Webinar: Land in Post-Conflict Settings | Land Portal
Contact details: 
Neil Sorensen, neil.sorensen@landportal.org
Organizers: 
UNEP

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.


UNEP work encompasses:


  • Assessing global, regional and national environmental conditions and trends
McGillUniversity

McGill University is one of Canada's best-known institutions of higher learning and one of the leading universities in the world. With students coming to McGill from over 150 countries, our student body is the most internationally diverse of any research-intensive university in the country. 

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As a service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education work, we are dedicated to shaping a future worth living around the world. We have over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment promotion, energy and the environment, and peace and security. The diverse expertise of our federal enterprise is in demand around the globe – from the German Government, European Union institutions, the United Nations, the private sector, and governments of other countries.

The webinar on Land in Post-Conflict Settings took place on 25 June from 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM CEST (8:00-10:30 AM EST or 4:00-5:30 PM EAT).

Post-war societies not only have to deal with continuing unpeaceful relations but also land-related conflict legacies, farmland and forest degradation, heavily exploited natural resources, land mines, a destroyed infrastructure, as well as returning refugees and ex-combatants. In the aftermath of war, access to and control of land often remains a sensitive issue which may precipitate tensions and lead to a renewed destabilization of volatile post-conflict situations.

Land governance in post-conflict environments is often characterized by weak governance, dysfunctional legal systems and lacking administrative capacities, corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, power disparities along class, gender, and generational lines, loss of legal documents, mismanagement, competition based on ethnicity and identity, as well as the illegal use of land and natural resources. The concurrence and confusion of plural legal systems may prolong the review of land tenure systems as customary tenure, religious and indigenous law may oppose statutory law.

This webinar addressed issues of displacement, international principles to mitigate post-war land restitution, land legacies and tenure reforms, repercussions of commercial land deals and infrastructure projects, as well as interlinkages to conflict transformation.

Moderator: Anne Hennings,  Research fellow, University of Muenster, Germany

  • Jon Unruh, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, McGill University, Canada
  • SiuSue Mark, PhD, Land & Natural Resources Advisor, Joint Peace Fund
  • Alexandre Corriveau-Bourque, Independent consultant
  • Odongo James, Program Advisor, GIZ-CPS Uganda
  • Julius Omony, Program Advisor, GIZ-CPS Uganda

 

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