Following a workshop in Benin in February, details examples of land grabbing in Cameroon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Mali, Congo, DRC, Gabon, Benin.

WETHMAY, Myanmar—Anger over plans to expand a Chinese-backed mine near here is emerging as a test case of Myanmar's recent political reforms.

Villagers have staged raucous protests in recent weeks over the giant copper mine near Monywa in northwestern Myanmar, owned jointly by Myanmar's military and a subsidiary of China North Industries Corp., an arms manufacturer. The subsidiary, Wanbao Mining Ltd., and its Myanmar partners are hoping to expand the mine, but that would require taking over huge tracts of land and moving as many as 26 villages, locals say...

The Asian Human Rights Commission has followed closely reports in recent weeks of an uprising by farmers against a takeover of a large area of agricultural land in upper Burma by an army-owned company and a private partner. The land grab, in the Letpadan Mountain Range of Sarlingyi Township, Sagaing Region, is of some 7800 acres of fertile land, to make way for copper mining. Currently farmers of around 26 villages cultivate the land. The residents of four villages--Siti, Wehmay, Zidaw and Kandaw--have already been forced out of their homes.

This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during April 2011 in Tantabin Township, Toungoo District by a community member trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The community member interviewed a 37 year-old township secretary, Saw H---, who described abuses committed by several Tatmadaw battalions, including forced relocation, land confiscation, forced labour, restrictions on freedom of movement, denial of humanitarian access, targeting civilians, and arbitrary taxes and demands.

Villagers say their farmland was unlawfully taken from them by a military-backed mining venture...More than 10,000 villagers in northwestern Burma demonstrated Wednesday, burning effigies and demanding the return of land they said was illegally confiscated by a mining company in a rare mass protest.

They marched from the site of the Monywa copper mine, located in the Latpadaung mountain range in Saigang division’s Sarlingyi township, but were stopped by more than 200 government security personnel and company officials, said one female villager.

This research forms part of a larger study on large-scale land acquisition in Uganda. There are three main components of this study: (1) a “risk map” that identifies areas “at risk” for land acquisition due to their high suitability for biofuel crop production; (2) a due diligence report on the existing land uses and users of land identified as “at risk” in the first activity; and (3) an assessment of the land acquisition process, including applicable social and environmental safeguards.

Rangoon (Mizzima) – Htay Myint, the owner of the Yuzana Company, says the company will give back more than 1,000 acres of confiscated land in the Hukaung Valley in Kachin State to the original owners, said activist Bauk Ja.

Land grabbing is an urgent concern for people in Tanintharyi Division, and
ultimately one of national and international concern, as tens of thousands of people are being displaced
for the Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Dawei lies within Myanmar’s (Burma) southernmost
region, the Tanintharyi Division, which borders Mon State to the North, and Thailand to the East, on
territory that connects the Malay Peninsula with mainland Asia. This highly populated and prosperous

Includes what’s up at the World Bank?, FAO: levelling off the playing field, key initiatives and actors promoting ‘responsible’ land grabbing, the corporates calling their own shots, weapons of mass deceit, food for thought.

Includes customary law in South Sudan, statutory land law, customary land tenure, interface of customary and statutory systems, women’s land rights, access to land for returnees, land disputes, land grabbing and other challenges, recommendations.

This Photo Set presents 17 still photographs taken by a local community member who has been trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The photos were all taken in March 2012 at the Toh Boh Dam construction site in Tantabin Township within locally-defined Toungoo District. According to the community member who took these photos, more than 100 households have been relocated from the area now occupied by the dam construction site, where construction is ongoing.

This study strongly indicates the lack
of access to land for women in Kenya's agricultural
communities cannot be framed as a failing of formal or
informal systems, but rather as issues with both. Even the
creation of fused or hybrid mechanisms, such as the Land
Control Boards (LCBs) and Land Disputes Tribunals (LDTs),
has not increased access to justice. Underlying power
dynamics and the use of such systems by self-serving