Land Rights Issues in International Human Rights Law (original) (raw)
Related papers
Land Rights as Human Rights: The Case for a Specific Right to Land
Sur - International Journal on Human Rights, 2014
Land rights have received some attention as an issue concerning property rights and have been considered a specifically important right for indigenous peoples and women, but a right to land is absent from all international human rights instruments. This article reviews how land rights have been approached from five different angles under international human rights law: as an issue of property right, as a specifically important right for indigenous peoples; as an ingredient for gender equality; and as a rallying slogan against unequal access to food and housing. By examining these different approaches, the article proposes to identify the place of land rights within the international human rights instruments and jurisprudence as well as to examine why they have not been – and whether they should be - included in such documents as a stand-alone and specific right to land.
LAND RIGHTS: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAND POLICY FRAMEWORK, TREATIES AND GRASSROOTS REALITIES
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Technology, 2023
Ownership of land and allied resources is an emerging reason for dispute all over the globe. These disputes affect the perspective of rural growth, human rights, indigenous culture, ecological conversation, and attempt to combat changes in climate conditions. Traditionally, most of the land resources are governed and owned by the local and indigenous communities through their customary tenure system. In the last several decades due to various reasons, the perspective towards land resources is changed and land became a commodity. The landowners have also changed their perspective and used it as a commodity to get financial resources. The land is a primary source of developing livelihood assets of humans and the life cycle of biodiversity. Recent trends in land markets and emerging land conflicts are indications of future societal and administrative problems. To minimize further impacts proper policies and protection measures are important. Protection of the traditional rights of indigenous people is a primary duty of governance and society. The appropriate policies and conflict resolution mechanism is important to secure the livelihood of forest dwellers. This paper is intended to address the emerging challenges and land rights issues from a wider perspective.
Despite the focus on land rights from the different UN human rights institutions and notably CESCR, there is still no clear and comprehensive statement on the fundamental importance and the content of the right to land. Though land rights are recognized within the agenda of the Committee, there has been no official acknowledgment of land rights as human rights. Instead, land rights are viewed as part of the realization of other fundamental rights, such as the right to food or the right to water. It is time for the right to land to be recognized by governments as a stand-alone human rights issue.
Encyclopedia of Global Justice, Deen Chatterjee, ed., 2011
Indigenous rights to land are collective human rights, the recognition and realization of which are inextricably bound up with the rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination. These rights are held and exercised collectively by indigenous peoples as peoples in virtue of indigenous persons' basic and universal interests as human beings. As human rights, indigenous rights to land are inalienable and have moral, political, and legal priority over the interests of states. The relationships to land that ground indigenous peoples’ rights are ongoing, and they establish interests in access, use, and disposition of land that are of obvious importance from both a moral point of view and for the smooth functioning of social relations.
2020
This commentary is written in support of the advocacy for a new human right to land put forward by Miloon Kothari. As highlighted by Kothari, access to land and natural resources is a fundamental issue for many people across the globe and should be included in international human rights law. With increased change to the planet’s climate, increasing investment in agribusiness, high demands for food and increasing populations, the demand for land is reaching breaking point. On top of these factors, the dominant market economy increasingly sees land as an important portfolio for investment, leading to what has been labelled ‘land grabbing’ across the globe. All these factors are analysed widely in the literature. What this commentary wishes to do is to ask whether the human right to land is ‘new’ or whether it is only the reinterpretation of other existing rights. To do so it will focus on three main questions. Why was the right to land not included as a stand-alone human rights norm (...
Ensuring land rights benefit the poor
2012
Secure rights to property are vital for people to escape poverty. Such rights enable them, for example, to access and transfer land, borrow money using their house as collateral, graze their animals on common land, use water for irrigation, and collect fuelwood in forests. These rights are often formalised and guaranteed through state law. But attempts to strengthen private- and common-property regimes have not always produced the expected results. Instead, local disputes often arise. This is because these rights are subject not only to government regulation, but also to customary norms and local power relations. Further, rights that are recognised by the government do not by themselves guarantee that people may use a piece of land in a productive way. Pro-poor property reforms must therefore be accompanied by efforts to strengthen legal security and local acceptance by considering customary practices as well. Support for land and labour productivity is also required, as the poor of...
Protecting and strengthening the land tenure of vulnerable groups
2018
Disputes over land access and control often escalate into violence and conflict leading to dispossession and forced displacement within and across borders. Estimates indicate that 56 percent of conflicts are related to land and that most conflicts take place in developing countries. At the end of 2015, 95 percent of the 65 million refugees and internally displaced people were living in developing countries. The central role of land to livelihood, identity and power, most notably in rural-based economies explains why disputes over access and control of land frequently escalates into armed conflict and mass displacement. This Note is part of a series of World Bank Thematic Guidance Notes on land and conflict that present key issues, challenges and guiding principles to address land tenure issues in conflict and post-conflict environments. The audience for these Notes is both laymen and practitioners who are preparing a project or program in a conflict or post-conflict setting, includi...
On Land Rights for Indigenous Peoples
1991
This paper from 1991 aims at: (a) examining some of the connections between indigenous peoples and land rights and (b) presenting some elements of a framework within which to understand and analyze concrete cases of indigenous peoples' land rights. Land rights is however only one aspect of indigenous cultures, and this limited overview cannot do justice to these often exceedingly complex cultures. The emphasis seems, however, justified since land in a very deep emotional and spiritual sense is viewed as synonymous with the very life of indigenous peoples. The logic of the argument is built up around the following key terms: sustainable development, self-determination, land rights, and organization and action. But first it is necessary to focus on who the indigenous peoples are and what their current situation is.
juxtaposing land and rights in an era of globaliztion
In an era of globalization land becomes one of the most important livelihood means for the Dalits. Increasingly the Dalits are deprived and removed off from land. This article makes an attempt towards the issue of land and how the Dalits are deprived.