News (230)
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Oregon: Nez Perce Reclaim Ancestral Land |
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 More...
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UNSRs Address Israel over Naqab Demolitions |
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 More...
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UNSRs Address Israel over Naqab Demolitions |
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 More...
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Land Times No. 21 |
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 More...
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India: Farmers Protest, Support Political Prisoners |
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 More...
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Azerbaijan: Armenians Burn Vacated Homes |
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 More...
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Zimbabwe: Villagers up in Arms over Relocation |
By :Tatenda Chitagu, Newsday.Co.Zw |
29 October 2020 |
RUNDE Rural District Council (RDC) faces resistance from about 50 families it intends to evict to pave way for the upgrading of Vugwi Business Centre into a growth point.
The business centre is about 22km from Zvishavane town and falls under Runde RDC.
The affected villagers have vowed to resist eviction without More...
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India Govt. Reverses Kashmir Land Reform |
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 More...
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“Jammu and Kashmir put on sale” |
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 More...
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UAE: Sheikh Khalifa’s £5bn London Property Empire |
By :Harry Davies, The Guardian |
21 October 2020 |
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan is president of the United Arab Emirates – and one of London`s richest landlords, owning a multibillion-pound property portfolio spanning London’s most-expensive neighbourhoods.
The row of 1960s-built houses with untidy gardens on a quiet cul-de-sac near Richmond-upon-Thames appears to have little in common with More...
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USA: CSOs Urge Senate Reject SCotUS Pick |
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 More...
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New from HIC-HLRN: “A Pandemic of Violations” |
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 More...
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New from HIC-HLRN: "A Pandemic of Violations" |
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 More...
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New: Customary Practices Dispossessing Women |
By :HIC-HLRN, Mazingira Institute and Pamoja Trust |
25 September 2020 |
Customary Practices That Dispossess and Displace Women from Their Habitats
HIC-HLRN has just released the outcomes of a study of the impacts of customary practices on women’s housing, land and property rights in Kenya.
This study is a product of a collaborative project of Mazingira Institute (MI), Pamoja Trust (PT) and More...
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New: "Development" Dispossessing Women |
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 More...
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Guatemala: Denouncing Land Defender Murders |
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 More...
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Indonesia: Mapping Policy Losses |
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 More...
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Palestine: Join Al-Haq Law School Program (10/2020) |
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 More...
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Palestine: Join Al-Haq Law School Program (10/2020) |
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 More...
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India: Turning 170K-ha Forest to Coal |
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 More...
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Land Times issue 20 |
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 More...
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Brazil: Resisting Pandemic Repossessions |
By :Alexander Putti, CartaCapital |
06 August 2020 |
On Monday, 10 August, representatives of urban and rural popular movements and parliamentary fronts for urban reform and human rights met virtually with the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, to ask for the vote on the bills 1975/2020 and 827/2020 that suspend the removal and reintegration actions More...
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USA: Eviction Wave as Moratoriums End |
By :Regina Garcia Cano and Michael Casey/AP |
04 August 2020 |
Wave of evictions expected as moratoriums end in many states
BALTIMORE— Kelyn Yanez used to clean homes during the day and wait tables at night in the Houston area before the coronavirus. But the mother of three lost both jobs in March because of the pandemic and now is facing eviction.
The More...
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2019 Deadliest Year for Land Defenders |
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 More...
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Battir, Palestine: Settlers Invade Heritage Site |
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 More...
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India`s Population Transfer in Kashmir |
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 More...
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USA: Esselen Tribe Regains Land after 250 Years |
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 More...
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Palestine/Israel: JNF Trees Dispossess Bedouin |
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 More...
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A Chinese Province Razes Its Countryside |
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 More...
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USA: Evictions Soon to Hit Black Renters Hardest |
By :Renae Merle, The Washington Post |
06 July 2020 |
Evictions are likely to skyrocket this summer as jobs remain scarce. Black renters will be hard hit
Eviction moratoriums and unemployment benefits are expiring, which will have a bigger effect on minority neighborhoods, experts say.
A backlog of eviction cases is beginning to move through the court system as millions of Americans More...
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USA: Coronavirus Evictions |
By :John Oliver, HBO |
02 July 2020 |
With evictions on the rise due to COVID-19, comedic actor and TV host John Oliver uses irony to discuss the long struggle to obtain and sustain adequate housing in the United States, why it’s gotten worse in recent months and how to prevent an impending crisis.
View the broadcast on YouTube: More...
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UNHCHR Urges Israel Halt Annexation Plans |
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 More...
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What Happens When the Eviction Bans End? |
By :Kriston Capps, City Lab |
29 May 2020 |
What Happens When the Eviction Bans End?
States are reopening courts to eviction hearings even as coronavirus-driven job losses continue, setting the stage for “a housing crisis of unparalleled magnitude.”
Last week, a crowd of about 30 people lined up in a single-file, socially distanced line outside the district court in Petersburg, More...
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USA: A Coming ‘Avalanche of Evictions’ |
By :Sarah Mervosh, The New York Times |
27 May 2020 |
An ‘Avalanche of Evictions’ Could Be Bearing Down on America’s Renters [i.e., in USA]
The economic downturn is shaping up to be particularly devastating for renters, who are more likely to be lower-income and work hourly jobs cut during the pandemic.
EUCLID, Ohio — The United States, already wrestling with an economic More...
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Kenya: Ruai Evictions, Why Now? |
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 More...
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Mozambique: Restored Village Land Flourishes |
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 More...
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Record Number of Land Conflicts in Brazil in 2019 |
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 More...
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Brazil: Ashaninka Win Case against Loggers |
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 More...
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BADIL Palestinian Rights Course |
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 More...
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Brazil: Land Defender Zezico Guajajara Murdered |
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 More...
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Palestine: Land Day (joint statement) |
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 More...
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South Africa: Evictions Despite Moratorium |
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 More...
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South Africa: Call for Solidarity amid Crisis |
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 More...
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Liberia: New Land Law Partial Victory |
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 More...
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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 More...
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Bangladesh: Church Evicts Indigenous Families |
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 More...
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US Aid to Israel Razing Palestinian Homes |
16 March 2020 |
House Democrats ask if Israel violating US aid restriction by using resources to demolish Palestinian homes.
More than 60 Democratic lawmakers are pushing the Donald Trump administration to clarify whether Israel uses American military equipment to demolish Palestinian homes in the West Bank, hinting that doing so could trigger military aid More...
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Kashmir: India to "Reclaim" Encroached Land |
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 More...
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Kenya: 500 Taita Taveta Families to Be Evicted |
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 More...
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Uganda: Thousands Homeless for Land Privatization |
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 More...
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India: Evictions in Honor of Trump Visit |
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 More...
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Bolsonaro`s Ambiguous Amazon Plan |
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 More...
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How Chevron Crushes an Environment Defender |
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 More...
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Criminal Conspiracy of the Century |
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 More...
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Wealth Inequality, not Over-population Causes Climate Crisis |
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 More...
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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 More...
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Nigeria: Mass Evictions, Protests as Housing Crisis Mounts |
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 More...
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Peru: Indigenous Win Amazon Oil Battle |
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 More...
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Outrage over Siemens Backing Adani Coal |
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 More...
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‘Amazon Completely Lawless’: Bolsonaro’s 1st Year |
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 More...
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India: Gov’t. Rethinks Vicious Forest Act |
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 More...
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Brazil: The Life and Death of the Guajajara |
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 More...
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Major Victory for Ecuadoran Indigenous Peoples |
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 More...
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Brazil: Loggers Murder Amazon Forest Defender |
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 More...
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Kenya: Village Struggles with Industrial Giant |
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 More...
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Framing the Inquiry into Land Inequality |
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 More...
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Canada: B.C. to Align Laws with UNDRIP |
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 More...
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USA: Island Returned to Indigenous Owners |
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 More...
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Adani Coal Takes Native Land as Oz Burns |
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 More...
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USA: New Rule to Make Residents Homeless |
By :Carey L. Biron, City |
13 August 2019 |
`We will become homeless`: U.S. residents fear housing rule change could force them out of homes. The rule change could make an entire household ineligible for social housing if a single member is undocumented, say experts.
WASHINGTON - Fears are mounting across the United States over a proposal by President Donald More...
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Kashmir: Land Grab and Political Disempowerment |
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 More...
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EU Now Funds Israel’s Destruction of Palestine |
By :David Cronin, Rights and Accountability |
02 August 2019 |
The European Union is financing Israeli bodies that oversee home demolitions and other crimes against the Palestinian people.
Two years ago, Benjamin Netanyahu was heard complaining that the European Union was “crazy” for attaching “political conditions” to its relations with Israel. By the prime minister’s yardstick, matters have become less “crazy” since then: More...
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Women Speak out on Land Rights |
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 More...
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Indonesian Women Fight Land Grabbing |
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 More...
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RCEP Trade Deal to Intensify Asia Land Grabs |
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; More...
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German Firm’s Crimes against Palestinians |
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 More...
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Zimbabwe Farmers Hawking to Survive |
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 More...
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World Bank’s Attack on Small Farmers |
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 More...
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EU Partners with Israeli War-crime Financier |
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, More...
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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, More...
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South Africa Confronts Apartheid Land Legacy |
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,” More...
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Al-Haq International Law Summer School 2019! |
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 More...
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Tibet: China Imprisons Local Land Defenders |
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 More...
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South Africa: Land Reform Report Rejected |
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 More...
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Resident Revenge against Developers |
By :George Hammond, Financial Times |
11 April 2019 |
Rising house prices and rents have sparked protests in London, Berlin and New York. Residents show how citizens are taking on city developers.
BERLIN—Last Saturday, as the sun shone on thousands of Berliners gathered in Alexanderplatz, one placard stood out in the crowd. Written on it — beneath a grotesque cartoon More...
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India’s Unrelenting Forced-eviction Crisis |
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 More...
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India: Over11 million Face Eviction, Displacement |
By :Rina Chandran, Reuters Foundation |
09 April 2019 |
BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - At least 11 million people in India risk being uprooted from their homes and land as authorities build highways and airports and cordon off forests, activists said on Tuesday, undermining a government push to provide housing for all citizens by 2022.
The estimate includes about 1.9 More...
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India Court Orders Adivasi Evictions |
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 More...
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USA: Court Challenge to Israel’s Colonies |
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 More...
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Australia: Ngaliwurru & Nungali Native Title Ruling |
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 More...
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United Nations` Land and Conflict Guidance |
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 More...
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Sahel: Displacement Crisis |
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 More...
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Indian Court Orders Eviction of 1 Million Tribals |
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 More...
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Palestine/Israel: Fake Justices |
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 More...
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Zim: CSOs Pose Resolving Govt Displacements |
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 More...
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No Land No Future for Young |
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 More...
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World Bank Schemes to Privatize the Commons |
By :Oakland Institute |
24 January 2019 |
The Highest Bidder Takes It All: The World Bank’s Scheme to Privatize the Commons details how the Bank’s prescribes reforms, via a new land indicator in the Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA) project, promotes large-scale land acquisitions and the expansion of agribusinesses in the developing world. This new indicator is More...
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USA: Gov`t. Shutdown Could Evict Millions |
By :Jeff Andrews, Curbed |
07 January 2019 |
Funding for HUD’s rental assistance programs would lapse if shutdown drags on
Entering its third week, and with no end in sight, the partial federal government shutdown is putting millions of low-income tenants who depend on funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) at risk.
On January 4, HUD More...
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S A: Reviews Land-Expropriation Bill |
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 More...
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Leading Landless Women |
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 More...
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We`re Celebrating 70th Human Rights Day |
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 More...
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Stop Land Grabs – Declaration |
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. More...
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Land Rights, Companies and Social Justice |
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 More...
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Statement of the ICC on Palestine |
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 More...
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UNHRC Adopts Peasant Rights Declaration |
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 More...
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Canada: Mass Eviction in Ottawa! |
By :Jillian Kestler-D`Amours, AlJazeera |
21 September 2018 |
Heron Gate mass eviction: `We never expected this in Canada`
About 150 homes in one of Ottawa`s most diverse and affordable communities are expected to be torn down in coming months
OTTAWA—Binto Mohamed hasn`t had a good night`s sleep since May. That`s when she received a letter telling her that her family More...
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USA: In Search of Eviction Data |
By :Daniela Aiello, Lisa Bates, Terra Graziani, Christopher Herring, Manissa Maharawal, Erin McElroy, Pamela Phan, and Gretchen Purser, Shelterforce. |
22 August 2018 |
Eviction Lab Misses the Mark: By not working with existing housing justice organizations, the high profile organization undercounts evictions and misses a chance to understand differences between localities and wider policy analyses.
There is perhaps no more influential and popular book on poverty and housing at the moment than Matthew Desmond’s More...
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Tanzania: Losing the Serengeti |
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 More...
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Kenya: Inhabitants Seek Protection from Evictions |
By :Jillo Kadida, The Star |
01 August 2018 |
Residents of more than six Nairobi estates yesterday sought to stop their eviction by the government.
Houses are to be demolished today in Kaloleni, Makongeni, Mbotela, Mutindwa, Dandora and Kenyatta University villages, Lang’ata and Wilson-South C link road reserve.
Moses Nyakiongora served residents with the notice on July 19. He is the More...
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Progress in Land Indicators |
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 More...
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Kenya: Kibera Demolitions Begin |
By :Julius Otieno, Star; Josphat Thiong`o, Standard Digital |
24 July 2018 |
Anguish as houses demolished to pave way for Kibera link road
23 July 2018
Julius Otieno, Star
Human rights activists have accused Kenya Urban Roads Authority of violating the agreement that would have seen victim of Kibera evicted in a humane way.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has in this regard called More...
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UN Expert: USA Poor More Destitute under Trump |
By :Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters |
02 June 2018 |
America`s poor becoming more destitute under Trump: U.N. expert
GENEVA—Poverty in the United States is extensive and deepening under the Trump administration whose policies seem aimed at removing the safety net from millions of poor people, while rewarding the rich, a U.N. human rights investigator has found.
Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur More...
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Uganda: In Defence of Land Grabbing |
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 More...
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Access to Land Critical to Meet SDGs |
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 More...
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Tibet: New Report “Access Denied” |
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 More...
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Tanzania: Maasai Losing Lands to Tourism |
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 More...
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Another Mozambique Land Grab |
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 More...
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Philippine: Tension Grips Eviction of 200 Families |
By :Rey Galupo, The Philippine Star |
23 May 2018 |
MANILA, Philippines — An operation to demolish the houses of around 200 informal settlers in Intramuros, Manila nearly turned violent as the residents opposed the demolition yesterday morning.
Armed with an eviction order issued by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 7, a demolition team along with members of the Manila More...
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India: Land Rights for 1947 Partition Displaced |
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 More...
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New Zealand: 10 Reasons to Return the Waitara Lands |
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 More...
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Five Alarming Land Grabbing Cases |
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 More...
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Myanmar: Rohingyas’ 13 Demands for Return |
By :The Star (Petaling Jaya)/AP |
13 April 2018 |
Rohingya give Myanmar official list of demands for repatriation
DHAKA—A Myanmar Cabinet minister visited a sprawling refugee camp in Bangladesh for Rohingya Muslims, who described the violence that forced them to flee Myanmar and presented a list of demands for their repatriation.
Social Welfare Minister Win Myat Aye on Wednesday met More...
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Kashmir: Land Dispute behind Girl’s Rape, Murder |
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 More...
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USA: Time for Change - Race & Homelessness |
By :Jeffrey Olivet and Marc Dones, SPARC and National Alliance to End Homelessness |
11 April 2018 |
In recent years, an increasingly urgent dialogue has emerged around race and equity in [the United States of] America. But that dialogue has generally overlooked one of the most visible manifestations of racial inequity: homelessness.
Homelessness is not colorblind. People of color are dramatically more likely than their White counterparts to More...
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China Mining Co. Destroys Mozambique Village |
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 More...
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Land Day: 17 Fallen in 2018, as the 6 in 1976 |
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 More...
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Smallholder Farmers` Rights are Women`s Rights |
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 More...
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Zimbabwe: Youths Face Eviction from Chegutu Mine |
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 More...
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South Africa: Confiscating White Farmers` Lands |
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 More...
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1st Arab Conference on Land Governance |
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 More...
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Peru: Shipibo-Konibo Forced from Forest to Slum |
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 More...
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Not Just a Condition, but Cause of Poverty |
By :A U.S. Catholic interview |
13 February 2018 |
Being evicted isn’t just a condition of poverty, it’s a cause, says Matthew Desmond, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" (Crown Books).
While much research and conversation has been devoted to other poverty-related topics such as nutrition, education, and violence, the Princeton sociologist More...
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Pakistan: Lahore City Evicts Slum Dwellers |
By :Zeena T. Hashmi, The Nation (Karachi) |
07 February 2018 |
LDA’s forced eviction of Model Town slum dwellers is shocking, but not surprising. No one with a shred of shame can imagine such a thing happening in any democracy; but this is how the Lahore Development Authority works.
For the dwellers at Sector M, Model Town Extension, there have been many More...
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Pakistan: Empowering Sindh’s Landless Farmers |
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 More...
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Tanzania: Gov`t Seeks to Demolish 1,200 Homes |
By :IPPMedia.com |
02 February 2018 |
Advice given by World Bank to government officials against demolishing over 1,200 houses between Ubungo and Kimara suburbs of Dar es Salaam to pave way for a six-lane highway has saved them from losing their houses.
The over 8,000 residents who had already been served with letters by Tanzania Roads Agency More...
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South Africa Shouldn’t Copy Mugabe’s Land Reform |
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 More...
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China’s OBOR Project Dispossesses, Displaces Tibetans |
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. More...
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India: Landless Farmers to Access Land |
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 More...
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Czechia: Roma Forcibly Evicted in Brno |
By :Michaela Pa , Brno Daily |
17 January 2018 |
About a year ago, one hundred families living in houses owned by a private company on Bratislavská, Vlhká and Francouzská streets were informed that their rent leases will not be renewed. In response, the desperate tenants and citizens’ initiative “Chceme bydlet!” organized a street demonstration.
After intense negotiations between the firm More...
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South Africa: Another Abahlali Comrade Fallen |
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 More...
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Somalia: > 5K IDP Homes Evicted, Destroyed |
By :Xinhua and Somalia NGO Consortium |
11 January 2018 |
3,000 School Children Affected by Forced Evictions in Mogadishu
Somalia NGO Consortium Statement below
MOGADISHU—The UN Children`s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children said on Thursday that recent unannounced forced evictions of families and destruction of several informal settlements on the outskirts of Somali capital Mogadishu have impacted over 3,000 school More...
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Philippines: Demolition Looms for 200 Households |
By :Antoinette O. Marquito, Philstar |
09 January 2018 |
CEBU, Philippines — About 200 families in Sitio Tangke, Barangay Mambaling will lose their homes after the court ordered the demolition of their houses because the owner will utilize the lot.
The demolition started yesterday and there was no resistance or commotion.
But Janny Anter, president of Panaghugpong-Kadamay, a homeowners’ association in More...
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New UN Declaration on Peasant Rights |
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, More...
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South Africa: Constitution-based Land Restitution? |
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 More...
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China: Beijing House Demolitions Spark Rare Street Protests |
By :Emily Feng and Charles Clover, Financial Times |
12 December 2017 |
Aggressive Chinese eviction methods fuel anger among residents forced from rented homes
Fear and cold stalk the streets of Feijia, a north-eastern suburb of Beijing that is to be largely demolished on Friday, leaving hundreds of migrant families potentially homeless in winter.
Leaflets scattered across Feijia’s main street depict photos of masked More...
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Nigeria: 30K Evicted, Defying Court |
By :Amnesty International |
14 November 2017 |
Deadly mass forced evictions make life misery for waterfront communities
Over 30,000 forcibly evicted from settlements in Lagos state in defiance of court orders
11 people unlawfully killed and at least 17 missing after violent evictions by security forces and unidentified armed men
300,000 others are under threat of further forced evictions
Evicted residents More...
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Out of Africa: Human Rights Habitat Struggles |
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 More...
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Kenya: AG Enjoined in Samburu Eviction Case |
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 More...
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EU States Demand Israel Pay Demolition Costs |
By :Barak Ravid, Haaretz |
19 October 2017 |
Eight European Union countries wrote an official protest letter to Israel, demanding over €30,000 ($35,400) in compensation for confiscating and demolishing structures and infrastructure which the countries had built in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli control.
A senior European diplomat told Haaretz that the letter, More...
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New Report: India`s Farm Widows |
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 More...
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South Africa: Residents Challenge Eviction |
By :Mohammed Jameel Abdulla, The Daily Vox |
14 October 2017 |
Residents of Fattis Mansions on the corner of Jeppe and Harrison Street in the Johannesburg CBD were forcefully evicted by close to 200 Red Ants on Wednesday. The eviction, which affected dozens of people, started at 7am and proceeded well into the afternoon. Residents’ belongings were pulled from the building More...
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The Cost of Land Grabbing in Mozambique |
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 More...
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Tanzania: Forced Evictions of Loliondo Maasai |
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 More...
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Nicaragua: Future Canal Threatens Mass Eviction |
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 More...
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No SDGs without Major Progress on Land |
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 More...
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Brazil: Indigenous Amazon Protectors v. Loggers |
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, More...
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Mafia-like Networks |
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 More...
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Nigeria: Forced Evictions in Badia-East (Lagos) |
By :Spaces for Youth Development and Social Change |
15 June 2017 |
Spaces for Change NGO Staff Arrested, Released
LAGOS—A Task Force squad comprising demolition agents of the Lagos State Government and scores of heavily-armed security operatives invaded Badia-East this morning, Thursday, June 15, 2017. With the aid of bulldozers, sledge hammers, iron bars, and earth-moving equipment, they levelled all the structures in More...
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Western Sahara: Ruling against Plunder |
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 More...
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China Evicts More Tibetan Nomads for “Development” |
By :RFA |
15 June 2017 |
Tibetan nomads forced from resettlement towns to make way for development
Tibetan nomads previously forced from traditional grazing lands in a state-directed resettlement scheme in Qinghai are now being told to go back, as authorities begin to target their current homes for development as tourist centers and housing for government employees, More...
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Irrawaddy Farmers Claims their Confiscated Land |
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 More...
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Cambodia: Land Grabs, Defender Jailed |
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 More...
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South Africa: Vengeful Burning of Migrant Homes |
By :Lynsey Chutel, QZ.com |
21 February 2017 |
African migrants in South Africa are in fear for their lives—again
Once again, there are signs of growing xenophobia in South Africa. Despite the lives lost in previous waves of violence, the country has still not learned this painful lesson.
It’s a familiar escalating narrative: vigilante groups accuse foreign migrants of local More...
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Report: Land Rights in a Turbulent World |
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 More...
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EU’s Biggest Pension Funds Invest Big in Colonies |
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 More...
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USA: 1st Trump Act Violates Housing Rights |
By :Tom Cahill, U.S.Uncut |
20 January 2017 |
In First Act as President, Trump Raises Mortgage Rates on Struggling Homeowners
After Donald Trump was sworn in as president, he delivered his inaugural address. Then he went to the White House, whereupon he stuck it to homeowners.
One of President Obama’s last acts as head of the executive branch was to More...
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fb Zuckerberg Sues to Take Native Hawaiian Land |
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 More...
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Namibians Sue Germany for Land Grab, Genocide |
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 More...
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Brazil: Eucalyptus War on Quilombo Lands |
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 More...
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Kenya: Slum Violence & Housing Shortage |
By :Katy Migiro, Reuters |
28 December 2016 |
ATHI RIVER, Kenya (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Recently married with a one-year-old child, Joan Moraa Mbogo dreams of escaping Kenya`s noisy, dirty, crime-ridden capital and buying a home close to her mother`s newly-built apartment overlooking the Lukenya Hills.
Machakos County, which starts 20 kms (12 miles) south-east of Nairobi, is popular More...
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UNSC Votes to End Israeli Settler Colonies |
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 More...
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India: Over 33K Homes Demolished in 2015–16 |
By :HIC-HLRN |
22 December 2016 |
Over 33,000 homes demolished in urban India between 2015 and 2016
New Delhi—Data collected by Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) reveals that public authorities in India, in both the central and state spheres of government, forcibly have evicted at least 33,257 families across urban centers between January 2015 and December More...
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Myanmar: AI Reports “crimes against humanity” |
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 More...
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European Tenants vs. Wall Street Landlords |
By :Liz Alderman, The New York Times |
18 December 2016 |
Wall Street is Europe’s landlord, and tenants are fighting back.
DUBLIN—The Tobun family never missed a rental payment on their modest brick rowhouse in eight years. But in February, the couple, who have two young children, received a letter warning that they would have to leave their home when the lease More...
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Following the Money: Justice for Land Grabs |
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 More...
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Portugal: Statement by the SRs on Water& Housing |
By :UN news |
13 December 2016 |
As the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the right to adequate housing and the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, we address you today at the conclusion of our joint official visit to Portugal, which we undertook at the invitation of the Government from 5 to 13 December More...
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Land Rights Defender Killings Tripled in 2016 |
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 More...
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Vancouver Mayor’s “Intense” Housing Crisis |
By :Ashifa Kassam, The Guardian |
21 November 2016 |
Vancouver mayor on housing crisis: “I never dreamed it would get this intense.”
Gregor Robertson’s platform in 2008 vowed affordable housing and an end to homelessness. Eight years and three terms later, the city’s housing market is in a perilous place – and has forced the mayor to get creative
His first More...
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Sierra Leone: Land Grabbing of Forests |
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 More...
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Stop European Money Fueling Land Grabs |
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 More...
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Indigenous Rights Key to Saving Forests |
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 More...
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Nigeria: When They Bulldozed, She Fought Back |
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 More...
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Murder and Eviction: New Era of Global Land Rush |
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 More...
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Thailand: Karens to Appeal Eviction Verdict |
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 More...
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Kenya: Courts Stops Kibera Nubian Eviction |
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 More...
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World’s Indigenous People and Profit Enterprise |
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 More...
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Rio’s Indigenous Trapped in Social Housing |
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 More...
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Uganda: Amongi Reacts to Land Grabbing Claims |
By :Jonathan Kamoga, Allafrica.com |
08 August 2016 |
Former FDC presidential candidate Kizza Besigye last week launched a scathing attack on recently-announced government plans for compulsory land acquisitions, telling journalists this was a ploy to steal people`s land. But as Jonathan Kamoga reports, the responsible government minister says Besigye got it all wrong.
Lands, Housing and Urban Development Minister Betty More...
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WB Retreat from Indigenous Rights |
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 More...
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Toward Responsible Land Governance in LAC Region |
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, More...
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HIC Addresses Habitat III PrepCom3 |
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 More...
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Africa: Property Rights Still Wretchedly Insecure |
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 More...
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China: Profiting from Confiscated Tibetan Lands |
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 More...
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U.S. Congress Mulls Lifting Protection of Commons |
By :Matt Lee-Ashley and Jenny Rowland, ThinkProgress |
10 July 2016 |
Congressional proposal would create a Texas-sized “Republic of Cliven Bundy”
Cliven Bundy may be in jail, but he still has friends in Congress.
The U.S. House of Representatives next week is expected to vote on a proposal that would exempt 48 counties, primarily in the West, from the law that has been More...
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India Mine Displaced 400 Adivasi Families |
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. More...
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MEQ Issues New Report, Maintains Old Inertia |
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 More...
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Zimbabwe Diamond-displaced Villagers Seek Help |
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 More...
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Brazil: Guarani & Kaiowá Face Forced Eviction |
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 More...
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Nigeria: Herdsmen, Land Use and Human Rights |
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 More...
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Myanmar: Human Rights Should Be "Top Priority" |
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 More...
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Counting Costs in Congo |
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’ More...
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"Right to the City" Movement Goes Global |
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 More...
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Israeli Plunder of Palestinian Homes “Concerns” U.S. |
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 More...
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Iranians Buying up Land in War-torn Syria |
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 More...
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Struggle in the City for Tibetan Nomads |
By :Benjamin Haas, AFP |
23 March 2016 |
ABA (OCCUPIED TIBET)—By mid-morning, Lobsang’s leather cowboy hat is askew, his black robes dishevelled, and his breath stinks of booze. Once a nomad herder roaming the high Tibetan plateau, instead he stumbles around his sparse new concrete house.
For decades he and his wife grazed yaks and sheep, living a life More...
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African New Habitat Agenda Priorities |
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 More...
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Kochs Funding Bundy Land-seizure Agenda |
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 More...
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HLRN-India Launches Habitat III Status Report |
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 More...
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HIC-critics on Habitat III Policy Papers |
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, More...
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Habitat III Sins of Omission |
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 More...
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Oregon Land Stand-off Ends in Arrests, 1 Dead |
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 More...
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USA: Oregon Land, “Rightful Owners” |
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 More...
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Democratic Land Control and Human Rights |
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 More...
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Human Rights and the New Habitat Agenda |
By :Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur Newsletter |
22 October 2015 |
In her second report to the UN General Assembly, Leilani called on States to include a human rights framework in the development of the New [Habitati] Agenda, to be adopted at the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (also known as Habitat III), October 2016 in Quito, Ecuador. More...
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UNSR Reminds Govts. about Rights in Habitat III |
By :OHCHR |
22 October 2015 |
NEW YORK / GENEVA—The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, Leilani Farha, today has challenged governments to go further and commit to bold action to end homelessness and improve housing conditions on a global scale. “I am convinced we can end the scourge of homelessness More...
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Human Rights & Local Government Report |
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 More...
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New Extractionism in Occupied Western Sahara |
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 More...
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German CSO Forum Addresses Habitat III |
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 More...
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HIC Reviews Habitat III Issue Papers |
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 More...
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World Bank Group’s Compliance & Land |
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 More...
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ESCR Committee Highlights Women’s Land Rights |
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 More...
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Cambodia: CSOs Charge Boeung Kak Abuses |
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 More...
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Serbia’s Housing Crisis Demands Immediate Action |
By :UN Human Rights |
26 May 2015 |
BELGRADE (26 May 2015) – Serbia has undergone enormous challenges in the last two decades and is currently facing structural adjustment, high unemployment and poverty. All of this has created a housing crisis that must be responded to immediately. “Serbia urgently needs a national law on housing that fosters non-discrimination More...
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Who Has the Right to Live in London? |
By :Carlos Delclós and Rosie Walker, Open Democracy.net |
22 May 2015 |
Renters’ Rights London aims to provide the tools and knowledge renters need to defend themselves from unfair treatment and campaign for more rights. We speak with coordinator, Rosie Walker.
In a recent study, Brookings Institute economist Matthew Rognlie challenged Thomas Piketty’s now well-known assertion that inequality is being driven by the More...
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Do RAI Principles Meet the Task? |
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 More...
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CFS Develops Protracted-crisis Policy |
By :HIC-HLRN |
01 May 2015 |
In October of this year, the Committee on Global Food Security is expected to adopt the new Framework of Action [to ensure] Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises. That global policy promises to usher in a new approach that formally operationalizes humanitarian, development and human rights principles combined to More...
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The Right to the City: Jerusalem |
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 More...
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Twiga Farm: Story of a Kenyan Land Grab |
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, More...
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Predatory Lender Wells Fargo Bank Forced to Pay |
By :The Baltimore Sun, The New York Times |
15 June 2012 |
Wells Fargo Bank: A Predatory Lender Pays up
The Baltimore Sun
15 July 2012
Baltimore`s effort to recover millions of dollars in lost revenue stemming from the wave of home foreclosures that followed the collapse of the housing market in 2007 was vindicated Thursday when Wells Fargo Bank, the nation`s largest mortgage lender, More...
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Land. That’s What Habitat Was About |
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 More...
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