customary law related Blog post | Land Portal
Woman farmer Uganda Department of Foreign Affairs.jpg
7 October 2021
Authors: 
Lisette Meij
Uganda

There is an immense pressure on land in Uganda. The country has a rapidly growing population and is host to the world’s third largest refugee population. Particularly poor people struggle to get access to healthy food. Agriculture practices need to become more efficient and focused on the domestic market. The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) in Uganda works to improve food security in selected areas in the country. Among several food security projects, the EKN works with the LAND-at-scale program to improve land governance.

A rural homestead in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Collart Hervé/Sygma via Getty Images
22 June 2021
Authors: 
Prof. Ben Cousins
South Africa

By Ben Cousins, Emeritus Professor, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape


* This article originally appeared in the The Conversation on 22 June 2021


Liberia's Land Rights Law and the Worsening Dynamics of Land Grabs
27 July 2021
Authors: 
Ali Kaba
Liberia

The Land Rights Law (LRL), enacted on the 23rd of August 2018, was an impressive feat. It recognizes the land rights of all Liberians, especially rural communities who have historically been subject to mere user rights on their ancestral lands. The LRL protects the rights of communities to their claimed customary areas as their lawful property – “with or without deed”. This provision places an estimated 70% or more of the country under customary ownership.

Latifa, family farm owner in Uganda, photo by the World Bank, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license
24 June 2021
Authors: 
Miss Olipa Katongo Kunda
Zambia

Access to and control of land is one of the challenges that young people face in Zambia. Land is a valued resource which youth are often expected to access through adults, or wait until they are adults to acquire.

Zambia Land Certificates
16 June 2021
Zambia

Zambia’s launching of a National Lands Policy on 11 May 2021 represents an important achievement after almost two decades of periodic drafting, consultation and validation attempts.

3rd Mekong Regional Land Forum: Forum Replay
26 May 2021
South-Eastern Asia
Cambodia
Laos
Myanmar
Thailand
Vietnam

Summaries and selected replays from the 3rd Mekong Regional Land Forum are available below. Full replays of the plenary sessions will be posted shortly -- check back soon!

Tribal people walk with their belongings in Tarapur village, about 87 km (54 miles) south from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad July 13, 2007. REUTERS/Amit Dave (INDIA)
8 March 2021
Authors: 
Shipra Deo
India

In Jharkhand, eastern India, women are not entitled to own land and accusations of witchcraft are wielded against them to silence their claims to land

When Talabitti’s husband died in 2016, her claim to the family land seemed to die with him. Though her husband had worked the family land by himself, upon his death his male cousins laid their claim. If Talabitti attempted to make a competing claim, they threatened to drive her away – with violence, if necessary. Sadly, this threat materialized.

A meeting between IED Afrique, the Mbadakhoune municipal team and local representatives (Photo: copyright Ibrahima Dia/IED Afrique)
8 March 2021
Authors: 
Philippine Sutz
Africa
Tanzania
Ghana
Senegal

Across East and West Africa, IIED and partners have been developing and testing approaches to strengthen women’s voices in local land governance. Philippine Sutz reflects on the role and impact of local governance frameworks as these approaches are implemented in different contexts.


Since 2016, IIED has been working with local partners across East and West Africa to strengthen rural women’s voices in local land governance.


The assumption underpinning this work is that when local women actively participate in land governance, related structures are more likely to recognise and defend women’s interests. This leads to fairer land relations and women having greater control over their livelihood options.


 


In each country where the project has been implemented – Tanzania, Ghana and Senegal – local partners have developed, strengthened or scaled up approaches to support local women to enter the political space and participate meaningfully in local decision-making processes on land allocation and use.


While tailored to address local contexts and needs, the approaches developed in each country share similarities: None of them ‘reinvent the wheel’ but build on existing governance arrangements; they are bottom-up and participatory, involving community dialogue and capacity building exercises; and they all seek to ensure that decision-making bodies on land include a minimum number of active women members and promote local dialogue.


But the approach design was different to recognise the opportunities and gaps associated with each country’s land governance framework.


Tanzania and Ghana: local level governance fosters local ownership


In Tanzania, the law establishes local authorities with power to administer land at the lowest administrative level: the village. The village council and village assembly play a key role in local land governance – they have the power to allocate land and make decisions on land use.


In Ghana, land is governed customarily by traditional authorities, and land governance rules vary from one area to another. In the area where our project was implemented – the Nanton Traditional Area – community chiefs are given power to administer land.


In both countries, the local governance systems enabled our partners to embed their approaches directly at the community level and ensure local ownership.


In Tanzania, the Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA) worked directly with village authorities to support the adoption of gender-sensitive village by-laws promoting the participation of women in village level decision-making processes. The process received good support from local communities.


In Ghana, NETRIGHT and the Grassroot Sisterhood Foundation (GSF) worked with local community chiefs – the lowest traditional administrative unit – to establish Community Land Development Committees (CLDCs). These committees are designed to support chiefs in making decisions on land and ensure that such committees had women members.


Senegal: challenges at municipal level


In Senegal, meanwhile, public land is managed by the local governments of municipalities – and community land is allocated at the local level through the municipality. A ‘municipality’ includes between around 30 and 60 villages; this is a higher ‘administrative level’ compared with land governance in Tanzania or Ghana.


The authorities administering land are the municipal council through the land commission – a local body supporting the council’s decision-making process.


Our partner IED Afrique worked in Darou Khoudoss to support the inclusion of women in the land commission and the adoption of a local land charter promoting women’s participation in land governance.


Working at the municipal level – rather than directly in villages – has proved more challenging in terms of local ownership. IED Afrique developed additional activities to ensure buy-in at village level. In particular, they collaborated with local women’ groups to make sure that the project was reaching women in villages.


In Tanzania and Senegal, land being governed by national laws makes it easier to replicate and scale up approaches. In Tanzania, TAWLA was able to reach all 64 villages in the Kisarawe District. Replicating the approach across different regions in Ghana would have meant adapting it to each regional context, which would have been cumbersome and resource intensive.


Takeaways for policymakers


Comparing land governance frameworks (PDF) in the three countries shows how their nature – and in particular the existence (or lack) of heavily decentralised power on land – determines, to a degree, the administrative level where the intervention takes place. This impacts how easily participatory and inclusive bottom-up approaches can be implemented.


Local authorities having power over land at the village or community level – as in Tanzania and Ghana – is a real advantage, as it allows approaches to be embedded in the very communities they’re trying to support. When land is governed at a higher administrative level – as in Senegal – additional efforts and resources are often needed to ensure local ownership of the approach.


In wider terms, my sense is that the more decentralised a land governance framework, the better for democratic, participatory processes to take place and ultimately, for how local women’s voices can be reflected in decisions made on land administration. This should be kept in mind by governments undertaking land governance reforms.



This blog was originally posted  on the IIED website and is the fourth blog in a series looking at ways to strengthen women’s access to and control over land in Africa.

Restoring indigenous peoples’ rights to land
27 December 2020
Malaysia

This blog was written by Sidi Munan as a column in the Borneo Post

Main photo: MPs from Sarawak should initiate a move to legislate for Sarawak in the case of native land rights. — Bernama file photo

 

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The Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law

The Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law (Journal) is published three times annually by the students of the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. The Journal publishes articles on a wide variety of international and comparative law topics in order to provide a forum for debate on current issues affecting international legal development including international and comparative law issues and tribal/indigenous peoples law.

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The Asian Journal of Comparative Law (AsJCL) is the leading forum for research and discussion of the law and legal systems of Asia. It embraces work that is theoretical, empirical, socio-legal, doctrinal or comparative that relates to one or more Asian legal systems, as well as work that compares one or more Asian legal systems with non-Asian systems. The Journal seeks articles which display an intimate knowledge of Asian legal systems, and thus provide a window into the way they work in practice.

O Centro de Integridade Pública de Moçambique, adiante designado abreviadamente CIP, é uma pessoa colectiva de direito privado, dotada de personalidade jurídica, de tipo associação sem fins lucrativos, não partidária, independente, com autonomia administrativa, financeira e patrimonial, que se rege por seus Estatutos e pela demais legislação em vigor.


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As our world becomes increasingly interconnected and globalized through advancements in technology, diplomacy, and other means, a publication like the Fordham International Law Journal becomes an important platform for sharing and understanding the legal issues that arise across borders and comparing them with what is occurring within our own borders. Currently in its 42nd year of publication, the Fordham International Law Journal is one of the most competitive international law periodicals in the world.

The Groningen Centre for Law and Governance (GCL) is the result of an initiative by the Faculty of Law at the University of Groningen. The Centre was established in December 2008.


The Centre contributes to legal research into the relationship between public and private interests. Research focuses on the interaction between public and private law and the function of law in the regulatory state.


KcK addresses the problem of governments in East Africa not respecting their constitutions, which leads to gross human rights violations, marginalisation, oppression, civil strife and coups. As a think tank, KcK provides critical and up to date information to East Africans on constitutionalism, good governance and democratic development.

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The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) is South Africa’s largest public interest, human rights law clinic. Established in 1979, we use the law as an instrument of justice for the vulnerable and marginalised, including poor, homeless and landless people.

OUR VISION


Excellent administration and management of land for sustainable development


OUR MISSION


 


To implement an efficient land administration and management system in order to ensure equity in access to land


CORE VALUES


 


  • Efficiency
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The Stanford Journal of International Law is a biannual student-run law journal covering international law, including public international law, comparative law, human rights, international relations, and international trade.

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Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA) is an NGO founded in 1989 and officially registered in 1990. The founding members comprised a professional group of women lawyers who felt the need for an organization that could promote an environment guaranteeing equal rights and access to all by focusing on vulnerable and marginalised groups especially women and children. The founding members also recognised the need for women lawyers to foster mutual support for each other in professional advancement and social responsibility. TAWLA has more than 570 members

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