The recent Secretary General’s “Report on Peacebuilding in the Immediate Aftermath of Conflict” warns of the threats posed by the failure to restore state authority to lead the peacebuilding process in early post‐conflict situations. This report advocates for coherent and well coordinated early action to support post‐conflict governments to build core state capacities that will help to restore legitimacy and effectiveness. This paper lays out a framework for reconsidering the unique challenges post‐conflict contexts pose to processes of state capacity development.

The international community has recently hailed the restoration of property rights for people uprooted by armed conflict as a means of remedying forced displacement. Proponents of property restitution assert that this remedy can enhance the rule of law in a post-conflict society by promoting reconciliation and bolstering economic and social stability. A United Nations (U.N.) subcommission has endorsed a set of legal and technical guidelines for constructing a property restitution scheme.

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.

This bulletin draws on country-level experience to share civil society perspectives on the challenges, opportunities, and possible approaches for pro-poor REDD. As governments begin to formulate their national REDD programs, questions are emerging about the role of local people in design and implementation, and the socio-economic implications for the rural poor. Drawing on experiences from Nepal and Vietnam, this bulletin includes:

This Scoping Mission Report, aimed at identifying the key land policy and land tenure reform issues and processes facing Sierra Leone, is based on extensive consultations with a wide range of stakeholders and review of available literature, undertaken in July 2009. It was commissioned by the Recovery for Development Unit of the UNDP in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands, Country Planning and the Environment. It will serve the purpose of enhancing public dialogue and programme development on land reform, and to also guide the coordination of initiatives and resource mobilization.

This analysis and recommendations stem from USAID/Kenya’s request for an assessment of Kenya’s draft National Land Policy (dNLP).4 It was conducted under the global task order: Property Rights and Resource Governance Program, a mechanism designed and supervised by USAID-EGAT’s Land Resources Management Team under the Office of Natural Resources Management.

Decentralization in natural resource management (NRM) is increasingly promoted as it is believed to offer better management. This study explores the positive and negative aspects of the forestry conflict that sometimes increases with decentralization. Drawing upon the results of a case study from Sumatra, this study examines how forestry conflict under decentralization processes was viewed by stakeholders. The conflict involved a logging company and a local community, and centered on a disputed forest boundary.

Since 1990 at least eighteen violent conflicts have been fuelled by the exploitation of natural resources. In fact, recent research suggests that over the last sixty years at least forty percent of all intrastate conflicts have a link to natural resources. Civil wars such as those in Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo have centred on high-value resources like timber, diamonds, gold, minerals and oil. Other conflicts, including those in Darfur and the Middle East, have involved control of scarce resources such as fertile land and water.

Peacebuilding in conflict-prone or post-conflict countries -- such as East Timor, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone -- aims to prevent the re-emergence or escalation of violent conflict and establish a durable peace. This volume explores and critiquesthe 'liberal' premise of contemporary peacebuilding: the promotion of democracy, market-based economic reforms and a range of other institutions associated with 'modern' states as a driving force for building peace.

ABSTRACTED FROM INTRODUCTION: 

This report provides an in depth analysis of the inheritance rights of children in Sri Lanka. Chapter 2 looks at inheritance rights of children from a human rights perspective. It examines the international human rights instruments which guarantee the right to adequate housing of children and which aim to protect their inheritance rights. It analyses the essential components of the right to adequate housing and looks at Sri Lanka’s obligations to protect and promote these rights.

Forest-based conflict is one of the major global challenges for the international forestry agenda together with poverty, climate change, conservation, and biofuels. In this paper, we will estimate the scope of the problem for people and forests, identify the role of forest rights and tenure as part of the cause of and solution to conflict, and project future challenges.