Neil Sorensen joined the Land Portal as its Communications Specialist in October 2015. He has extensive experience leading communications for international organizations and developing relationships with civil society, donors, intergovernmental agencies, the media and the private sector. Previously, Neil worked for the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) as a Governing Bodies Officer and Strategic Adviser to the Secretary of IFAD. He has also led communications for three international organizations, including the International Land Coalition, the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). He holds a Master’s degree in Global Diplomacy from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) as well as a Bachelor’s degree with a double major in German and Sociology from St. Cloud State University.
Details
Location
Land and Poverty Conference 2019: Catalyzing Innovation
Welcome to the 20th Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty! This year’s conference theme will be: Catalyzing Innovation.
Thomson Reuters Foundation’s TrustLaw: Free Legal Services for NGOs
TrustLaw is the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s global pro bono legal programme. We connect high-impact NGOs and social enterprises working to create social and environmental change with the best law firms and corporate legal teams to provide them with free legal assistance. We produce groundbreaking legal research and offer innovative training courses worldwide.
A lawyer's nightmare: What I faced when I defended Indigenous Peoples and local communities in Liberia from false charges
A CLASSIC RESPONSE from governments and businesses in recent time is not just to characterize legitimate grievances by Indigenous Peoples and local communities as anti- government, anti-development, and anti-investment. They are waging wars against Indigenous Peoples and individuals who are protecting the planet and its people by criminalizing their legitimate grievances and then threatening, arresting, intimidating, and imprisoning those who dare challenge this mode of development.
What is happening now across the world is nothing less than a systematic attack on peasant communities and Indigenous Peoples
FRONT LINE DEFENDERS has documented 821 human rights defenders (HRDs) who have been killed in the four years since we started producing an annual global list in cooperation with national and international NGOs. Seventy-nine percent of this total came from six countries: Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and the Philippines. The vast majority of these cases have never been properly investigated, and few of the perpetrators of the killings have been brought to justice.
Greening Governance Seminar Series: Reducing Land Rights Inequity between Communities and Companies
This event focuses on the challenges Indigenous Peoples and communities face in acquiring legal rights to their land, the loopholes companies can often take, and ways countries can simplify complex procedures.
Indigenous Peoples and rural communities occupy more than half of the world’s land, but they legally own just 10 percent of land globally.
Land and Conflict
Land is often a critical aspect of conflict: it may be a root cause or trigger conflicts or may become an issue as the conflict progresses. Conflicts lead to forced evictions; the people who are displaced by conflict need somewhere to live and some land to farm or to graze their animals, often leading to further disputes over the use of land and other resources.
Unprecedented Wave of "Criminalization" Sweeping the Globe to Silence Indigenous Peoples
New UN report highlights drastic increase in violence and legal harassment driven by rapid expansion of development projects on indigenous lands
Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders at Risk in 2017
As human rights defenders around the world put their lives on the line to challenge dictators, destructive multi-national corporations, religious conservatives, and oppressive regimes, there pervades a well-resourced and coordinated strategy of defamation, criminalisation and violence deployed to intimidate, marginalise and silence peaceful, powerful activists. The human cost has been high. More than 300 human rights defenders were murdered in 2017. Yet, in spite of this violence, there are more HRDs, working on more issues, in more countries, than ever before.
Front Line Defenders
Front Line Defenders was founded in Dublin in 2001 with the specific aim of protecting human rights defenders at risk (HRDs), people who work, non-violently, for any or all of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR). Front Line Defenders addresses the protection needs identified by HRDs themselves.
Attacks and criminalization of Indigenous Peoples defending their lands and rights
The Secretariat has the honour to present to the Human Rights Council the report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, prepared pursuant to Council resolution 33/12. In the report the Special Rapporteur briefly refers to the activities undertaken since the submission of her last report, provides a thematic study on attacks against and the criminalization of indigenous human rights defenders and reflects on available prevention and protection measures. She concludes with recommendations on how various stakeholders can prevent violations and improve protection.