Land tenure issues are becoming increasingly important worldwide. Problems such as high population pressure, increases in resource degradation, food shortages, transformations of political systems and regional and supra-regional resource conflicts have brought the land issue to the public's attention.

The Handbook for Applying the Guiding Principles on Internal
Displacement was reviewed by UN agencies and NGOs at a meeting
at the UN in April 1999. It was decided that the UN would publish
and disseminate it together with the Manual on Field Practice in
Internal Displacement. The two volumes complement one another
and together provide a sound basis for undertaking protection and
assistance activities on behalf of internally displaced persons.
It is my hope that this Handbook will be widely used by field staff

Situation to end 1998

Burmese version

The region commonly known as Pa’an District forms a large triangular area in central Karen State, bounded in the west and north by the Salween River and the town of Pa’an (capital of Karen State), in the east by the Moei River where it forms the border with Thailand, and in the south by the motor road from Myawaddy (at the Thai border) westward to Kawkareik and Kyone Doh. Pa’an District is also known as the Karen National Liberation Army’s (KNLA’s) 7th Brigade area.

Extracts on forced relocation and confiscation of land from the report of the Commission of Inquiry
appointed under article 26 of the Constitution of the
International Labour Organization to examine the
observance by Myanmar of the
Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29). Though its main focus was forced labour, the Commission of Inquiry also reported other violations of human rights. This
series of customised versions of the report takes a number of these themes. The present document highlights references to

There is widespread belief among development specialists that land tenure security is a necessary but not sufficient condition for economic development.

This Act, consisting of 20 sections and one Table, creates the Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Dispute Settlement Commission.

This report aims to provide a picture of the current situation in central Shan State, where the military junta ruling Burma has forcibly uprooted and destroyed over 1,400 villages and displaced over 300,000 people since 1996. This campaign against civilians is still continuing, and the number of villages destroyed is increasing each month. In this report, some of the villagers who have fled in 1997 and 1998 describe their experiences.

Confusion arose when the Thai Labor Ministry requested Cabinet approval to relax the repatriation of illegal immigrants. Earlier, the Ministry had announced that the labourers would be forced out by May 1.