This guidance note provides a framework for understanding and addressing land and natural resource-related grievances and conflicts through a holistic, systematic approach. While the main emphasis is on violent conflict, it may also be useful in a variety of other situations characterized by significant land-related grievances, but which are not currently or openly violent. It is intended for staff of multilateral organisations, national and local governments, and civil society organisations.

Comprises executive summary, introduction, and chapters on historical perspective of land tenure, situation analysis, land policy objectives and strategies, institutional framework, and funding. The main emphasis is to address the problems of the land delivery system to ensure equitable access to land resources. Includes sections on land tenure and land allocation to foreigners, environmental issues, land disputes and gender – the Policy seeks to redress gender imbalances and other forms of discrimination in land tenure.

Refugees International Advocate Veronika Martin and human rights lawyer Betsy Apple recently completed an assessment mission to the Thai-Burmese border.

The new political dispensation in South Africa was the result of a political compromise, which depended on a crucial agreement to leave many of the existing power and wealth relationships intact. The advent of democracy in South Africa presented African people with long awaited political freedom but minimal social and economic liberation. The wealth was to remain in the hands of the few and any attempts by government to reverse the status quo was thwarted by the realities of the harsh global capitalist market system.

Thus far, the government's labor legislation has brought few benefits to Thailand's migrant work force which continues to withstand deep-seated corruption and abuse...However precarious the situation may be for migrant workers in Thailand, it will continue as long as cheap sources of labor remain a vital component for a healthy and vibrant Thai economy. The time is ripe for both the Thai and Burmese governments to implement genuine measures that would help ensure the just and dignified treatment of Burmese workers in Thailand...

In January 2002 it appeared that the SPDC considered most of Dooplaya district of southern Karen State to be pacified and under their control. But then Light Infantry Division 88 was sent in and commenced Operation Than L'Yet, forcibly relocating as many as 60 villages by July. Villagers were rounded up and detained without food for days, or force-marched to Army-controlled relocation sites after their houses were burned. Village heads, women and children were tortured.

There are an estimated 1 million illegal immigrants from Burma and other neighboring countries working in Thailand. Migrant
workers from Burma come from a variety of geographical locations and ethnic groups and work in several different industries
and service sectors in Thailand. There are both push and pull factors at work when people make the decision to migrate to
Thailand. The pull factors include the close geographical location of Thailand to Burma as well as the demand in Thailand for

...There are currently more than 135,000 refugees living in Thailand. Refugees from Burma are also in refugee camps along the
Bangladeshi and Indian borders, as well as working and living in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Malaysia. The line between
refugee and migrant is a thin one and there are also an estimated 1 million migrant workers living in Thailand who have fled from
their homes for many of the same reasons that official refugees have. (The topic of migrant workers from Burma is covered in

The situation of Internally Displaced People (IDP?s), in Burma remained critical throughout 2001. The US State Department
estimates that there could be up to1 million members of ethnic minority groups who the SPDC has forcibly relocated from their
villages and districts, and who are currently living along the Thai border. Reports from NGOs also estimate that an additional 1
million IDP?s are living a precarious existance in other locations throughout the country...

Perhaps one million people living in the States and Divisions of Burma adjacent to the Thailand border have been displaced since 1996. At least 150,000 have fled as refugees or joined the huge “illegal” migrant population in Thailand.[2] Countless others have moved away to other villages and towns in Burma.

...In February and March 2002 Amnesty International interviewed some 100 migrants from
Myanmar at seven different locations in Thailand. They were from a variety of ethnic groups,
including the Shan; Lahu; Palaung; Akha; Mon; Po and Sgaw Karen; Rakhine; and Tavoyan
ethnic minorities, and the majority Bamar (Burman) group. They originally came from the Mon,
Kayin, Shan, and Rakhine States, and Bago, Yangon and Tanintharyi Divisions.(1) What follows
below is a summary of human rights violations in some parts of eastern Myanmar during the last

Armed conflicts are enemies of food security. There is a well established correlation between the exposure of countries to external or internal conflicts, and the deterioration or long-term stagnation in their food security. Most conflicts, and especially the internal conflicts that have now become the dominant model of mass violence, mainly affect rural areas and their populations.