Peacekeeping and Housing Land and Property (HLP) Rights in the Great Lakes Region of Africa (original) (raw)
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Housing, Land and Property in Conflict and Displacement Settings
Deusto Journal of Human Rights, 2017
Housing and land are the main things that displaced persons lose when they are forced to leave their places of origin. Once peace and security has been restored in the country, IDPs often find it difficult to reclaim their homes and lands that have been either destroyed or occupied by others. This is a common feature in almost all post-conflict situations. And it is a major obstacle to the establishment of other durable solutions. The tensions in property disputes pose a serious threat to post-conflict stabilisation. This article discusses the importance of issues relating to housing, land and property throughout the displacement cycle. Violations of the rights to housing, land and property are at the same time, both cause and consequence of displacement. The loss of shelter and soil brings new vulnerabilities for displaced populations that may jeopardize their health and physical safety and limit their opportunities to earn a living. The restitution of housing and property is also a key element to achieving durable solutions. The existence of effective mechanisms for conflict resolution plays an important role in consolidating peace. This paper will examine specific challenges to address land disputes in the context of informal occupation of land and will provide an overview of how humanitarian actors address this issue.
Exploring the Nexus between Displacement and Land Administration: The Case of Rwanda
Land
In conflict situations, many people are displaced because of hostility and arms in the area. Displaced people are forced to leave behind their properties, and this in turn interrupts the relationship between people and their land. The emergency period in particular has been identified as a weak point in the humanitarian response to land issues in post-conflict situations. In addition, during this period of response, most post-conflict governments do not prioritize land administration as an emergency issue due to other social, economic, security, and political challenges, which countries face in the immediate aftermath of the conflict. In the longer run, this results in post-conflict illegal land occupation, secondary occupation, numerous disputes and claims over land, and dysfunctional government institutions that legalize these illegal and secondary occupations. This research explores the nexus between displacement and land administration in a post-conflict context. It uses empiric...
Land, Conflict and Humanitarian Action, 2009
The chapter describes some of the political challenges involved in managing the transition from emergency activities to longer-term 'developmental' policies in Rwanda and Burundi. In post-genocide Rwanda, uncompensated expropriation and a nationwide settlement policy may have reduced short-term problems over secondary occupation of property, but have created lingering grievances. International agencies have underplayed the role of state agency in their analysis of these problems. In post-confl ict Burundi, many actors view the challenges through a return-focused lens, which fails to recognize the structural dimensions of land disputes. Despite widespread awareness of the importance of land issues, the government and UN agencies have been slow to address them. The implications for programmes dealing with post-confl ict land issues in other countries are discussed. The chapter concludes that humanitarian agencies cannot afford to work according to narrow, technical viewpoints and mandates. Awareness of historical and political dimensions, and support for monitoring, are vital.
Uncharted territory: land, conflict and humanitarian …, 2009
The chapter describes some of the political challenges involved in managing the transition from emergency activities to longer-term 'developmental' policies in Rwanda and Burundi. In post-genocide Rwanda, uncompensated expropriation and a nationwide settlement policy may have reduced short-term problems over secondary occupation of property, but have created lingering grievances. International agencies have underplayed the role of state agency in their analysis of these problems. In post-confl ict Burundi, many actors view the challenges through a return-focused lens, which fails to recognize the structural dimensions of land disputes. Despite widespread awareness of the importance of land issues, the government and UN agencies have been slow to address them. The implications for programmes dealing with post-confl ict land issues in other countries are discussed. The chapter concludes that humanitarian agencies cannot afford to work according to narrow, technical viewpoints and mandates. Awareness of historical and political dimensions, and support for monitoring, are vital.
2016
Disputes over land are a prominent feature of many situations of protracted violent conflict in Burundi, Uganda and South Sudan. Research conducted as part of the programme ‘Grounding Land Governance’ underscores that war reshuffles access and ownership, but also critically changes the ways in which land is governed. Land issues often come to resonate with other conflicts in society, thereby affecting overall stability. This makes interventions in land governance politically sensitive. And while intended to improve land governance practices, reforms often result in unintended and unpredictable outcomes, and have significant impacts for the legitimacy of the state. We therefore conclude that land governance in post-conflict settings deserves particular attention from academics and policy makers. The second part of this policy note discusses decentralization, which is a prominent feature of reform programmes throughout the region. Our studies found that transferring responsibilities f...
2016
After conflict, governments and donors often feel a need for up-scaling and modernizing land use. Through stimulating large-scale investment in land, the ambition is to realize economic recovery and contribute to food-security. Our research in Uganda, Burundi and South Sudan suggests that policy makers should be extremely careful to promote large-scale land acquisitions, both foreign and national ones. Especially in the difficult transition from war to peace, large-scale appropriation of land risks turning into a threat to tenure security and the recovery of rural livelihoods. The second part of this info-sheet analyses ongoing transformations in and policies on pastoralism in the Great Lakes Region, which also has a significant effect on rural livelihoods and land use patterns. Pastoralism is widespread in the region, and plays an important role in contestation over land. Issues at stake are the increasing enclosure of former communal lands, competition with other land users, and l...
Land administration in post-conflict areas : a key land and conflict issue
2010
SUMMARY Access to land and related resources is nearly always an issue during and shortly after a major conflict. Sometimes difficulty with access to land and related resources is one of the causes of the conflict, in other cases it is more a side-effect of the conflict. There is a growing recognition of the importance of addressing land issues early and effectively at all stages of the humanitarian response to a post-conflict situation. Some of the land-related challenges that arise in post-conflict situations include: loss or destruction of property, secondary occupation, landlessness, insecure use or mobility rights and lack of clarity regarding ownership or use rights. Failure to address these issues can create significant obstacles to humanitarian interventions and early recovery responses and, if unaddressed, may contribute to renewed violence. If land issues are to be recognized, put on the agenda and addressed from first response to a post-conflict situation into early recov...