(New York) – Thai authorities should immediately investigate the killing of Somsak Onchuenjit, a lawyer and land rights activist, in Trang province in southern Thailand, Human Rights Watch said today. Successive Thai governments have failed to prevent or adequately respond to attacks against human rights defenders who represent landless farmers.
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Namibia is a large country on the West Coast of Southern Africa bordering South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Angola. It is 824,290 km² in extent with a small population of some 2.5 million people. Namibia’s climate is characterised by very hot and dry conditions with sparse and erratic rainfall. The Namib desert tracks much of Namibia’s coastline.
Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia in 1975 and is one of the ethnically most diverse countries worldwide. More than 87% of the rural populations live off farming, and agriculture contributes about 28% to the national GDP. Furthermore, the country generates revenues from the large-scale export of mineral resources, oil, gas, and timber.
Conflict is a major cause and, in some cases, result of humanitarian crises. Conflict frequently overlaps with underlying social inequalities, poverty and high levels of vulnerability. Conflicts are direct threats to food security as they cause massive loss of life and therefore loss of workforce (which is particularly important, as agriculture tends to rely heavily on human labour), loss of vital livestock, and loss of land. Conflicts displace millions of people each year, often forcing them to flee with nothing and making them extremely reliant on the communities that offer them shelter and humanitarian aid. This can place unsustainable pressure on hosting communities that often face high levels of food insecurity and struggle to make ends meet.
Climate change can destabilize existing land and resource governance institutions and associated property rights across the spectrum of landscape types. Transformed climatic conditions, manifested in either rapid-onset or slow-onset ways, can change how land and natural resources are accessed and used as geographical shifts in resource productivity, resource scarcity, and therefore land use patterns occur.
