News on Land

Mekong Region Land Governance launches an updated guidebook for documenting customary tenure in Myanmar on 9 March in Yangon. 

This second edition of “Documenting Customary in Myanmar: A Guidebook” includes:

• an introduction to customary tenure concepts and principles,
• an overview of legal issues and challenges to claiming customary tenure under Myanmer’s current legal framework; and
• practical tools and resources to help people document their own customary claims.

New treaty compels states to investigate and punish killings and attacks on people defending their land or environment

Officials from 24 Latin American and Caribbean states have signed a legally binding environmental rights pact containing measures to protect land defenders, almost two years to the day since environmental leader Berta Cáceres was killed in her home in Honduras.

Rare victory for Brazilian poor, as record Amazon land tract is handed over to descendants of escaped enslaved people

It was a modest ceremony for such a significant victory: it is not every day that the descendants of enslaved people are given the title to their land. But there was no doubt of its importance at a time when the protection of Brazil’s traditional rural communities is threatened by a conservative government in league with powerful agribusiness interests.

Looking to work in an action-oriented and dynamic environment? The ILC Secretariat is recruiting a Programme Analyst to support and coordinate National Engagement Strategy platforms, connecting over 300 organisations working together in over 30 countries worldwide.

 

Job Description:	Programme Analyst, P2
Location:

Analysis of results from Transparency International finds crackdowns on NGOs and media are associated with higher levels of corruption.

The Land Portal Foundation has published a Thematic Portfolio on Land & Corruption to provide greater understanding and promote awareness of the intersection of these critical issues.  

Mexican right-wing presidential candidate Ricardo Anaya, who is polling second in national surveys, is being accused of corruption and money laundering by opposition parties who demanded he be barred from the presidential race after his own party called for an investigation into the allegations.

Kenya’s 2010 constitution guaranteed women extensive land and property rights. But the message wasn’t getting out to the remote communities of the north until a community radio station stepped in.

GARISSA, KENYA – As sun sets on Sankuri village, a group of women take advantage of the dropping temperatures to convene their weekly business meeting.

If minority groups have representatives, it helps them to table issues affecting their communities, make decisions in budgeting and distribution of resources.

KAMPALA - Indigenous Peoples (IPs) commonly known as ‘minority tribes’ in Uganda, remain marginalised despite of the various government policies to transform people’s livelihood.

The commissioner culture and family affairs at the gender ministry, Juliana Akonyo Naumo, said many of the IPs remain less educated and are poor compared to other people.

Monrovia – The race for land ownership is one of big issues in Liberia that has been engulfed with multiplicity of problems ranging from insecure land tenure forms and rights; lack of land use database for state, private, and customary lands; weak land administration and management; inadequate concession practices and protective mechanisms to prevent “land-grabbing” amongst others.

These issues are causing serious problems for communities’ dwellers to get land for making their farms particularly in rural areas.