Public Ownership of Rural Lands Proclamation No. 31/1975.
The Proclamation is divided into 6 Chapters: Introduction (1); Public Ownership of Rural Lands (2); Establishment of Associations for the Implementation of the Proclamation (3); Powers and Functions of the Minister of Land Reform and Administration (4); Communal and Nomadic Lands (5); General Provisions (6).The Proclamation declares all rural lands to be the collective property of the Ethiopian people and abolishes private ownership of rural land (sect. 3). Peasant Associations are in charge of the redistribution, cultivation, administration etc. of rural lands.