As Brazil lives through the last feverish week prior to this Sunday’s second round presidential election, reports have come in indicating an alarming increase in violent threats and attacks since the campaign’s start – occurring in both urban and rural areas.
JOHANNESBURG: Thousands of land claimants are taking government back to court for failing to process old claims.
The Constitutional Court will hear the matter on November 6.
Admitting to have failed to comply with the court’s order to re-enact legislation within 24 months to enable processing of new claims, Parliament has pleaded for an extension of deadline.
Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga’s 2016 ruling interdicted processing of these claims, saying they were accepted based on an invalid legislation.
Recent violent events in Nicaragua, as noted in my previous column, are forcing some of us on the left to take a hard look at power -- and how even power on the left can corrupt.
To better understand present-day events, harken back to Nicaragua at the time of the Sandinista Revolution and the agrarian reform which was to have lifted the poorest citizens out of poverty.
BUENOS AIRES, Oct 5 2018 (IPS) - Rural women play a key role in food production, but face discrimination when it comes to access to land or are subjected to child marriage, the so-called affinity group on gender parity within the G20 concluded during a meeting in the Argentine capital.
On 28 September, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), meeting in Geneva, passed a resolution which calls for the UN General Assembly to adopt the “United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas.” This proposed declaration includes a number of rights, and specifically mentions that water resources in mountain ecosystems should be protected against pollution from mining activities.
In a watershed moment for land rights in Liberia and across Africa, President George Weah on Sept. 19 signed into law a land reform bill that extends land rights to millions of rural Liberians.
The Land Rights Act ensures, for the first time, that the land rights of rural Liberians are recognized, protected, and guaranteed by law – an essential ingredient for these communities to achieve secure land rights. Under the previous land tenure system, as much as 80 percent of Liberians lived without legally recognized rights to land.
By the end of winter, nomadic tribes of J&K, the Bakerwals and the Gujjars, will for the first time be counted in a state-level census. The 2011 census did survey J&K’s nomadic population but a large number were left out because they were camping in remote high-altitude areas during the survey.
AgriSA represents 28,000 commercial farmers. It believes the reason land reform has failed is not because of inadequate legislation.
The Constitution should only be changed if it is deemed impossible to implement proper land reform under the current legal framework.
There is, however, no compelling reason why the Constitution must be amended to enable land reform, the country's largest commercial farmers' union will tell the parliamentary committee reviewing South Africa's highest law.
STOCKHOLM (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Indigenous people under threat from companies seeking to develop their land for agriculture, mining and energy projects will be supported with money and practical help through a major global partnership backed by philanthropic and government funding.
The International Land and Forest Tenure Facility is the first initiative to provide grants to advance the rights of indigenous people to help them protect their forest land and resources.
The People’s Movement for a Just Society (P-Move) led the demonstration to demand government action, saying they had been campaigning on this issue for four years but there had been no improvement. Many people who have been involved in land conflicts across the country joined in the protest.
Colombia's government and the ELN, the country's last active guerrilla group, have agreed to a ceasefire after months of talks, the rebels announced Monday.
The announcement in the Ecuadorian capital Quito, where the talks are being held, comes on the eve of a visit by Pope Francis to Colombia.
"Yes, it was possible," the National Liberation Army (ELN) delegation said in a tweet announcing the deal.
MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Female farmers urged the Indian government on Wednesday to protect their land rights and keep them safe from abuse as women increasingly run farms abandoned by men for jobs in the city.
Women own just 13 percent of land in India although they do two-thirds of all farm work, with ownership largely passing from fathers to sons.