Promoting a peaceful and lasting resolution to land conflicts in a protracted crisis context through a fair and environmentally sensitive approach.

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.

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

Dispute resolution is a key component of land administration and management in Kenya. Article 162 of the Constitution of Kenya provides for the establishment of the Environment and Land Court (ELC) by an Act of Parliament. Further, parliament is mandated to determine the jurisdiction and functions of the courts. In 2011, parliament passed the Environment and Land Court Act through which the Environment and Land Court was established. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the court is mandated to ensure reasonable and equitable access to its services in all counties.

Land, and in particular agricultural land, is central to livelhoods in rural Zambia. Zambia is characterised by a dual legal system of customary and statutory law and by dual land tenure, with state land and customary land. A first wave of socialist-oriented reforms took place after independence in 1964, which abolished previously existing freehold land in favour of leasehold. Subsequent changes in government policies under the influence of structural adjustment programmes and a new government in 1991 paved the way for a market-driven land reform.

This article examines the evolution of policy recommendations concerning rural land issues since the formulation of the World Bank’s “Land Reform Policy Paper” in 1975. That paper set out three guiding principles: the desirability of owner-operated family farms; the need for markets to permit land to be transferred to more productive users; and the importance of an egalitarian asset distribution.

An overview of the types of land disputes and the dispute settlement fora.

Unfolding analysis reveals two types of land disputes prevalent in postwar northern Uganda: cases that involve a legitimate cause of action and those that do not.1 Since mediation and alternative forms of dispute resolution rely on parties’ willingness to negotiate in good faith, cases featuring ‘bad faith’ and land grabbing—where powerful parties intentionally exploit another person’s vulnerability in order to illegally2 claim land—pose a serious challenge for local land dispute mediators. Such mediators must wrestle with whether and how to remain neutral in the face of injustice.

This report investigates cases of land grabbing in Uganda, focusing in particular on oil palm plantations in Kalangala, Lake Victoria. It assesses the impacts on rural communities and on the local environment, and questions who benefits from these projects.

The protection given to the land rights of women, orphans and any other vulnerable groups in Northern and Eastern Uganda is probably as good as can be found anywhere in the world. Customary land law is based on three main principles. First, everyone is entitled to land, and no-one can ever be denied land rights. A second principle is that all inherited land is family land, never individual property.

Compulsory acquisition is the power of government to acquire private rights in land for a public purpose, without the willing consent of its owner or occupant. This power is known by a variety of names depending on a country’s legal traditions, including eminent domain, expropriation, takings  and  compulsory purchase.