraged as Siemens Backs Adani Coal Mining Project in Australia
Siemens has announced it will remain involved in a controversial coal mining project in Australia, despite massive environmental criticism as the country continues to be ravaged by bushfires.
The German engineering conglomerate has a contract worth roughly €18 million ($20 million) which requires
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Tribute to Ghanimat Azhdari |
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By :Jimmy Thomson, The Narwhal |
| 10 January 2020 |
‘She was absolutely adored’: Iranian scientist spent her life fighting for indigenous voices in conservation.
Ghanimat Azhdari was born into a nomadic tribe in Iran and was a PhD student at Canada’s University of Guelph, where she was working with indigenous communities in the boreal forest to map cultural sites. This
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Brazil: New Decree to Support Land Grabs |
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By :Sputnik News |
| 12 December 2019 |
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro signs a decree giving title to smallholder farmers, but may encourage land grabbing.
President Jair Bolsonaro issued a decree on Tuesday that will allow tens of thousands of small farmers finally to earn title to the land they cultivate, fulfilling a campaign promise to the agricultural sector
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‘Amazon Completely Lawless’: Bolsonaro’s 1st Year |
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By :Matt Sandy. The New York Times |
| 05 December 2019 |
Deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest, an important buffer against climate change, has soared under President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil.
RIO DE JANEIRO—When the smoke cleared, the Amazon could breathe easy again.
For months, black clouds had hung over the rainforest as work crews burned and chain-sawed through it. Now the rainy
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India: Gov’t. Rethinks Vicious Forest Act |
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By :Ishan Kukreti, Down to Earth |
| 18 November 2019 |
Government withdraws proposed changes to Indian Forest Act. Minister Prakash Javadekar said draft created misconception among people.
The Union government was withdrawing the officers’ draft of the Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927 amendment, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) Prakash Javadekar told reporters on November 15, 2019.
Inspector General of Forests (Forest
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Report to UNCERD on Israeli Apartheid |
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By :Middle East Monitor |
| 14 November 2019 |
Eight Palestinian, regional and international NGOs have submitted a substantial report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), ahead of the committee’s upcoming review of Israel’s next month.
According to a statement published this week, the NGOs in question were Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq,
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Brazil: The Life and Death of the Guajajara |
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By :Carol Marçal, The Guardian |
| 08 November 2019 |
It is not news that the Brazilian government has been failing to protect Indigenous lands and Indigenous rights. But due to ever-increasing invasion of their territories by land grabbers, loggers and even drug traffickers, the Indigenous Peoples from several groups in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil decided to
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Major Victory for Ecuadoran Indigenous Peoples |
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By :DTE Staff |
| 07 November 2019 |
Chinese company pulls out of contract to drill for oil in remote rainforest after protests by indigenous groups
Indigenous leaders from Ecuador’s Amazon declared victory on November 6, 2019, after revealing that the country’s government had granted a force majeure request by Andes Petroleum Ltd Ecuador to stop drilling in a rainforest concession
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Brazil: Loggers Murder Amazon Forest Defender |
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By :Aljazeera |
| 03 November 2019 |
An indigenous forest defender has been killed and another wounded after they were ambushed by illegal loggers in Brazil`s Amazon forest, according to authorities.
Paulo Paulino Guajajara, a leader of an indigenous group seeking to protect the Arariboia indigenous reserve in Maranhao state from incursions, was shot in the face while on a
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Kenya: Village Struggles with Industrial Giant |
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By :Lotte Hughes and Daniel Lepariyo, The Star |
| 01 November 2019 |
David v Goliath: A small village’s struggle with an industrial giant
Known as Kambi Turkana to its largely Maasai neighbours, Lorropil has 47 residents, including Turkana, Samburu, Kikuyu, Il Chamus, Kisii and Kalenjin. Akiira Geothermal Ltd claims these destitute people are ‘squatters’ who have only recently moved onto the land in
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USA: Keystone Pipeline Leaks 383K Gallons |
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By :James MacPherson, Associated Press |
| 31 October 2019 |
BISMARCK ND—TC Energy’s Keystone pipeline leaked an estimated 383,000 gallons (1.4 million liters) of oil in northeastern North Dakota, state regulators said Thursday.
Crews on Tuesday shut down the pipeline that carries tar sands oil from Canada through seven states after the leak was discovered said Karl Rockeman, North Dakota’s water
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Framing the Inquiry into Land Inequality |
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By :Arantxa Guereña and Marc Wegerif |
| 30 October 2019 |
The International Land Coalition (ILC) has launched a research project on land inequality in the world, beginning with an exercise of framing the approach the many related complexities of land inequality. The result of that initial effort is a coherent framework for research and action with suggested themes and questions for
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Canada: B.C. to Align Laws with UNDRIP |
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By :Stephanie Wood, National Observer |
| 24 October 2019 |
B.C. tables United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples bill today
British Columbia is the first province to begin legislating the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a landmark international document on Indigenous rights.
The province is introducing a bill today that will ensure all provincial laws
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USA: Island Returned to Indigenous Owners |
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By :Julia Wick, Essential California, Los Angeles Times |
| 22 October 2019 |
Eureka returns an island to a tribe nearly 160 years after a massacre
California is in a moment of long overdue reckoning with the state’s original sin: the blood-soaked treatment of the people who inhabited this land long before any white settlers ever dreamed of Manifest Destiny. In recent
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HIC-HLRN Joins Partners on Israel`s CERD Review |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 09 September 2019 |
Habitat International Coalition (HIC) – Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) has partnered with HIC Member organizations Al-Haq and BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (Palestine), as well as with Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) in submitting a joint report to the UN Committee on
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Adani Coal Takes Native Land as Oz Burns |
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By :Ben Doherty, The Guardian |
| 31 August 2019 |
While Queensland extinguishes native title over Indigenous land to make way for Adani coalmine
Palaszczuk government did not announce decision Wangan and Jagalingou people say makes them trespassers on their own land
The Queensland government has extinguished native title over 1,385 hectares of Wangan and Jagalingou country for the proposed Adani coalmine in
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What`s Destroying the Amazon? |
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By :Rhett A. Butler, Mongabay News |
| 23 August 2019 |
Since 1978 over 750,000 square kilometers (289,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana. Why is Earth`s largest rainforest being destroyed?
For most of human history, deforestation in the Amazon was primarily the product of subsistence farmers who cut down trees to produce
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Nagaland Raises National Flag |
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By :The Hindu |
| 14 August 2019 |
‘Naga national flag’ hoisted across Naga-inhabited areas on ‘Independence Day’
GUWAHATI, Assam—The influential Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) on Wednesday hoisted the ‘Naga national flag’ to celebrate the 73rd ‘Naga Independence Day’ across the Naga-inhabited areas, including Myanmar.
On 14 August 1947, leaders belonging to various Naga tribes came together to unfurl their
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IPCC Agrees with Indigenous Peoples |
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By :Indigenous peoples |
| 12 August 2019 |
A statement on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change and Land from Indigenous Peoples and local communities* from 42 countries spanning 76% of the world’s tropical forests
Finally, the world’s top scientists recognize what we have always known.
We—Indigenous Peoples and local communities—play a critical role
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Kashmir: Land Grab and Political Disempowerment |
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By :Subodh Varma, News Click |
| 11 August 2019 |
Land Grab, Political Disempowerment Are Twin Pillars of J&K Changes
Pursued through repressive clampdown, cloaked in rhetoric of ‘development’.
Buried deep within the new law that divided Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, lie provisions that reveal the real intent of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government. These changes, affecting political
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Women Speak out on Land Rights |
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By :ESCR-Net |
| 02 August 2019 |
Women articulating shared positions and advancing collective action on land and natural resources
In recent years, coordinated by the Working Group on Women and ESCR, grassroots women leaders have been articulating shared positions and advancing collective action on land and natural resources; most recently, via a second exchange and a series
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Indonesian Women Fight Land Grabbing |
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By :Civita Patriana, Forestpeople.com |
| 17 July 2019 |
One night in 2013, in East Borneo, the family of Lusang Arang was surprised by an unexpected visitor at their home. The visitor’s arrival at midnight was not the only thing that surprised the family; what he brought was even more startling: a large bag full of cash. Lusang Arang’s
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RCEP Trade Deal to Intensify Asia Land Grabs |
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By :GRAIN |
| 12 July 2019 |
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed mega-trade agreement that involves 10 countries of Southeast Asia and six of their trading partners.[1] If adopted, it will be the biggest trade deal in the world. RCEP will not just change rules on the export and import of goods and services;
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German Firm’s Crimes against Palestinians |
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By :Adri Nieuwhof Rights and Accountability |
| 10 June 2019 |
German firm escalates its war crimes against Palestinians
German construction giant HeidelbergCement is expanding its plunder of Palestinian resources, a war crime punishable under German and international law.
HeidelbergCement operates a stone quarry in the occupied West Bank without permission of the Palestinians.
After exhausting the Nahal Raba quarry, the Israeli army has
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More US Jews Support Quitting WB Colonies |
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By :Judy Maltz, Haaretz |
| 02 June 2019 |
Growing Number of U.S. Jews Support Evacuation of All West Bank Settlements, Survey Finds. AJC poll exposes deepening divide between American and Israeli Jews on issues like Trump`s policies and the importance of “caring about Israel.”
Fewer American Jews consider “caring about Israel” an important part of being Jewish, a
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Zimbabwe Farmers Hawking to Survive |
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By :Jeffrey Moyo, IPS |
| 28 May 2019 |
Zimbabwe’s Resettled Farmers Hawking Cigarettes to Survive
MARONDERA, Zimbabwe—Subsistence farmer Rogers Hove proudly brandishes a worn-out letter for his five-hectare piece of land he obtained from government following the chaotic land seizures from white commercial farmers over two decades ago. What matters most to him, he says, “is to see my
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World Bank’s Attack on Small Farmers |
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By :AfricaFocus Bulletin |
| 27 May 2019 |
Editor`s Note:
“Enabling the Business of Agriculture,” promoted by the World Bank, and now enhanced with a new sub-indicator on land policy, is presented as a way to advance agricultural development, particularly in Africa. In reality, notes a new report from the Oakland Institute, it gives an additional push to a
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EU Partners with Israeli War-crime Financier |
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By :Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada |
| 21 May 2019 |
The European Union is expanding its partnership with Bank Leumi, a major financier of Israeli settler colonies on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
The EU claims to oppose Israel’s construction of settlements in the occupied territories, a war crime.
However, on Monday, Emanuele Giaufret, the EU ambassador in Tel Aviv,
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Kenya: Ex-president Fined €9 million for Land Grab |
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By :Brian Wasuna and Richard Munguti, Daily Nation |
| 18 May 2019 |
Ex-president Moi ordered to pay widow Sh1bn [€8,853,030] for grabbed land
On 21 September 1983, former President Daniel arap Moi forcibly took over a 53-acre piece of land owned by ex-chief Noah Kipngeny Chelugui through a scheme that involved ordering lands officials to make the necessary transfers to register the property,
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Ecuador: Waorani Block Big Oil Destruction |
| 16 May 2019 |
Amazon tribe wins lawsuit against big oil, saving millions of acres of rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest is well known across the world for being the largest and most dense area of woodland in the world. Spanning across nine countries, the Amazon is home to millions of different animal and plant species,
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South Africa Confronts Apartheid Land Legacy |
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By :Christopher Clark, The Atlantic |
| 03 May 2019 |
ZOLANI, South Africa—On the outskirts of this overcrowded township in South Africa’s Cape Winelands, Phumlani Zota, a 32-year-old pig farmer, sifted through piles of waste in a refuse dump beneath the Langeberg mountains, filling a burlap sack with scraps of food for his livestock. “There is not enough land here,”
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Al-Haq International Law Summer School 2019! |
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By :Al-Haq |
| 30 April 2019 |
24 June–8 July 2019
Al-Haq Center for Applied International Law is pleased to announce its Fifth International Law Summer School for post-graduate law students, legal researchers and professionals in the fields of international law and human rights. The training will take place over two weeks in Ramallah, occupied Palestinian territory
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Tibet: China Imprisons Local Land Defenders |
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By :Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) |
| 28 April 2019 |
Nine Tibetans sentenced up to 7 years in prison under China’s “organised crime” crackdown
A notice issued in February 2018 by the Tibet Autonomous Region Public Security Department had criminalised various human rights activities such as local activists espousing causes like economic freedom, right to livelihood, environmental protection, cultural freedom (Article
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DRC: Failed Agro-Industrial Park Model |
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By :Oakland Institute and HLRN |
| 25 April 2019 |
The Bukanga Lonzo Debacle: The Failure of Agro-Industrial Parks in DRC is a new report of the Oakland Institute that exposes the numerous land rights violations and human rights abuses, pollution and health hazards, misspent funds, charges of embezzlement and corruption, and legal action since the establishment and collapse of
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South Africa: Land Reform Report Rejected |
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By :Mfuneko Toyana; editing by Kirsten Donovan, Reuters |
| 19 April 2019 |
JOHANNESBURG--South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s push to reduce rural poverty and quell growing anger over unequal access to property faces further delays after a member of an advisory panel on the issue on Friday rejected key aspects of the plan.
Land ownership is a controversial and emotive issue in South Africa
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Women’s Land and Home--Uganda |
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By :HIC-HLRN and SSA:UHSNET |
| 15 April 2019 |
How—and how much—housing and land rights violations affect women
Dispossession, forced eviction and other land and housing rights violations can have a more-significant and differentiated impact on women, given that women are often more social and economically vulnerable than men. This is particularly true, as women often start out from a
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Waorani People Sue for Survival against Big Oil |
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By :Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute |
| 11 April 2019 |
Indigenous peoples go to court to save the Amazon from oil company greed
On 27 February, hundreds of Indigenous Waorani elders, youth and leaders arrived in the city of Puyo, Ecuador. They left their homes deep in the Amazon rainforest to march peacefully through the streets, hold banners, sing songs and,
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India’s Unrelenting Forced-eviction Crisis |
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By :HLRN-India |
| 09 April 2019 |
New report highlights the unrelenting crisis of forced evictions, finds over 200,000 persons evicted in India in 2018. Over 114 houses demolished every day, 23 people evicted every hour.
On the eve of India’s General Elections, Housing and Land Rights Network India (HLRN) held a press conference in New Delhi today
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Adjudicating HRAH in India |
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By :HLRN-India |
| 09 April 2019 |
On the eve of India’s General Elections, Housing and Land Rights Network India (HLRN) held a press conference in New Delhi today to release a new publication: Adjudicating the Human Right to Adequate Housing: Analysis of Important Judgments from Indian High Courts.
As documented by HLRN, India’s courts often have ordered
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India Court Orders Adivasi Evictions |
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By :Climate scorecard |
| 07 April 2019 |
Spotlight Activity: Supreme Court Orders An Eviction of Indigenous Communities from Forest Areas
In February this year, India’s apex court, while deciding on a case filed by hardcore wildlife conservation groups, ordered the eviction of millions of indigenous communities, known as tribals or Adavasis from the forests they have been abiding
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USA: Court Challenge to Israel’s Colonies |
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By :Mairav Zonszein, The Nation |
| 18 March 2019 |
In a First, Palestinians Challenge Israel’s Settlement Enterprise—in a US Court
The challenge comes in response to a case filed by Israeli settlers against Airbnb.
Randa Wahbe is a United States citizen with West Bank residency who is studying for a PhD in anthropology at Harvard University. Over the years, the 31-year-old
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Australia: Ngaliwurru & Nungali Native Title Ruling |
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By :RT |
| 15 March 2019 |
Australian Aboriginals to get billions in compensation for land & spiritual loss in landmark case
Aboriginals in Australia have won a ground-breaking case that paves the way for billions of dollars in compensation claims for colonial land loss, as well as loss of spiritual connection.
The High Court of Australia ruled
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United Nations` Land and Conflict Guidance |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 15 March 2019 |
Competition and control over land are among the common root causes and subjects of conflict, as well as the underlying factors hindering recovery and durable peace. Meanwhile, land has not been adequately treated in conflict management and resolution. At the same, the land and conflict nexus is only becoming more
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Sahel: Displacement Crisis |
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By :UN News |
| 05 March 2019 |
Drastic deterioration in security across Burkina Faso as 70,000 flee their homes in past two months, UN warns
The landlocked West African country of Burkina Faso is facing “unprecedented” displacement, triggered by armed groups and intercommunal clashes, and exacerbated by long-term food insecurity, UN aid officials said on Tuesday.
According to the
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USA: Court Rules IFC Not Immune |
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By :Diane Desierto, European Journal of International Law blog |
| 28 February 2019 |
SCOTUS decision in Jam et al v. International Finance Corporation (IFC) denies absolute immunity to IFC…with caveats
When it rains, it somehow pours.
February 2019 ended up being such a landmark month for international law adjudication. A day after the International Court of Justice released its landmark Chagos Advisory Opinion (finely discussed by
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Brazil: Tucano Land Defender Assassinated |
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By :Emtempo |
| 27 February 2019 |
MANAUS—The 53-year-old Tucano chief, Francisco de Souza Pereira, was shot four days ago in the "Urucaia" indigenous community in the Nova Cidade neighborhood of Manaus.
The crime occurred around 01:00 AM. Francisco was sleeping with his wife and a daughter when three hooded men invaded the house on Bahia Street.
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Indian Court Orders Eviction of 1 Million Tribals |
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By :Rahul Bedi, The Telegraph |
| 22 February 2019 |
Indian Supreme Court orders eviction of 1 million tribal forest dwellers
NEW DELHI—India’s Supreme Court has ordered the eviction of over 1.1 million tribal and other traditional forest dwellers, after it recently rejected their ancient ownership claims on jungle land.
Experts estimate that the 20 February legal fiat could result in
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Petition to Stop Land Grabbing in Sierra Leone |
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By :Okland Institute |
| 21 February 2019 |
Stop the criminalisation of land rights defenders!
Oakland, CA—One month after violent incidents in the SOCFIN plantations in Sierra Leone leading to brutal repression by security forces, the death of two people and 15 people arrested, Sierra Leonean and international civil society organisations urge the government of Sierra Leone and the
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Mining Grabs Up Land in Central America |
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By :Edgardo Ayala, Inter press Service |
| 19 February 2019 |
SAN SALVADOR, Feb 19 2019 (IPS) - Like an octopus, metals mining has been spreading its tentacles throughout Central America and dealing a blow to the region’s agriculture and natural ecosystems, according to affected villagers, activists and a new report on the problem.
“Where the mining company is operating was land
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Post-capitalism: Life within Environmental Limits |
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By :Dr Samuel Alexander and Professor Brendan Gleeson, University of Melbourne |
| 19 February 2019 |
Capitalism’s limitless growth on a finite planet means the economic system we take for granted could end soon. If so, transformative and sustainable change must come from grassroots action
It may seem as though capitalism has always been a part of the Western world, but that’s not true. Although the
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Japan to Recognize Indigenous Ainu People |
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By :Japan Times/AFP-JIJI |
| 15 February 2019 |
Japan’s Cabinet considers legislation recognizing the indigenous Ainu people for first time.
The government approved a bill Friday to recognize the country’s ethnic Ainu minority as an “indigenous” people for the first time, after decades of discrimination against the group.
The Ainu people, many of whom live in northern Hokkaido, have long
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Palestine/Israel: Fake Justices |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 13 February 2019 |
In early September 2018, after years of legal proceedings, the justices of Israel’s High Court determined there was no legal obstacle to demolishing the structures in the community of al-Khan al-Ahmar, located about two kilometers south of the Jerusalem-choking Kfar Adumim settler colony. The Court delivered that conclusion as the
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Zim: CSOs Pose Resolving Govt Displacements |
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By :Tatenda Chitagu, newsday |
| 13 February 2019 |
The Zimbabwe People’s Land Rights Movement (ZPLRM), a member of the Habitat International Coalition (HIC), has slammed government over planned displacements of thousands of villagers across the country and urged President Emmerson Mnangagwa to walk his talk over the irreversibility of the land reform programme.
HIC is an independent international coalition
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No Land No Future for Young |
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By :Oxfam International |
| 13 February 2019 |
Over 260 young people have been left without land after a land grab in Curuguaty, Paraguay. 37,572 people asked President Horacio Cartes to give the farming families of Curuguaty the land they demand. The world has re-acted and now President Cartes must act. He must give the families the land
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AU Summit on Displacement Crisis |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 09 February 2019 |
Already 55 years ago, the Organization of African States was born with the purpose of peace and unity in what is now the African Union (AU), the largest regional organization on earth. This year, the 32nd regular annual AU summit at Addis Ababa (10–11 February 2019) focuses on another distinguishing
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South Africa: Militarizing Repression in Durban |
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By :Abahlali baseMjondolo |
| 03 February 2019 |
Statement of Abahlali baseMjondolo
Last week, the news was full of reports on the arrival of three of the four Casspirs (mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles) that have been ordered by the eThekwini Municipality. We first heard about the order of the Casspirs in 2017, when it was reported that the
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India: Refugees Get Land Titles |
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By :Rina Chandran,Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 29 January 2019 |
Refugees in India`s West Bengal get land titles amid citizenship row.
India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which spells out refugee rights and state responsibilities to protect them.
BANGKOK—Authorities in India`s West Bengal state have given land titles to about 30,000 refugees who have lived in settlement
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Land Grabbing Worsens Climate Change |
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By :Fredrick Mugira, Annika Mcginnis, Pulitzer center |
| 10 January 2019 |
In Uganda, there were at least 17 “land grabs” since 2000 with contracts totaling 74,831 hectares of land, according to Land Matrix data.
A new report has linked land grabbing to worsening climate change, calling on governments to secure community land rights to protect the world’s natural resources such as “forests”
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China: Land Reforms Must Be Grounded in Law |
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By :Ren Qiuyu Caixin global |
| 25 December 2018 |
China is making new progress in revising its Land Administration Law. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress is set to deliberate on proposed amendments to the Land Administration Law and other draft legislation during its seventh meeting from Dec. 23-29. At the same time, it will also discuss
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S A: Reviews Land-Expropriation Bill |
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By :Linda Ensor, BusinessDay |
| 24 December 2018 |
The draft Expropriation Bill gazetted by public works minister Thulas Nxesi last week for public comment was a disappointment and would not accelerate land reform, the Land Access Movement of SA (Lamosa) said.
It believes the proposed legislation lacks justice and provides no equity for homeland dwellers.
Lamosa, a federation of rural
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Zuma Complicit in Zimbabwe Land Grabs |
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By :Chris Bateman, Biznews |
| 19 December 2018 |
CAPE TOWN — They say it takes a strong constitution to become a country’s president, but it also takes a strong Constitution to bring to account an almost omnipotent president. Or former president, shall we say. One who came to believe that he could get away with almost anything once
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Leading Landless Women |
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By :Fredrick Mugira,Pulitzer center |
| 13 December 2018 |
Up to 10.3 million hectares of land has been acquired by investors from individuals, communities and governments in the 11 Nile basin countries since 2000. That is according to Land Matrix, a global and independent land monitoring initiative.
Apart from private investors, Land Matrix data shows that several countries outside of
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We`re Celebrating 70th Human Rights Day |
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By :HLRN |
| 10 December 2018 |
Declaration on Human Rights Day and the Right to the City
We, social movements, civil society and local governments’ organizations are committed to social justice through the promotion, defense and fulfillment of all human rights related to habitat, including the Human Right to Adequate Housing, Land and the Right to the
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Israel Court OKs Evicting 700 Jlem Palestinians |
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By :Middle East Monitor |
| 22 November 2018 |
The Israeli Supreme Court yesterday rejected a petition submitted by 104 Palestinians against claims by a right-wing Israeli organisation paving the way for 700 Palestinians to be forced from their homes, Haaretz reported.
The 700 Palestinians, who make up 70 families, have been going through a legal battle to protect their
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UN Peasants’ Rights Declaration Adopted in GA |
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By :HLRN |
| 20 November 2018 |
NEW YORK—The UN General Assembly’s Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) passed a draft that would have the Assembly adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. This vote assures that the Declaration will enter the next edition of Human Rights:
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40-yr Struggle: Rights to Housing, Land and City |
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By :Álvaro Puertas Robina, Thomas Reuters Foundation |
| 12 November 2018 |
Are our global property rights still guaranteed? 40 years of global struggle for rights to housing, land and the city
Gentrification, forced evictions, lack of access to housing - these are all concepts familiar to us. They pose serious and real threats in all corners of the world and can violate
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Stop Land Grabs – Declaration |
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By :Frans Ari Prasetyo and People’s Alliance Against Eviction, Social Project.ca |
| 30 October 2018 |
Declaration of the Social Movements: Ten Peoples’ Principles Against Land Grabs, Evictions and Neoliberalism
“Let a New World be born in Bandung for a genuine land reform, not land grabs!” — Bandung-Indonesia, September 24, 2018.
The world order of the 21st century has changed, as colonialism and imperialism mutate into many faces.
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Land Rights, Companies and Social Justice |
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By :Chris Jochnick, SSIR.org |
| 24 October 2018 |
In 2004, the Newmont Mining Corporation hired me to investigate human rights accusations facing its gold mine operation in Peru, despite the company feeling like it had done everything right. It got the necessary government approvals, made legal land purchases, and launched various philanthropic initiatives, yet widespread protestscontinued to disrupt its efforts.
After meeting
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Liberia: New Law Affirms Customary Land Tenure |
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By :James Yarsiah, Rights + Resources Initiative |
| 23 October 2018 |
On 19 September, Liberian President George Manneh Weah signed into law the Land Rights Bill (LRB), a landmark piece of legislation that recognizes the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to their customary lands and gives customary land the same standing as private land in Liberia.
This historic victory sets
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Statement of the ICC on Palestine |
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By :ICC |
| 17 October 2018 |
Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, regarding the Situation in Palestine
I have been following with concern the planned eviction of the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, in the West Bank. Evacuation by force now appears imminent, and with it the prospects for further escalation and
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Ethiopia Takes Land Back |
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By :Chiamaka Ihekwoaba, the nerve africa |
| 01 October 2018 |
Ethiopia has revoked a total of 412.6 hectares of land held by investors, including Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi for failure to create jobs and develop the city, as promised when the lands were awarded to them, head of Addis Ababa Land Bank Tesfaye Tilahun told the Voice of
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Ethiopia Repossesses Failed Investors’ Land |
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By :Chiamaka Ihekwoaba, TheNerveAfrica |
| 01 October 2018 |
Ethiopia takes land back from investors who promised jobs and failed
Ethiopia has revoked a total of 412.6 hectares of land held by investors, including Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi for failure to create jobs and develop the city, as promised when the lands were awarded to them, head of
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UNHRC Adopts Peasant Rights Declaration |
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By :La Via Campesina |
| 30 September 2018 |
UN Human Rights Council passes a resolution adopting the peasant rights declaration in Geneva
GENEVA—Seventeen years of long and arduous negotiations later, peasants and other people working in rural areas are only a step away from having a UN Declaration that could defend and protect their rights to land, seeds, biodiversity, local
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Ecuador: Chevron to Pay for Environmental Damage |
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By :Mongabay |
| 14 August 2018 |
Chevron must pay for environmental damage in Ecuador, Constitution Court rules
The Constitutional Court of Ecuador has issued a long-awaited ruling in favor of those affected by the transnational oil company Chevron, which operated through its subsidiary Texaco in Ecuador between 1964 and 1990. The court rejected the protection action that
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Bangladesh: Last Six Marma Families Evicted |
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By :The Dailystar.net |
| 09 August 2018 |
The indigenous communities of Bandarban live on in fear as their ancestral land continues to be grabbed by influential people.
Once inhabited by 42 families, the Saingya Marma Para of Bandarban in southeast Bangladesh has been subject to land grabbing for long. There were a only six families remaining till middle
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Evicted Apaa Residents Accuse UN of Neglect |
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By :Witness radio |
| 07 August 2018 |
Gulu. Hundreds of locals who have for the last one month camped at the UN premises in Gulu Municipality seeking its intervention over the ongoing evictions in Apaa Village, Itirikwa Sub-county, Adjumani District have accused UN officials of neglect.
The locals say since July 11 when they issued a letter to
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Myanmar: Struggles against Grabbing Fortress |
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By :Rina Chandran, reuters |
| 06 August 2018 |
BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Saw Ma Bu’s family has lived in the mountainous forests of Myanmar’s Kayin state for generations, farming and fishing in the Salween river, even as a decades-long armed conflict raged in the region.
Now, he says, they fear their way of life is under threat as
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Tanzania: Losing the Serengeti |
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By :The Oakland Institute |
| 02 August 2018 |
OAKLAND CA—Today, the Oakland Institute releases Kuipoteza Serengeti, Ardhi Ya Wamasai Iliyopaswa Kudumu Milele, a Kiswahili translation of the report Losing the Serengeti: The Maasai Land that was to Run Forever.
Based on field research, never publicly-seen-before documents, and an in-depth investigation into Tanzania’s land laws, the report reveals how Tanzania’s
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Expropriation Does Not Equal Land Reform |
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By :Elmien du Plessis, News24 |
| 01 August 2018 |
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday night announced that the ANC plans to go ahead with expropriation without compensation.
Ramaphosa explained that the "ANC reaffirms its position that the Constitution provides for radical transformation both of society and the economy", and that a proper reading of the Constitution "enables the state to
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Progress in Land Indicators |
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By :Oumar Sylla and Everlyne Nairesiae |
| 30 July 2018 |
This July is the first time the United Nations will review the progress made towards meeting Sustainable Development Goal 15, which is about Life on Land. Each goal will be reviewed about every four years until 2030.
The reviews will be based on the 10 indicators countries agreed on, that assess change in
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Laos: “Substandard construction” Causes Dam Collapse |
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By :Kocha Olarn, Sandi Sidhu and Ben Westcott, CNN |
| 27 July 2018 |
Minister says “substandard construction” caused Laos dam to collapse. 25,000 people evacuated.
The collapse of Laos dam that triggered massive flooding and devastation was due to "substandard construction," the country`s Minister of Energy and Mines said Thursday.
According to the state-run Laos News Agency, Minister Khammany Inthirath told reporters at a news
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Uganda: Amuru Land Grab Apaa Village Evictions |
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By :Minbane.wordpress.com |
| 20 July 2018 |
That the Northern Uganda have been in deep end of the stick in many eyes is evident, by how lax the state has been to take care of their needs and their rights. That can now be proven by the forceful evictions from land in Apaa Village in Amuru District/Adjumani
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Palestine: Israel’s Demolishing Khan al-Ahmar |
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By :Akram Al-Wa`ra, Mondoweiss |
| 05 July 2018 |
Despite international condemnations, Israel prepares to demolish Khan al-Ahmar
KHAN AL-AHMAR, occupied West Bank, Palestine—Scenes of destruction and despair spread over the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar on Wednesday, as armed Israeli forces arrived at the village’s entrance with bulldozers.
The nightmare that the village’s 200 residents had feared for over
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World Bank Evaluation: Things Fall Apart |
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By :Sophie Edwards, Devex |
| 18 June 2018 |
World Bank failing to follow watchdog advice, says IEG report
WASHINGTON — World Bank managers are failing to properly implement, and in some cases ignoring, the recommendations of its own independent watchdog, according to evaluators.
In a report presented Thursday, the Independent Evaluation Group, the body tasked with evaluating the performance of all parts of the World
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World Bank Evaluation: Things Fall Apart |
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By :Sophie Edwards, Devex |
| 18 June 2018 |
World Bank failing to follow watchdog advice, says IEG report
WASHINGTON — World Bank managers are failing to properly implement, and in some cases ignoring, the recommendations of its own independent watchdog, according to evaluators.
In a report presented Thursday, the Independent Evaluation Group, the body tasked with evaluating the performance of all parts of the World
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Uganda: In Defence of Land Grabbing |
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By :Andrew M. Mwenda, Independent Uganda |
| 28 May 2018 |
Our country has a new villain: the land grabber! In the popular imagination, this is a rich and powerful individual grabbing land from poor helpless victims. There are strong incentives for journalists, academics, politicians, activists, pundits, etc. to position themselves as champions of the poor masses against the rich and
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Access to Land Critical to Meet SDGs |
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By :FAO |
| 28 May 2018 |
28/05/2018 Bangkok, Thailand Addressing fairly the challenges of land tenure for hundreds of millions of people in Asia and the Pacific is a critical step that policy makers must take if the region is to meet the 2030 deadline for zero hunger and eradication of poverty, the Food and Agriculture Organization of
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Tibet: New Report “Access Denied” |
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By :International Campaign for Tibet |
| 26 May 2018 |
ICT has published its latest report, "Access Denied." It’s a troubling yet necessary account of the full extent of China`s efforts to prevent news of human rights abuses in Tibet from getting out.
China’s government doesn’t want anyone to know that international journalists are being detained by police, as two New
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Tanzania: Maasai Losing Lands to Tourism |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 25 May 2018 |
The indigenous Maasai people of Tanzania face appalling levels of human rights abuses, including intimidation, violent evictions, arrests, beatings, and starvation, by the Tanzanian government and some of the safari businesses that operate in the country, the Oakland Institute said today in a new report.
· In the past year, tens
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Another Mozambique Land Grab |
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By :Timothy A. Wise, Tufts University, Global Development and Environment Institute |
| 23 May 2018 |
Growing Resistance: The Rise and Fall of Another Mozambique Land Grab
The rice fields of Xai-Xai, three hours up the coast from Maputo, are vast, coming into view as we descended onto the alluvial plain from the villages that dot the hills above. They stretch across the plains toward the Indian Ocean
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Land Ownership Isn’t Enough to Empower Women |
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By :Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt, The Conversation.com |
| 14 May 2018 |
In the agricultural sector – the major employer for poor people in Africa – assets like land and livestock are owned and controlled mainly by men.
It makes sense, then, that many donors, national governments and civil society groups believe rebalancing asset and land ownership in favour of women will greatly empower women.
The argument is
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Ethiopia: New Deal with Iconic Land Grabber Karuturi |
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By :Anywaa Survival Organisation |
| 07 May 2018 |
Reading, United Kingdom - The Anywaa Survival Organisation (ASO) is outraged by recent news reports that the Ethiopian government is providing a new lease of lands to disgraced land grabber Karuturi Global Ltd.
Karuturi`s disastrous 300,000 hectares (ha) farm project in Ethiopia`s western Gambela region is the most vivid example of the Ethiopian government`s
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HICtionary Newly Updated |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 06 May 2018 |
HIC-HLRN has just updated the HICtionary: Key Habitat Terms from A to Z. This reference work is the result of deliberation and debate across multiple specializations, regions and cultures within the membership of Habitat International Coalition (HIC). The purpose of that debate—and this reference work—have been to consolidate and harmonize
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Unearthing Truths: Israel, Nakba and JNF |
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By :The Editors of Moving Forward |
| 01 May 2018 |
The monthly Moving Forward is published with support from Jews Say No! That organization engages in community education, street theatre, and organizing to make their members’ voices heard in Jewish communities and as partners in the broader movement for justice in Palestine/Israel. The following article is the editorial to Moving
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30 Cities Join Global Sur and Hasankeyf Action Day |
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By :Platform No to the Destruction of Sur, Istanbul Sur Solidarity, Mesopotamia Ecology Movement, and Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive |
| 30 April 2018 |
DIYARBAKIR / AMED—As part of the Global Sur and Hasankeyf Action Day in almost 30 cities, actions have been organized on 28 April 2018. Activists and civil organization raised awareness on the ongoing destruction of the two antique cities Sur and Hasankeyf at the Tigris River in North (Turkish) Kurdistan.
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Palestine: Universal Reminder on Land Day |
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By :Houssem Ben Lazreg, Tesbih Habbal, The Conversation.com |
| 29 April 2018 |
In an excerpt from the poem entitled The Last Speech of the ‘Red Indian’ to the White Man, the prominent Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish draws an analogy between Palestinians and Native American nations who were forced to live in diaspora in their own land. He addresses the colonizer:
“You who come from beyond the
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HIConcern over SDG Land Indicators |
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By :Joseph Schechla, HIC-HLRN |
| 27 April 2018 |
Habitat International Coalition’s Housing and Land Rights Network welcomes the SDGs and their performance indicators as a complement to development efforts that uphold the integrity of the UN Charter and the UN System built on three purposeful pillars: (1) peace and security, (2) progressive development and (3) human rights. We
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India: Land Rights for 1947 Partition Displaced |
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By :Rina Chandran, place |
| 27 April 2018 |
The Indian State of Maharashtra grants land ownership rights to refugees who fled Pakistan 70 years ago. Refugees in Maharashtra were housed in about 30 government-owned "camps" or colonies across the state, with limited rights to sell or redevelop their homes
BANGKOK - Refugees in India`s western state of Maharashtra
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New Zealand: 10 Reasons to Return the Waitara Lands |
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By :Vivian Hutchinson and Carl Chenery, The Spinoff.com |
| 21 April 2018 |
Taranaki are expected to host next year’s national commemoration of the New Zealand Wars and yet the Waitara land-grab that sparked the Taranaki Wars has still yet to be fully resolved.
The first national commemoration of the New Zealand Wars (Te Pūtake o te Riri) was held last month in Northland. The
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Five Alarming Land Grabbing Cases |
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By :iwgia.org |
| 19 April 2018 |
Extractive industries remain a concrete threat to indigenous communities and this year`s The Indigenous World 2018 describes many cases of land grabbing from indigenous peoples. In this article we take a closer look at some of the examples.
In many countries forced evictions and land grabbing in the name of conservation, development
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UN Reaffirms Indigenous Peoples` Land Rights |
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By :UN News |
| 16 April 2018 |
In her opening remarks to the Forum in New York, the chairperson, Mariam Wallet Aboubakrine, a medical doctor from Timbuktu, Mali, called the land husbandry of Aboriginal peoples “part of our history and heritage.”
But few countries have acted to defend these peoples’ collective rights, she added.
“Law enforcement is inadequate or
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Indonesia: NGOs Call for Action on Indigenous Lands |
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By :Stephen Then, Star online |
| 16 April 2018 |
MIRI: About 30 social activist groups nationwide have issued a joint declaration urging political parties from both the ruling government and opposition parties to give more attention to resolve land right woes affecting indigenous communities.
The non-governmental bodies from Sarawak, Sabah and the peninsula held a dialogue here and issued the
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Kashmir: Land Dispute behind Girl’s Rape, Murder |
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By :Aijaz Hussain and Muneeza Naqvi, Associated Press |
| 12 April 2018 |
Rape and murder of Kashmiri – girls in religious policy
SRINAGAR (Indian-occupied Kashmir)—The girl, just 8 years old, grazes the ponies of her family on a cold January day in the forests of the Himalayan foothills when she was kidnapped. Her raped and mutilated body was found in the woods
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China Mining Co. Destroys Mozambique Village |
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By :Ghana News |
| 01 April 2018 |
Mozambique’s coastal village on the brink of extinction from irresponsible Chinese mining company. Mining giant Haiyu denies responsibility for flood that left 290 people homeless, while Mozambican authorities fail to regulate mining industry to ensure people’s safety, denying village residents reparation for their losses.
An irresponsible Chinese mining operation in Mozambique
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Land Day: 17 Fallen in 2018, as the 6 in 1976 |
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By :Al-Arabiya net |
| 30 March 2018 |
In Palestine, "the Return March" is emerging, and Israel is killing the demonstrators. Three thousand occupation soldiers deployed in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip with orders to fire live bullets. Thousands of Palestinians marched Friday near the border between Gaza and Israel in a protest march called
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USA: Alaska Natives Continue Land Fight |
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By :Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska News |
| 27 March 2018 |
Alaska’s landless communities continue fight for land
Representatives of five Southeast Alaska communities continue their fight for recognition under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. But they’re still facing opposition.
It’s been almost a half-century since Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which created more than 200 corporations with land,
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Smallholder Farmers` Rights are Women`s Rights |
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By :Barbara Adams, Global Policy Watch |
| 20 March 2018 |
Most farms in developing and least developed countries are small, generally plots of less than two hectares of land. Smallholder farmers manage over 80% of the world’s estimated 500 million small farms and provide over 80% of the food consumed in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, contributing significantly to poverty reduction
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Zimbabwe: Youths Face Eviction from Chegutu Mine |
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By :Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation |
| 13 March 2018 |
Over 6,000 members of the Danangwe District Youth in Mining Cooperative (DDYMC) in Chegutu East face an uncertain future after mining firm, Breckridge Investments ordered the artisanal miners to stop operations at Giant Mine.
The miners have been carrying out mining activities at Giant Mine, 10km north of Chegutu town since
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Land Haunts Germany`s Namibia Genocides |
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By :Joe Brock, Reuters |
| 07 March 2018 |
Land haunts Germany`s effort to atone for Africa genocide
OKAHANDJA, Namibia—Namibia’s Herero people are heartened that Germany is keen to atone for the genocide of their ancestors, but they expect something Berlin says it is not in a position to give.
“What we want is our land,” said 74-year-old Alex Kaubtauuapela, whose
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DR Congo: Terror in Ituri |
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By :Thijs Van Laer, Congo Research Group |
| 05 March 2018 |
Over sixty people killed, thousands of houses burned down and more than 100,000 displaced people, including 42,000 refugees in neighbouring Uganda. Those are the consequences so far of the violence in the northeastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since December 2017.
The violence marks a counterpoint to
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South Africa: Confiscating White Farmers` Lands |
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By :The Independent |
| 01 March 2018 |
South Africa‘s parliament has passed a motion that could lead to the seizure of land from white farmers without paying them compensation.
Passed by an overwhelming majority of 241 votes to 83 votes against, the proposal to amend Section 25 of the constitution would allow expropriation of land without any financial
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1st Arab Conference on Land Governance |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 28 February 2018 |
Dubai Land Department announces the conclusion of the first Arab land governance conference
The conference, organized in partnership with the World Bank, the Global Land Tool Network, UN-HABITAT, the League of Arab States and the Arab Surveying Association, was attended by more than 300 participants, representing several regional and international bodies.
Dubai
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Peru: Shipibo-Konibo Forced from Forest to Slum |
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By :Jack Guy, Editing by Anastasia Moloney and Ellen Wulfhorst, Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 20 February 2018 |
Forced from rainforest, Peruvian tribe faces new woes in Lima slum
LIMA—Wedged between the rubbish-choked Rimac River and lanes of traffic belching fumes, the Cantagallo slum in downtown Lima is a far cry from the Amazon rainforest land that the Shipibo-Konibo people were forced to flee two decades ago.
Hundreds of
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Zimbabwe: Probe into State Land Sales Begins |
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By :Felex Share, The Herald (Harare) |
| 15 February 2018 |
The Commission of Inquiry into the sale of state land in and around urban areas since 2005 begins work on Monday as government moves to investigate and ascertain actors in allocations, occupation and use of the land.
The Commission, chaired by Justice Tendai Uchena, will conduct the inquiry over the next
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Kenya: Eviction Threats against Sengwer Continue |
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By :Chris Lang, Redd monitor |
| 15 February 2018 |
The Sengwer indigenous people who live in the Embobut forest in the western highlands of Kenya continue to face threats of violence and evictions. The latest round of violent evictions started at the end of December 2017. The evictions, carried out by the Kenya Forest Service, are supposedly in the name of
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Canada: Trudeau’s New Indigenous Rights Initiative |
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By :John Paul Tasker, CBC News |
| 14 February 2018 |
Trudeau promises new legal framework for Indigenous people “We need to get to a place where Indigenous peoples in Canada are in control of their own destiny,” PM says
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is promising a fundamental rethink of how the federal government recognizes Indigenous rights and title, vowing to work
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Peru: Chaparrí Land Defender Tortured, Killed |
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By :Dan Collyns, The Guardian |
| 14 February 2018 |
José Napoleón Tarrillo Astonitas murdered for opposing land traffickers seeking to clear land in the Chaparrí Ecological Reserve, say local witnesses
A criminal gang involved in land trafficking has tortured and murdered a community leader in northern Peru, according to his wife and local villagers who witnessed the killing.
José Napoleón Tarrillo
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France: Equality Law Fails, Roma Evictions Increased |
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By :ERRC |
| 08 February 2018 |
Paris, Budapest 6 February 2018: In the last year 11,309 Romani people were evicted from their homes in France, the majority of which (8,161) were forcefully evicted by authorities. A further 2,055 left their homes before the arrival of authorities, under pressure of an imminent eviction.
Last year saw a 12% increase
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South Africa: The Great Land Grab Cover-up |
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By :Michelle Hay, Land and Accountability Research Center |
| 05 February 2018 |
The great land grab cover- up: how the government is helping chiefs and mining companies to steal your land
You’re sitting at home, minding your own business, reading the news on your phone. If you are part of an unfortunate 30% of the population, you could, at any time, get a
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Pakistan: Empowering Sindh’s Landless Farmers |
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By :Amin Ahmed, Dawn |
| 05 February 2018 |
$5m project aims to empower Sindh’s landless farmers
An internationally funded project was launched in Sindh last week in an attempt to improve land tenancy for landless farmers.
Landless farmers (or haris) in the province usually have access to land as tenants through paperless agreements between them and landlords. Without having any
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USA: Trump`s Utah Land Grab Begins |
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By :Fred Hamble, act.tv |
| 02 February 2018 |
Trump`s ”Gold Rush” style land grab in Utah begins today
The Trump regime`s decision to withdraw federal protections from millions of acres of public land in Utah last year will kick off a Wild West-era land claim process starting on Friday.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, on Friday
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South Africa Shouldn’t Copy Mugabe’s Land Reform |
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By :Economist.com |
| 25 January 2018 |
Of the many grievances from South Africa’s decades of white rule, the theft of land still smarts more than most. The “Natives Land Act” of 1913 set aside 90% of the country for whites, who made up less than a third of its people. Over the next eight decades a
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China’s OBOR Project Dispossesses, Displaces Tibetans |
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By :David Brewster, Inside Policy |
| 24 January 2018 |
China’s Belt and Road Initiative will result in important strategic consequence for the countries of South Asia, writes David Brewster. But its impact on China itself should not be ignored.
In geopolitical terms, South Asia has long functioned like an island, nominally attached to Eurasia but not really part of it.
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India: Landless Farmers to Access Land |
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By :Prabhudatta Mishra, Financial Express |
| 24 January 2018 |
Landless cultivators to be farmers too! Change of definition to extend assorted benefits to 14 cr currently excluded
Change of definition to extend assorted benefits to 14 crore currently excluded.
Over 14 crore (140 million) households who cultivate on land owned by others under a formal lease agreement or even under a
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South Africa: Another Abahlali Comrade Fallen |
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By :Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA |
| 12 January 2018 |
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
Another Comrade Has Fallen in the Struggle for Land
Our movement has been facing a lot of brutality in the last three months. On 19 November our chairperson in the Sisonke Village land occupation in Lamontville, Sibonelo Mpeku, was kidnapped and murdered. On 17 December 2017 Soyiso Nkqayini
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USA: Water Security v. Energy Independence |
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By :Jennifer Veilleux, Center for Humans and Nature |
| 04 January 2018 |
In late 2016, I attended government-to-government meetings in Rapid City, South Dakota, between several Plains Tribal Government representatives and US Federal Government officials. I listened to a tribal elder testify that her young grandson was hospitalized with an E. coli infection caused by hydraulic fracturing water contamination in her community
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New UN Declaration on Peasant Rights |
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By :Shivani Chaudhry, HLRN India/Open Global Rights |
| 04 January 2018 |
A new UN declaration could finally protect rural and landless peoples. The UN has drafted a groundbreaking declaration that has the potential to protect the human rights of peasants, rural workers and landless people. There is room, however, to strengthen its provisions.
Despite their significant contributions to food security, sustainable development,
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South Africa: Constitution-based Land Restitution? |
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By :Alet Janse van Rensburg, news24 |
| 20 December 2017 |
ANC`s land expropriation decision an admission of its own failures
The ANC’s decision at its national conference to go ahead with the expropriation of land without compensation is an admission of its own failure to pursue real land distribution, experts say.
The ruling party announced on Wednesday evening that its committee on
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South Africa: Three Murders in Sisonke Village |
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By :Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA |
| 21 November 2017 |
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
Three people were murdered in Sisonke Village, in Lamontville, on Sunday, including our chairperson in the area Sibonela Mpeku.
Our members gave Sisonke Village its new name on 13 July 2014 and our branch was launched there on 9 November 2014. During that year we issued statements noting
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Out of Africa: Human Rights Habitat Struggles |
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By :Marie Huchzermeyer, CUBES/Wits Univ. and Joseph Schechla, HLRN |
| 07 November 2017 |
From Africa to the World: Struggling for Human Rights to Housing, Land and the City
Mid-October 2017, Nairobi was host to an intense engagement on housing rights, social justice and the right to the city. This was amid political turmoil in Kenyan towns and cities, and unrelated to this but largely
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Kenya: AG Enjoined in Samburu Eviction Case |
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By :Joseph Wangui, The Nation |
| 01 November 2017 |
Githu Muigai enjoined in Samburu eviction case
Attorney-General Githu Muigai has been enjoined in a case in which retired President Daniel Moi was sued by the Samburu community for transferring 17,105 acres (69,217,493.44 square meters) of their land in Laikipia North to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
The Environment and Land Court
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New Report: India`s Farm Widows |
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By :HLRN-India and Prakriti Resource Centre for Women and Development |
| 15 October 2017 |
Report on farm widows of Maharashtra highlights human rights violations
recommends urgent state intervention to prevent social and economic exclusion
NEW DELHI—A study released today by Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) India (New Delhi), and Prakriti Resource Centre for Women and Development (Nagpur) reveals the acute vulnerability of farm widows
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South Africa: Repression in Durban |
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By :Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA |
| 04 October 2017 |
Cato Manor residents say eThekwini Municipality carried out brutal and illegal evictions
Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA. Press Statement
The Movement of Abahlali baseMjondolo continues to face serious and unlawful repression by the ANC led municipality in Durban. Right now, the community in Cato Manor right now are trying to collect all the
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Food Companies Threaten Environmental Activists |
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By :Oxfam International |
| 07 September 2017 |
Despite committing to deforestation-free supply chains, the top 10 food and beverage companies lack policies to protect the activists and communities caring for the environment from intimidation, threats and attacks, according to a new Oxfam report.
Commercial farming of some everyday food ingredients, like soy and palm oil, are driving massive
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Peru: Six Land Defenders Shot Dead |
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By :Dan Collyns, The Guardian |
| 07 September 2017 |
The victims were targeted by a criminal gang who wanted to use their lands to grow lucrative palm oil, according to local indigenous leaders
Six farmers have been shot dead by a criminal gang who wanted to seize their farms to muscle in on the lucrative palm oil trade, according
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The Cost of Land Grabbing in Mozambique |
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By :Burag Gurden, Pambazuka News |
| 31 August 2017 |
The cost of land grabbing in Mozambique`s Tete Province
Tete Province is very rich in coal. An estimated 23 billion tons of mostly untapped coal lies beneath Tete. It is expected to become the region’s energy powerhouse built on coal and hydroelectricity. However, local farmer communities have been on the losing
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Tanzania: Forced Evictions of Loliondo Maasai |
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By :Chris Lang, Conservation Watch |
| 30 August 2017 |
“Forced evictions of Maasai people in Loliondo, Tanzania”: Urgent Alert from the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
The International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) last week put out a short report about the violent evictions of Maasai pastoralists in Loliondo, Tanzania.
According to reliable information received by IWGIA, forced and
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UN Reports on Rakhine Living Conditions |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 23 August 2017 |
After one year of consultations held across Rakhine State (Myanmar) and in other parts of the country and the region, the UN’s Advisory Commission on Rakhine State submitted its final report to national authorities on 23 August.
The Commission, chaired by Kofi Annan, has put forward recommendations to surmount the
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Nicaragua: Future Canal Threatens Mass Eviction |
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By :Amnesty International |
| 03 August 2017 |
Nicaragua: Country’s future for sale as canal threatens thousands with forced eviction
The Nicaraguan government must stop placing business before the future of the country and its people, Amnesty International said in a new report today looking at a secretive deal that will lead to the construction of a canal
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Global Peasant Movement Convene at Bilbao |
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By :Huffington Post |
| 28 July 2017 |
Global Peasant Movement Assesses and Responds to a Heated Political Moment
Four years ago, La Vía Campesina brought its peasant activists from around the world to Jakarta for its VI International Conference. The gathering was held in a padepokan, a Javanese center reserved for the teaching and exchanging of knowledge and
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No SDGs without Major Progress on Land |
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By :Luca Chinotti, International Land Coalition |
| 28 July 2017 |
Land and the SDGs: Key takeaways from the 2017 HLPF and what we need to do next
This was the clear and strong message that was brought by the land community into the major global forum on the SDGs, the High Level Political Forum (HLPF), which is the central platform for
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USA: EPA Dumps, Drops Duties |
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By :The Indigenous Americans |
| 15 July 2017 |
EPA Refuses to pay claims after mine spill dumps 3,000,000 gallons of toxic waste into water on Native American land
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has refused to pay more than $1.2 billion in claims filed against it in response to the Gold King Mine spill, reported the Farmington Daily Times.
The EPA says the
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“Spotlight” on UN High-Level Forum, SDGs |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 10 July 2017 |
As the UN High-Level Forum opens in New York, a global civil society report spotlights the role of big business in hindering development and deepening economic and social disparity.
Unbridled privatization, corporate capture and mass-scale tax abuse are blocking progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, argues a new report by a
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Brazil: Indigenous Amazon Protectors v. Loggers |
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By :Chris Arsenault, Karla Mendes, Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 09 July 2017 |
Inside Brazil`s Indigenous Reserve 124, Chief Geraldo Apurina walks along a muddy footpath, past towering trees as yet untouched by Amazon loggers. Much of the land around the reserve has been cleared of trees. Grazing land for cattle now stretches as far as the eye can see from the highway,
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CSOs Denounce Brazil Urban Policy Regression |
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By :GPR2C |
| 27 June 2017 |
Since the 1980s, Brazil has been developing its legal frameworks and structuring policies progressively to reflect the international agreements that protect human rights and address the inequalities of cities, which exclude millions of people from accessing adequate standards of living. All the steps forward, closely related to the organization and
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Mafia-like Networks |
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By :Djeralar Miankeol, dandc.eu |
| 18 June 2017 |
In many developing countries, land grabbing takes place on a large scale, either for the purposes of mining or agriculture. This loss of land is disastrous for the affected village communities. Awareness of the problem is growing, however, and there are more and more tools and guidelines available to soften
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Western Sahara: Ruling against Plunder |
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By :WSRW |
| 15 June 2017 |
A panel of judges in the High Court in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, judged this morning that the cargo on board the vessel NM Cherry Blossom is rightfully detained, and that a trial to determine its ownership is to take place.
A panel of judges in South Africa ruled today
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Irrawaddy Farmers Claims their Confiscated Land |
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By :Salai Thant Zin, IrrawaddY Division |
| 14 June 2017 |
Farmers in Irrawaddy Division’s Myaungmya Township demanded the divisional government return more than 200 acres of land confiscated, and subsequently abandoned, by Myanmar’s military to its original owners, at a press conference on Tuesday.
Light Infantry Battalion No. 93 of Myanmar’s Tatmadaw confiscated 249 acres of cashew plantations from 32 local
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India: Landless Women Attacked in Odisha |
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By :Ranjana Padhi, The Wire |
| 02 May 2017 |
The powers that be in Sipasarubali, Odisha work to take over forest land to build a beach resort, villagers who are trying to fight them are under attack.
Puri, Odisha: On April 28, a friend and I went to Gola and Gopinathpur villages in Odisha to meet activists who, in the early 1990s, had
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Toward a UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants |
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By :La via Campesina |
| 09 March 2017 |
The need for a UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas is all the more urgent and evident in the 21st century. Despite years of campaigning for a better recognition and protection of the rights of peasants, displacements and criminalization continue affecting hundreds
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Women Land and Human Rights Defenders |
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By :Osprey Orielle Lake, Emily Arasim, Common Dreams |
| 07 March 2017 |
Across the wide world, women are rising up to protect the Earth, one another, and the common good.
Women around the world stand at the forefront of rising movements to defend and protect the health of water, land, air and diverse communities. On this International Women’s Day, it is vital to
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Rule of Law and Women Food and Land Rights |
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By :IDLO |
| 07 March 2017 |
We live in a world of abundance, yet ensuring food security remains challenging. Women are responsible for more than half of global food production. Yet they account for 70 per cent of the world’s hungry and are disproportionately affected by malnutrition.
Achieving food security is not only a question of ensuring
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Land Rights Changing Women’s World of Work |
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By :Monique Barbut, IPS Agency |
| 06 March 2017 |
BONN, Mar 6 2017 (IPS) - International Women’s Day this year focuses on economic empowerment in the changing world of work. The vision is to achieve gender equality and empowerment of women and girls by 2030. Girls’ aged three will become adults with a legal right to work in 2030.
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Land Haunts Germany`s Namibia Genocides |
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By :Joe Brock, Reuters |
| 02 March 2017 |
Land haunts Germany`s effort to atone for Africa genocide
OKAHANDJA, Namibia—Namibia’s Herero people are heartened that Germany is keen to atone for the genocide of their ancestors, but they expect something Berlin says it is not in a position to give.
“What we want is our land,” said 74-year-old Alex Kaubtauuapela, whose
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Cambodia: Land Grabs, Defender Jailed |
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By :Prak Chan Thul and Alisa Tang, The Japan Times |
| 25 February 2017 |
Amid land grabs and evictions, Cambodia jails leading activist
PHNOM PENH—Even before a Cambodian judge sentenced land rights activist Tep Vanny to prison, her fellow campaigners said her fate had already been sealed.
Vanny, who fought the evictions of thousands of residents from lakeside land in Phnom Penh to make way for
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Brazil: Land Regularization at Risk |
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By :Brazilian civil society |
| 17 February 2017 |
Deconstruction of Land Regularization in Brazil: Presidential Act No.759/2016
This open letter is meant to summon social movements and all those who believe in Urban and
Rural Reform to demand Brazilian Federal Government to withdraw Provisional Presidential Act
No.759/2016 from Congress and stop the voting process. Instead, the government should promote a large-scale
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Pope: Indigenous People Sovereign in Their Lands |
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By :David Hill, The Guardian |
| 15 February 2017 |
Pope says indigenous people must have final say about their land
Francis echoes growing body of international law and standards on the right to "prior and informed consent."
In the 15th Century papal bulls promoted and provided legal justification for the conquest and theft of indigenous peoples’ lands and resources worldwide
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Report: Forced Evictions Fuel Land Disputes |
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By :Kieran Guilbert, Rights Resources |
| 09 February 2017 |
DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Forced evictions of local communities from their lands by foreign companies fuel around two-thirds of land ownership disputes across Africa, often sparking strikes or violence which can prove costly to investors, activists said on Thursday.
Pushing people off their land drives more conflict over land rights
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Report: Land Rights in a Turbulent World |
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By :Rights and Resources Initiative |
| 09 February 2017 |
Acknowledgment that insecure land rights among the world’s Indigenous Peoples and local communities contribute to conflict, discourage investment, and impede progress on global goals of sustainable development, poverty reduction, and climate change mitigation is growing. In 2016, this consensus found a powerful new ally: major institutional investors are beginning to
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Palestine UNSR Urges SC to End Colonies |
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By :OHCHR |
| 03 February 2017 |
West Bank: United Nations Special Rapporteur urges the security council to stop illegal settlements
GENEVA—United Nations Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk has called on the United Nations Security Council and the General Assembly to explore effective diplomatic and political measures to ensure Israeli compliance with Security Council resolution 2334, which
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EU’s Biggest Pension Funds Invest Big in Colonies |
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By :Mikkel Bahl, Hanan Chemlali & Kristoffer Marslev, Danwatch |
| 31 January 2017 |
Europe’s largest pension funds heavily invested in illegal Israeli settler colonies.
Europe’s five largest pension funds have €7.5 billion invested in companies with business activities in and around illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. This is at odds with United Nations guidelines, clear warnings from 18 European countries, and undermines
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Colombia: Seeking Justice from Chiquita Banana Wars |
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By :Matt Kennard and Nick MacWilliam, In These Times |
| 27 January 2017 |
Chiquita made a killing from Colombia’s civil war. Will their victims finally see justice? A long-running case against the banana giant is moving forward in U.S. court.
Getting an interview with Anabel (not her real name) is not easy. In Colombia, witnessing paramilitary violence against your family generally means you keep
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fb Zuckerberg Sues to Take Native Hawaiian Land |
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By :Nathan Wellman, U.S. Uncut |
| 19 January 2017 |
Mark Zuckerberg is suing to force native Hawaiians off their ancestral land to build an island resort
Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg ended 2016 by suing hundreds of people native to Hawaii, apparently so that he can have 700 acres of land all to himself.
The billionaire’s lawsuit, filed on 30 December, was
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World Bank’s Agriculture Initiative Criticized |
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By :Brettonwoods Project |
| 18 January 2017 |
Civil society has called on the World Bank to terminate its Enabling the Business of Agriculture initiative.
In mid-January, 157 organisations and individuals sent a letter to World Bank president Jim Yong Kim calling for the termination of the Bank’s Enabling the Business of Agriculture initiative (EBA, see Bulletin May 2014,
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Sri Lanka: Clashes over Land in China Port Deal |
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By :abc.net.au |
| 07 January 2017 |
Sri Lankan police used water cannons to try to break up violent clashes between government supporters and villagers marching against what they say is a plan to take over private land for an industrial zone in which China will have a major stake.
Key points:
Clash takes place as Prime Minister attends
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Namibians Sue Germany for Land Grab, Genocide |
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By :Al Jazeera |
| 06 January 2017 |
The Ovaherero and Nama people of Namibia launch lawsuit against Germany for alleged land theft and killing of 100,000 people more than 100 years ago.
Two indigenous groups in Namibia have filed a lawsuit against Germany, accusing it of genocide committed by colonial rulers more than a century ago.
The suit was filed
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Brazil: Eucalyptus War on Quilombo Lands |
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By :Luisa Torre and Patrik Camporez Macao, Al Jazeera |
| 05 January 2017 |
Brazil`s quilombos face eucalyptus giant in land war. "They stole our forests and our water. We took our medicine from the forest. Now, they put police and dogs at our door."
ESPIRITO SANTO, Brazil—In Sape do Norte, in the far north of Espirito Santo, Brazil, 32 communities refer to the 111,000 hectares
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Cameroon: OECD Inquiry into Complaint about WWF |
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By :Survival International |
| 05 January 2017 |
In an unprecedented move, a member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)* has agreed to investigate a complaint that the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has funded human rights abuses in Cameroon, beginning a process that until now has only been used for multinational businesses.
Survival submitted the complaint in February 2016, citing numerous
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UNSC Votes to End Israeli Settler Colonies |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 24 December 2016 |
It was the first time in eight years that the UN Security Council had passed a resolution condemning Israel’s illegal construction of settler colonies in occupied Palestine. The vote came on Friday, following an unprecedented intervention of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that had U.S. President-elect Donald Trump "advising" Egyptian
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ECJ Rejects Morocco`s Western Sahara Claim |
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By :Dominic Dudley, Forbes |
| 21 December 2016 |
European Court of Justice dismisses Morocco`s claim to Western Sahara, throwing EU trade deal into doubt. The ruling on the bloc`s trade deals with Morocco means they do not apply to Western Sahara, which occupied territory is notable for its fish stocks, mineral extraction, agricultural exports and potential oil reserves.
Morocco’s
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Myanmar: AI Reports “crimes against humanity” |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 19 December 2016 |
A new report by Amnesty International (AI) documents a campaign of violence by the Myanmar security forces against Rohingya since 9 October 2016. Soldiers and police have randomly fired on and killed civilians, raped women and girls, torched whole villages and arbitrarily arrested Rohingya men without any information about their
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Mexico: Ranchers, Indigenous Contest Land |
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By :Tracy Barnett, Thomas Reuters Foundation |
| 19 December 2016 |
Both sides say the government is responsible for the dispute in Mexico`s Sierra Madre mountain range - but the government won`t get involved
LA YESCA, Mexico—Audelina Villagrana has run her ranch in Mexico`s Western Sierra Madre Mountains on her own since the death of her husband 23 years ago, herding livestock,
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Following the Money: Justice for Land Grabs |
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By :Natalie Bugalski and David Pred, Inclusive Development |
| 16 December 2016 |
Following the Money: Illuminating the path to justice for global land grabs
This year, our organization, Inclusive Development International, launched the Follow the Money initiative – a new tool to fight land grabs and other corporate abuses. It’s a simple idea, but we believe it has the potential to be
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Land Rights Defender Killings Tripled in 2016 |
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By :PANAP |
| 10 December 2016 |
2015 had been the worst year on record for killings of land and environmental defenders who are struggling to protect land, forests and rivers from privately interested takers. But, in 2016, roughly 16 land rights advocates have been killed each month from January through November.
PENANG, Malaysia—Advocacy group PAN Asia Pacific
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USA: Gullah Geechee Still Fighting for Their Land |
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By :Brian Wheeler, BBC News |
| 05 December 2016 |
The Gullah Geechee community, descendants of West African slaves in South Carolina are fighting to prevent their land from being confiscated and auctioned. Can they save a traditional way of life that has survived for the one and half centuries since emancipation?
The first Lillian Milton knew about it was when
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Resisting Reed: Atlanta’s Peoplestown v. Mayor |
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By :Atlanta Progressive News |
| 24 November 2016 |
This Thanksgiving Day, Mayor Kasim Reed is thankful for eminent domain. Meanwhile, Peoplestown residents fight back.
ATLANTA—On Monday, November 21, 2016, the Housing Justice League, along with twenty residents from Atlanta’s Peoplestown community, tried to hand deliver a petition with over 6,000 signatures to Mayor Kasim Reed, asking him to stop
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Nigerian King Sues Shell in London |
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By :Alice Ritchie, Phys.org |
| 22 November 2016 |
Nigerian tribal king Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi has flown to London for a High Court hearing in which lawyers for more than 40,000 Nigerians are demanding action from Shell to clean up oil spills
King Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi holds up a plastic bottle containing contaminated water from his community
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Sierra Leone: Land Grabbing of Forests |
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By :Ishmael Kindama Dumbuya, Standard TimePress |
| 10 November 2016 |
Land grabbing around the Western Area Peninsular Forest Reserve is presently intensifying primarily for housing purposes. The Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security is directly responsible for the protection of forests in the country and through the dedicated collaboration of the Environment Protection Agency of Sierra Leone as focal
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Namibia: Land Grabbing Continues at Katima |
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By :Lugeretzia Kooper, Namibian News |
| 09 November 2016 |
THE grabbing of council land at Katima Mulilo has increased due to the influx of people from rural areas to the town in search of employment opportunities, town mayor Regina Mwiya-Simataa said in a press release last Friday.
Although Mwiya-Simataa conceded that the council had been slow in delivering land to
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Afghan Law on PPPs Allows Land-Grabbing |
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By :Heart of Asia |
| 09 November 2016 |
Due to pressure from the World Bank and some other foreigners, President Ghani endorsed the Law on Public-Private Partnership through a legislative decree about three weeks ago, but the law, according to jurists, doesn’t accord with Afghan context, and paves the ground for land usurpation.
Some well-placed sources revealed to The
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Uganda: Reject State-organised Land Grabbing |
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By :Kizza Besigye, Daily Monitor |
| 08 November 2016 |
Grabbing with Impunity
A significant portion of my 2016 presidential campaign underscored the need for immediate actions to halt the land-grabbing scourge. Land grabbing, here refers to large-scale land acquisitions, mainly, by foreign agribusiness invest ors, or the extraction industry—that are often preceded by grabbing of the land by government (including
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Myanmar: Kayin Farmers Fighting Land Grabs |
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By :Su Phyo Win and Myat Nyein Aye, Myanmar Times |
| 04 November 2016 |
Kayin State villagers are losing their land and are routinely persecuted through threats, arson and arbitrary arrest if they attempt to fight the unlawful seizures, according to a report released by an international rights group yesterday.
Around 70 percent of the people in Kayin State rely on land for their livelihood,
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Stop European Money Fueling Land Grabs |
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By :Peter Drury, Global Witnesses |
| 04 November 2016 |
Around the world, companies and speculators are engaged in a frantic rush for land. Millions of hectares are being bought up, citizens violently turfed off their land and critical ecosystems irrevocably damaged, in order to feed growing demand for fuel, food and raw materials.
At its worst, this is fatal. According
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Indigenous Rights Key to Saving Forests |
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By :Jonathan Watts, The Guardian |
| 02 November 2016 |
Indigenous rights are key to preserving forests, climate change study finds. Leaving forests in communal hands cuts carbon emissions from deforestation, helps communities and offers long-term economic benefits: “Everyone wins.”
RIO DE JANEIRO—The world’s indigenous communities need to be given a bigger role in climate stabilisation, according to a new study
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China Buying up Australia’s Land |
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By :Michelle Innisoct, The New York Times |
| 31 October 2016 |
The land at stake is in Australia, but the focus is on China.
SYDNEY—Gina Rinehart, a mining magnate, is very rich—and very Australian.
Her ancestors immigrated to the country’s hardscrabble western reaches in the 1830s. A mountain range there is named after her family. In public, she sometimes adopts a characteristically Australian
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Alternative Forums outside of Habitat III |
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By :Gregory Scruggs, Citiscope |
| 14 October 2016 |
Even as governments adopt the New Urban Agenda next week, multiple groups plan protests and contrary discussions.
A large crowd gathers at the Urban Social Forum in Rio de Janeiro, which took place as an alternative to the World Urban Forum in March 2010. More such events are expected at next
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Nigeria: When They Bulldozed, She Fought Back |
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By :Betty Abah and Elaine Zuckerman, Ms. magazine |
| 03 October 2016 |
Bimbo, 57 and a mother of four, grew up in Makoko, Lagos Nigeria’s largest slum, married, and established a thriving soft drink business in boisterous Badia East, another Lagos slum. Her life was upturned when the World Bank-financed Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project bulldozed Badia East in 2013 without notice.
The “urban
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US: Protests of Native Community on Water |
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By :Mary Annette Pember, indiancountrytodaymedianetwork |
| 28 September 2016 |
Benjamin Conrad, 20, only brings out his grandfather’s war bonnet for special occasions. Today was such a day.
Conrad of the Northern Arapaho, Choctaw and Creek tribes joined about 300 water protectors in a peaceful direct action opposing continued construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline under the Missouri River near the
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Murder and Eviction: New Era of Global Land Rush |
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By :Oxfam international |
| 26 September 2016 |
Millions of people face being displaced from their homes as new data shows land sales covering an area the size of Germany are now under contract, warns Oxfam.
Seventy-five percent of the more than 1500 land deals sought over the last sixteen years now have contracts and their intended projects are getting
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Sri Lanka: Land Grab, Eviction of Fisherfolk |
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By :Oxfam International |
| 26 September 2016 |
In 2010, 350 families of farmers and fisherfolk living in Paanama, a coastal village in the east of Sri Lanka, were forcibly and violently evicted from lands they had cultivated and lived on for over forty years. These lands were taken over by the military to establish camps, and they
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Colombia: Land Conflict to Civil War to Peace? |
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By :VoA and others |
| 24 September 2016 |
Land conflicts feared in wake of Colombia peace accord
BOGOTÁ—Conflicts over land in Colombia are likely to increase following a peace deal to end half a century of war as once no-go areas in the Andean country open up for business and development projects, land rights experts said.
The government and rebel
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Thailand: Karens to Appeal Eviction Verdict |
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By :Forest Peoples Programme |
| 13 September 2016 |
Karens to appeal court verdict legalizing their forced evictions; indigenous organizations call for effective redress
Karen representatives today vowed to appeal against the recent Thai court verdict that ruled the authorities did not break the law in burning their properties to forcefully evict them from Kaeng Krachan National Park. Indigenous rights
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Kenya: Courts Stops Kibera Nubian Eviction |
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By :KBC Reporters |
| 31 August 2016 |
The High Court has temporarily barred Kenya Urban Roads Authority from evicting members of the Nubian community from their homes in Kibra constituency in Nairobi in order to pave way for construction of the Southern Bypass.
The community who are complainants in the case say the respondents did not follow
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World’s Indigenous People and Profit Enterprise |
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By :Elika Ansari, Undergroundreporter.org |
| 22 August 2016 |
9 August 2016 marked the 12th International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, a day pronounced by the U.N. to promote the rights of the indigenous peoples of the world, while also celebrating their contributions to environmental protection.
Meanwhile, over a hundred indigenous men and women dressed in traditional garb marched in Baguio City, Philippines, in
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Native Americans Block Oil Pipeline Construction |
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By :Matt Agorist, The free though project.com |
| 21 August 2016 |
The Camp of the Sacred Stones has swelled from a few dozen to more than 2,500, according to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe officials. They are calling for further review of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the end of July without a
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Rio’s Indigenous Trapped in Social Housing |
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By :Alix Vadot, Rioonwatch.org |
| 15 August 2016 |
In Estácio, a centrally located neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone, Block 15 of the Zé Keti social housing complex, part of the Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV) program, has been the home of some of the city’s remainingindigenous families since June 2013. Its residents have described the complex, built on the grounds of the former
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Kenya: Save School from Evictor |
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By :Victoria Green, thestar.co.ke |
| 08 August 2016 |
The governance of land, the most lucrative asset in Kenya, has become an impediment to the economic, political, and social development of Kenya and Kenyans. Large scale corruption in land governance is highlighted daily, from unfortunate family disputes to allegations of land grabbing by former officials and recently, Presidents.
Public institutions,
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WB Retreat from Indigenous Rights |
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By :Gretchen Gordon and Prabindra Shakya, telesurtv.net |
| 08 August 2016 |
There are many within World Bank staff and management who see Indigenous peoples as obstacles to development.
While recent years have shown a steady advancement in recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples, last week the World Bank adopted a new policy framework that threatens to undermine this progress and put
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Hunger a Weapon of War in Syria, Yemen, Nigeria |
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By :Isabel Malsang, AFP, reliefweb.int |
| 07 August 2016 |
While grain silos in many Western countries may overflow this winter, tens of millions of people risk going without food as hunger is being used more than ever as a weapon of war.
More than 50 million people living in 17 conflict-ridden countries are in "severe food insecurity", two UN agencies
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World Bank Policies Imperil Land Defenders |
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By :Cyril Mychalejko, teleSUR |
| 04 August 2016 |
Just 5 months since the murder of Honduran environmental defender Berta Caceres, the Bank is passing new safeguards that do more harm than good.
The World Bank is expected to approve Thursday its new “Environmental and Social Framework” which civil society groups say weakens human rights protections and will likely endanger the very communities the safeguards are intended to protect.
At issue
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Toward Responsible Land Governance in LAC Region |
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By :GLTN |
| 04 August 2016 |
An Experts Group Meeting – EGM was organized to review and feedback the first report of the Scoping Study. More than 30 representatives from public and private sectors, CSOs, academia, international development agencies, social leaders and activists from all over the region were gathered on July14-15 2016 in San José,
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HIC Addresses Habitat III PrepCom3 |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 27 July 2016 |
The “New Urban Agenda,” from its inception, is inconsistent with historic agreements, today’s global priorities and the “world we need.” Particular interests have narrowed the Habitat Agenda to urban priorities, subordinated rural areas and ignored issues of forced migration, presuming that urbanization is “inevitable” and beyond human will or policy
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Struggling to Chart Habitat II Implementation |
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By :Greg Scruggs, Citiscope |
| 26 July 2016 |
Note: HIC-HLRN republishes this article from Citiscope as a report from the ““Fulfilling Habitat Commitments: Assessing the Past - Constructing a Platform for Action,” Surabaya, 24 July 2016. However, this does not suggest that HIC or HLRN endorse the methodology or the findings of the HCI exercise, as the criteria
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To Farm or Not to Farm? This Is the Question |
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By :Baher Kamal, Inter Press Services |
| 19 July 2016 |
The dilemma is critical: on the one hand, there is an absolute need to produce more food for the world’s steadily growing population; on the other, there is pressing urgency to halt -and further revert- the increasing trend to deplete the forests, which are as necessary for human survival as
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UN: Agriculture and Forestry for Food Security |
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By :UN News Center |
| 18 July 2016 |
Agriculture and forestry can improve food security, according to a new United Nations report released today, at the start of World Forest Week.
Farming is globally the most significant driver of deforestation, but promoting a more positive interaction between agriculture and forestry can build sustainable agricultural systems and improve food systems,
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Africa: Property Rights Still Wretchedly Insecure |
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By :The economist |
| 16 July 2016 |
COSMAS MURUNGA was always proud to show off his mud-walled home, set in a clearing on the wooded slopes of Mount Elgon; to explain how his people coexisted with, and cared for, the forest and its wildlife on the border with Uganda. But that home is no more, burnt to
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China: Profiting from Confiscated Tibetan Lands |
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By :Radio Free Asia |
| 11 July 2016 |
In the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China is confiscating lands at a low price and then reselling at a profit to Chinese developers. Newly built apartments in these lands are then sold back at high prices to the Tibetans from whom the land was first taken. The
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India Mine Displaced 400 Adivasi Families |
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By :Elizabeth Puranam, Al Jazeera |
| 07 July 2016 |
The mine that displaced India`s indigenous people. About 400 Adivasi families once lived near the Chaal coal mine, but blasting and water contamination forced them to leave
The earth-shattering sound of dynamite welcomed us to the small village of Lath, which sits on the edge of an open-cast coal mine.
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MEQ Issues New Report, Maintains Old Inertia |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 01 July 2016 |
In line with their decision announced in Munich on 12 February 2016 and underlining their commitment to support a comprehensive, just, and lasting resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the representatives of the Middle East Quartet (MEQ) has issued its 2016 report today. The report issued by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
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UN Experts Insist on HR-based Habitat III |
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By :OHCHR |
| 29 June 2016 |
UN experts issue statement on Habitat III: new agenda must be based in human rights
NEW YORK/GENEVA—As independent human rights experts appointed by the Human Rights Council, we call for a New Urban Agenda that embraces the transformative potential of human rights as a necessary framework for inclusive, vibrant and sustainable cities.
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HIC Responds to Habitat III’s Revised Zero Draft |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 28 June 2016 |
The following are Habitat International Coalition`s comments on the revised zero draft of the Habitat III outcome documents, submitted to the Habitat III Secretariat on 28 June 2016:
Habitat International Coalition was born out of, and—for two generations now—has faithfully upheld the Habitat Agenda as a cornerstone of its global platform.
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Demise of World Bank Accountability |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 22 June 2016 |
A forthcoming article in the American University International Law Review(AUILR) addressed “The Demise of Accountability at the World Bank?” The article by Natalie Bugalski, of Inclusive Development, examines recent trends in the accountability system at the World Bank, including the proposed Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) and developments at the
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Israel: Water as a Tool to Dominate Palestinians |
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By :Camilla Corradin, Al Jazeera |
| 20 June 2016 |
Israel deliberately denies Palestinians control over their water sources and sets the ground for water domination.
Occupied West Bank—As temperatures rise and summer months approach, yet again this year, thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are being deprived of their most basic need - access to water - as
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Tibet: Farm Women Protest Loss of Their Land |
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By :RFA’s Tibetan Service |
| 17 June 2016 |
Holding the Chinese national flag and carrying photos of Chinese national leaders, Tibetan farm women marched this week outside Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa to protest the confiscation by authorities of their farmland, sources in the region and in exile said.
Over 100 women from Gachoe village in the Tibet Autonomous Region’s
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Standing up to TNC Land Grab in Sierra Leone |
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By :HLRN |
| 16 June 2016 |
HLRN has joined over 40 civil society organizations to express deep concern over the impact of a monoculture agricultural project that involves the dispossession of the people living in Malen Chiefdom, Pujehun District in Sierra Leone.
The project is the subject of an investment by SOCFIN Agricultural Company Sierra Leone Ltd.
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Nigeria: Protests in Anambra Alleged land confiscation |
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By :Vincent Ujumadu, vanguardngr.com |
| 15 June 2016 |
Awka—THE people from Nawfia in Njikoka local government area of Anambra State have appealed to the state governor, Chief Willie Obiano to intervene on behalf of the community over alleged confiscation of their communal land by some officials in the ministry of lands and the state Housing Corporation, with the
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Choctaw v Climate Change: “The earth is speaking” |
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By :Emily Crane Linn, Al Jazeera |
| 13 June 2016 |
In the United States, members of the indigenous Choctaw nation fight to reclaim their relationship with the land in a world without seasons.
Durant, Oklahoma—It`s nearly June. Every day, the Earth brings Darryl “Grey Eagle” Brown closer to the Sun, to heaven, to the Creator. That means it`s nearly time
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Zimbabwe Diamond-displaced Villagers Seek Help |
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By :Reuters |
| 13 June 2016 |
Zimbabwe Villagers Displaced by Diamond Mining Seek Government Help. More than 1,000 families were moved from their village in 2009.
MUTARE, Zimbabwe—Villagers relocated to a sprawling government-owned farm complex in eastern Zimbabwe to make way for the nation’s biggest diamond field are hoping that President Robert Mugabe’s move to take control
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Brazil: Guarani & Kaiowá Face Forced Eviction |
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By :FIAN International |
| 12 June 2016 |
With no access to their legitimate territory, the members of the Guarani and Kaiowá Apyka`i community will be prevented from exercising their fundamental rights as indigenous peoples, including feeding themselves adequately.
Despite intensive and coordinated international action, the sentence by the 1st Federal Court of Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul has followed
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New Policy on Smallholders` Market Access |
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By :CFS |
| 09 June 2016 |
The Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Connecting Smallholders to Markets of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) convened from 8-9 June 2016, at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), in Rome, Italy. Building on the outcomes of the 2015 High-Level Forum on
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Food Experts: “Adopt Agroecology, or Fail” |
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By :IPES-Food |
| 02 June 2016 |
BRUSSLES/TRONDHEIM—Input-intensive crop monocultures and industrial-scale feedlots must be consigned to the past in order to put global food systems onto sustainable footing, according to the world’s foremost experts on food security, agro-ecosystems and nutrition.
The solution is to diversify agriculture and reorient it around ecological practices, whether the starting point is
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Nigeria: Herdsmen, Land Use and Human Rights |
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By :Spaces 4 Change |
| 01 June 2016 |
Fulani herdsmen, herdsmen, hoodlums, intruders from Chad and neighbouring countries, or whatever appellation ascribed to their murderous activities, these names emit fumes of terror, anguish and fear. The fear they evoke is well founded. What started out as recurrent violent clashes between nomadic herdsmen and their host farming communities in
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Brazil: Goiás Land Struggle, Exercise in Citizenship |
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By :various |
| 01 June 2016 |
On the afternoon of 31May, one of the national leaders of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), operating in Goias, Jose Valdir Misnerovicz, was arrested in Rio Grande do Sul, in a joint operation of the Civil Police of the states of Goiás and Rio Grande do Sul. Two vehicles of
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Kenya: Protesting Land-grabbing ODM Chief |
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By :Elizabeth Asasha, Citizen Digital |
| 24 May 2016 |
More than 500 residents of Oljorai Scheme in Gilgil have staged demonstrations to protest against the move by Nakuru County ODM Chairman, Peter Ole Osono, to block the registration of squatters and subsequent allocation of land.
The irked protesters claim Osono filed a suit against the National Land Commission (NLC) after
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Myanmar: Plan to Build Hydro-Power Dam |
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By :Sa Isue, Karen News |
| 09 May 2016 |
In an effort to create more understanding on the proposed hydro-power dam on Baw Ka Hta River in Kyaukyi Township, the Karen National Union held a consultation meeting with community organizations on May 6 in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.
The Baw Ka Hta hydro-power dam project, located in
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Myanmar: Human Rights Should Be "Top Priority" |
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By :Karen News |
| 09 May 2016 |
Prominent human rights advocacy organization, Human Rights Watch calls for new civilian government to push for human rights reforms.
In a statement released today, Human Rights Watch has called on the new National League for Democracy government to make human rights a “top priority.”
Mr. Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights
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Namibia: Evicted Family Squats on Roadside |
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By :Luqman Cloete, Namibian News |
| 09 May 2016 |
A FAMILY has become destitute after government bought a farm in the Maltahöhe district on which they had lived and worked for more than 24 years.
They have been living in a corrugated iron zinc shack on the roadside about 15 kilometres from Maltahöhe with their 148 small livestock, four horses,
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Counting Costs in Congo |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 01 May 2016 |
This week in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), thirty community leaders and field researchers from the villages of the Inga Valley met to consider their fate in view of the planned Inga3 project that proposes to inundate their communities. Organized locally by Association Droit et Developpement (ADEV) the communities’
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Myanmar: Confiscated Land Claim |
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By :Nan Wai Phyo Zar, Karen News |
| 29 April 2016 |
Villagers in Doo Tha Htoo District Karen State are demanding to be paid full compensation for their lands they allege were illegally taken by one of Burma’s largest companies.
Residents of Shwe Yaung Pya village and surrounding villages in Thaton Township have made it clear that they want to get paid
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"Right to the City" Movement Goes Global |
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By :Francesca Perry, The Guardian |
| 19 April 2016 |
Right to the city: can this growing social movement win over city officials?
From the Taksim Square and Nuit Debout protests to bank takeovers in Barcelona and women’s workshops in Delhi, the pressure for more inclusive cities is mounting. As the UN gears up for Habitat III, will governments listen?
On
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4 Tibetan Land Defenders Get Suspended Sentence |
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By :Tibetan Center for Rights and Democracy |
| 14 April 2016 |
Four Tibetan men have been given suspended jail sentences for petitioning against government confiscation of their land in Ka Bharma nomadic camp in Thangkor (Ch: Tangke) Township in Dzoege (Ch: Ruoergai) County, Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The four Tibetans are identified as Phurkho, Rinchen
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World Bank Accountability @ Spring Meetings |
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By :Oakland Institute |
| 12 April 2016 |
World Bank Accountability on Forced Resettlements Must be a Priority at Its Spring Meetings
Oakland, CA—World Bank accountability on forced resettlements resulting from its programs must be front and center at its spring meetings, taking place this week in Washington DC.
Between 2004 and 2013, nearly 3.4 million people were physically or economically
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Panama: Ngäbe Communities Facing Evictions |
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By :Jennifer Kennedy, International Solidarity |
| 08 April 2016 |
The Barro Blanco Dam will have a disastrous effect on Ngäbe communities inside the Comarca Ngäbe-Bugle and campesino communities also living on the banks of the river.
Ngäbe communities in western Panama are calling for support from the international community after officials from the Honduran-owned energy company, GENISA, warn that they
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Israeli Plunder of Palestinian Homes “Concerns” U.S. |
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By :David Alexander, Reuters |
| 02 April 2016 |
Crackdown on what Israel claims is illegal construction has already pitied Jerusalem against the EU, who funds some of the structures.
JERUSALEM—The United States is "concerned" about Israel`s demolition of Arab buildings in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a State Department spokeswoman said on Friday, adding that it raised questions
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Iranians Buying up Land in War-torn Syria |
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By :Sirwan Kajjo and Mario Ritter, Voice of America |
| 27 March 2016 |
Iran’s government wants its builders to buy up property in Shi-ite majority neighborhoods of Syria’s capital, Damascus.
It is also asking construction workers to go to Syria.
This information comes from construction industry officials in Tehran and Iranian experts.
Iranian analyst Fariborz Saremi said owning real estate gives Iran more control over Syria
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African New Habitat Agenda Priorities |
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By :Ahmed Mansour Ismail and Dr. Daniel W. Ambaye |
| 23 February 2016 |
HABITAT III Africa Regional Meeting
“African Priorities for the New Urban Agenda”
Land and African Sustainable Urbanization, side event organized by GLTN
Abuja, Nigeria, 23 February 2016
Summary prepared by Ahmed Mansour Ismail (HIC-HLRN) and Dr. Daniel W. Ambaye (Institute of Land Administration)
Mr Ernest Aubee, ECOWAS (as moderator) introduced the panelists and further emphasized
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Kochs Funding Bundy Land-seizure Agenda |
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By :Jenny Rowland and Matt Lee-Ashley, ThinkProgress |
| 13 February 2016 |
The ultra-conservative billionaire Koch brothers are now funding the Bundy land-seizure agenda
The political network of the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch signalled last week that it is expanding its financial and organizational support for a coalition of anti-government activists and militants who are working to seize and sell America’s
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A Last Chance for the World`s Forests? |
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By :Bill Laurance, CounterPunch |
| 13 February 2016 |
An alarming new study has shown that the world’s forests are not only disappearing rapidly, but that areas of “core forest”—remote interior areas critical for disturbance-sensitive wildlife and ecological processes—are vanishing even faster.
Core forests are disappearing because a tsunami of new roads, dams, power lines, pipelines and other infrastructure is
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HLRN-India Launches Habitat III Status Report |
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By :HLRN-India |
| 05 February 2016 |
New Delhi—On Friday, Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) launched its first Habitat III country report titled, Housing and Land Rights in India: Status Report for Habitat III. The United Nations (UN) Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III)—the third bidecennial international conference on habitat issues—will be held
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HIC-critics on Habitat III Policy Papers |
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By :HIC |
| 05 February 2016 |
Since the very early stages of the Habitat III preparations, Habitat International Coalition (HIC) has called for the integrity of the Habitat II (1996) commitments and modalities; this demand has three related aspects:
• Processes must uphold the Habitat II-established principle to be as inclusive as possible;
• Maintain the Habitat Agenda,
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Habitat III Sins of Omission |
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By :Habitat for People - Not for Profit! |
| 01 February 2016 |
Today, a movement of concerned partners engaged in the Habitat III preparations issued a public challenge to the organizers of the global process, calling on them to rethink the omissions and design flaws that narrow the Habitat III public debate and presuppose its outcomes. From the beginning of the deliberative and reporting
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Oregon Land Stand-off Ends in Arrests, 1 Dead |
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By :Evan Perez and Holly Yan, CNN |
| 27 January 2016 |
Oregon occupation has fatal consequences. Long-time settler family member Ammon Bundy, other protesters arrested in Oregon; LaVoy Finicum killed.
BURNS OR—The weeks-long armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge headquarters in Oregon suffered two major blows when protest leader Ammon Bundy was arrested and another key figure was killed.
Bundy and
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W. African Caravan for Land, Water and Seeds |
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By :The Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles – West Africa |
| 25 January 2016 |
The Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles – West Africa invites you to join the West African Caravan for Land, Water and Seeds, which will mobilize 15 countries of the sub-region in March 2016 in order to
Ø Sensitize the populations of the West African countries about land, water
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USA: Oregon Land, “Rightful Owners” |
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By :Burns Paiute Tribe, et al |
| 15 January 2016 |
Please find below US press coverage of the ongoing, multidimensional land dispute in Oregon, USA. Follow the links below for a review of competing views.
Crackpots in Cowboy Hats, and in Congress
Whose Land Is It Anyway?
"We were here first.”
Eastern Oregon once had a Malheur Indian Reservation. Guess what happened.
Native American Tribe Says Oregon Armed
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UNCERD: Holy See Liable to Indigenous Peoples |
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By :Apache-Nde-Nnee Working Group |
| 15 January 2016 |
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has declared the Holy See legally responsible and accountable to Indigenous Peoples for effects and the legacy of racist, colonial Papal Bulls and Doctrines.
Geneva—As the result of a comprehensive parallel report and presentations by members of the Apache-Nde-Nnee Working
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Ethiopia`s Development Crackdown on Dissent |
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By :Charles Stratford, Al Jazeera |
| 10 January 2016 |
Rights groups say 140 people killed in recent weeks as government moves forward with controversial development plans.
Wolonkomi, Ethiopia—Security forces have killed at least 140 people during a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in Ethiopia in recent weeks, activists and rights groups say.
The protests by members of the country`s largest ethnic group,
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Ethiopia: Reacts to Sudan Land-giveaway Rumour |
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By :Tesfa-Alem Tekle, Sudan Tribune |
| 25 December 2015 |
December 25, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – The Ethiopian prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn dismissed on Friday circulating rumours that his government secretly gave away part of the Horn of Africa’s territories to stakeholders in neighbouring Sudan.
Desalegn’s remarks came while responding to queries raised by members of the House of People’s Representatives
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Total Withdraws from Western Sahara |
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By :WSRW |
| 21 December 2015 |
The French multinational oil company has announced that it is no longer pursuing oil search offshore Western. "More good news for the Saharawi people. We urge the remaining oil companies to follow suit," Western Sahara Resources Watch (WSRW) has stated.
"Total has informed the Moroccan authorities that it would not request
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Morocco: EU Court Annuls Trade Agreement |
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By :WSRW |
| 10 December 2015 |
BRUSSELS—The European Court of Justice has this morning ordered the annulment of a trade agreement between Morocco and the European Union since it includes the territory of Western Sahara. "A landmark decision in the history of the occupation of Western Sahara," states Western Sahara Resources Watch (WSRW).
The judgment was
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Tibet: Climate Change Challenges China Policies |
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By :ICT |
| 10 December 2015 |
As the world’s leaders meet in Paris this week for critical climate change talks, new findings by the International Campaign for Tibet reveal that Tibet’s fragile environment, which is warming faster than anywhere else, is of critical global importance. But almost unnoticed by the rest of the world, China’s policies
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COP21: Land & Water Convergence Speaks |
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By :Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles |
| 08 December 2015 |
Parallel to the climate conference in Paris, social movements and allies within the “Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles” stand up for climate justice and real solutions to the climate crisis. This alliance of struggles has delivered its message to the COP21 currently meeting at Paris. Their statement follows.
The
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HIC Takes on COP21 |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 05 December 2015 |
HIC is participating in the current Conference of Parties, also known as COP21, which is gathering the 195 countries that have joined and ratified the UN Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) following the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. In an effort address climate change, the states and organizations convened are
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Democratic Land Control and Human Rights |
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By :Jennifer C. Franco, Sofía Monsalve and Saturnino M Borras, sciencedirect.com |
| 02 November 2015 |
Democratic land control is inseparable from human rights.
It is important to understand demands for democratic land control in the context of broadly distinct political conditions that in turn each requires distinct political intervention, namely, respect/protect, promote, and/or restore democratic land control. In addition, we also argue that broader institutional
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Pope Francis: “Rights to housing, land and city” |
| 25 September 2015 |
In his public appearance in New York City this week, Pope Francis delivered a spiritual message, but also addressed a bundle of corresponding human rights. Not least of these were the “three Ls”: lodging, land and labor. He also contextualized these essential elements of human dignity and human rights with
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Human Rights & Local Government Report |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 18 September 2015 |
On 22 September 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council (Geneva) will consider the final report of its Advisory Committee on the Role of local government in the promotion and protection of human rights. The report is the outcome of a two-year study on the subject by the Human Rights Council
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Burundi: Who Has the Right to Land? |
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By :OHCHR news |
| 18 September 2015 |
Burundi is currently volatile with an ongoing political crisis. The country, which only emerged from an ethnic conflict 10 years ago, still reels from the past upheavals.
The coming of peace to Burundi after decades of civil war has also meant the coming of a dilemma: what can be done about
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New Extractionism in Occupied Western Sahara |
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By :WSRW |
| 31 August 2015 |
Amid Saharawi protests, San Leon Energy has begun to drill an on-shore well in occupied Western Sahara on 21 August.
The El Aaiun-4 conventional well is located on the so-called Tarfaya licence, near Foum el Oued, just above Western Sahara`s capital city El Aaiun. The drilling rig, a Cabot 750
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Sami People’s Land Rights at Stake |
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By :OHCHR |
| 28 August 2015 |
Land and resource rights are key to Sami people’s self-determination, United Nations rights expert says HEMAVAN / GENEVA—The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, today expressed concern at the land rights situation of the Sami people in Finland, Norway and Sweden, given the increased drive
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Veolia Jumps Jerusalem Rail |
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By :Who Profits |
| 27 August 2015 |
Veolia sells its shares in the Jerusalem light rail and completes withdrawal from the Israeli market.
More than a decade after winning the tender for the construction and operation of the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR), Veolia Environnement’s subsidiary, Transdev, has sold all of its holdings in the JLR to a group
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Food Firms Back Plan to Stop Land Grabbing |
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By :Chris Arsenault, Thomson Reuters Foundation |
| 17 August 2015 |
TORONTO--Global food giants and international NGOs have drafted a framework to prevent land grabs just as hedge funds, companies and plantation owners race to acquire new territory.
Drafted by senior figures from Nestle, Unilever, Coca-Cola and other large firms, along with researchers from Oxfam, Global Witness and the other international organizations,
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World Bank Rolls back Safeguards Further |
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By :BIC |
| 04 August 2015 |
Dangerous rollback in environmental and social protections with the World Bank’s new Framework, undermining President Kim’s commitment to “no dilution”
Washington—The World Bank has released new draft safeguard policies[i] that will vastly weaken protections for affected communities and the environment at the same time as the bank intends to finance more
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German CSO Forum Addresses Habitat III |
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By :Forum on Environment & Development |
| 31 July 2015 |
The German Forum on Environment & Development was founded in 1992 after the UN conference in Rio on environment and development. Its purpose is to coordinate German NGOs in international political processes on sustainable development. It was strongly involved in the preparation and the civil society processes of the Habitat
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HIC Reviews Habitat III Issue Papers |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 31 July 2015 |
Habitat International Coalition has just issued its compilation of inputs from Members and officers following their review of the Habitat III Issue Papers. The 22 thematic contributions from technical experts selected by the UN-Habitat/Habitat III Secretariat have been drafted as a framework for the debate leading up to the Third
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Myanmar: New Land Confiscation Report |
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By :Karen Human Rights Group |
| 30 June 2015 |
Villagers in Karen areas of southeast Myanmar continue to face widespread land confiscation at the hands of a multiplicity of actors. Much of this can be attributed to the rapid expansion of domestic and international commercial interest and investment in southeast Myanmar since the January 2012 preliminary ceasefire between the
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World Bank Group’s Compliance & Land |
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By :HIC-HLRN |
| 30 June 2015 |
Private sector investment affecting land in developing countries often leads to disputes between companies and local communities over land rights and land use. Since 1999, the private-sector arms of the World Bank Group (WBG)—the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)—have had an accountability mechanism to
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FIFA and Human Rights |
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By :Miloon Kothari, Middle East Online |
| 23 June 2015 |
Middle FIFA has become an institution that is not only a byword for corruption, but one that, through acts of omission and commission, has tolerated human rights violations around the world.
The past few weeks have revealed FIFA’s ills. The allegations and arrests of key officials have focused on massive
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ESCR Committee Highlights Women’s Land Rights |
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By :The Global Initiative for Economic Social and Cultural Rights |
| 23 June 2015 |
The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights welcomes the strong Observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights addressing land rights, and in particular women’s land rights, in Uganda. The Concluding Observations were informed by a Parallel Report submitted by the Global Initiative and its local partners the Center for
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Brazil: Easing Land Purchases for Foreigners |
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By :Anna Edgerton and Raymond Colitt, Bloomberg |
| 03 June 2015 |
Brazil`s government favors easing land-ownership restrictions for foreigners to help offset flagging commodities demand, Attorney General Luis Inacio Adams said. "I`m in favor of more flexibility on land ownership," Adams said in an interview. "The law needs to be modernized." Adams, appointed by President Dilma Rousseff, is the
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Post-2015 SDG Zero Draft Released |
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By :UN General Assembly |
| 02 June 2015 |
Late on Monday, New York time, the co-chairs of the Open Working Group the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, Ambassador Macharia Kamau of Kenya and Ambassador David Donoghue of Ireland have released the zero draft of the new development agenda to permanent representatives of UN member states. Entitled “Transforming Our World
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Cambodia: CSOs Charge Boeung Kak Abuses |
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By :ESCR-Net |
| 01 June 2015 |
New York—The International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) sent a letter to the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia to express serious concern over the conditions faced by thousands of families who live, or lived prior to their eviction, near Boeung Kak Lake.
“The forcible evictions that
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Myanmar: Protests over Land Confiscation |
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By :Lun Min Mang, Myanmartimes.com |
| 22 May 2015 |
Angry farmers are deserting the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party in Bago Region, claiming their local MP broke a promise to help them get their land back. Yesterday, 170 USDP members in Nattalin Township, Bago Region, resigned en masse.
Of more than 800 acres of farmland in Nattalin seized in
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Myanmar: Villagers Protest Hydropower Dam |
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By :Nan Wai Pyo Zar, Karen News |
| 19 May 2015 |
The villagers from the Palet Wa region in Thandaung Township lost their homes and land to a hydro-power dam in Htantabin Township are protesting and demanding their lands are returned from the companies.
More than a 100 villagers and representatives from community-based-organizations demonstrated at Thaukyekat No.2 site to staged a protest
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Do RAI Principles Meet the Task? |
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By :Sylvia Kay, rightingfinance |
| 06 May 2015 |
On 15 October 2014, the Member States of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), hosted at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, approved the “Principles on Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems.” (“RAI” or “RAI Principles”)
In a recent assessment of the principles, the Transnational Institute (TNI) exposes
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The Right to the City: Jerusalem |
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By :Joseph Schechla |
| 26 October 2014 |
HIC-HLRN has produced a new report from an ongoing study on the prospects of realizing the principles of the “right to the city” for specific cities in several regions.
This report finds that applying the "right to the city" in Jerusalem challenges the current governance grounded in discrimination against, and dispossession of
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Twiga Farm: Story of a Kenyan Land Grab |
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By :Leila van Rinsum, Pambazuka News |
| 08 October 2014 |
Landless citizens of a location just outside Nairobi have been fighting for their rights to land since Kenya’s independence 50 years ago. Successive governments – including those of two presidents, Jomo Kenyatta and his son Uhuru, who come from the area – have failed to give these people justice.
On Tuesday,
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Islamic State Evicts Iraq farmers |
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By :Sophie Cousins, AlJazeera |
| 29 July 2014 |
The group`s takeover of farms in Qaraqosh, 30km from Mosul, has caused fear among residents, and a jump in food prices.
Qaraqosh—In the dark of night, on a farm about 30km southeast of Iraq`s second largest city, Mosul, Sabah Zura Sukkariyya woke to the sound of a truckload of gunmen arriving
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Palestine, Tibet Reps Draft Peace Charter |
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By :Tibet Office (Paris) |
| 19 August 2005 |
Paris—Lourdes, one of the world’s most prominent Christian pilgrimage sites, hosted the Peace Day on 14 August. In tow with UNESCO`s initiative of Peace Manifesto and the opening of the Culture of Peace Decade, the city has been organising events aimed at promoting peace among the nations and peoples since
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Land. That’s What Habitat Was About |
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By :Moira Farrow, The Vancouver Sun |
| 23 June 1976 |
In spite of the war of words between Israel and the Arabs, in spite of the militancy and marching over nuclear energy, the key word at Habitat was land.
Like a rock thrown into a pond, the land debate is going to ripple around the world for many years, because it’s as
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