Land is a fundamental natural resource for living, an economic asset for production, legal entity with multiple rights over it and above all, a societal factor for self-actualization. So, ownership of land has multi-faceted understanding around the world. For the developing country like Nepal having diverse societal arrangements, land tenure system plays important role in economic, social and political structure.

This study is prepared using the data analysis of a field study conducted in January 2017 in the Districts of Monaragala, Ampara, Trincomalee, Mullaitivu and Jaffna in Sri Lanka focusing on the land rights violations that took place in the recent past due to the appropriation of land from the ordinary citizens by the security forces and individuals backed by powerful people and, the tenure security problems faced by the landless rural communities in Monaragala and Ampara districts and the sugar cane farmers living in the settlements of Pelwatta Sugar Company, which is now owned by the gover

Institute for Constitutional Studies (ICS) commissioned a study on Key Land Laws in Sri Lanka during 2017-2018 in order to identify the priority areas for which the attention of policy makers and the administrators is required. These policy briefs are prepared focusing on the five important areas identified by that study.

This paper examines the impact of land reform on agricultural productivity in Tajikistan. Recent legislation allows farmers to obtain access to heritable land shares for private use, but reform has been geographically uneven. The break-up of state farms has occurred in some areas where agriculture has little to offer but, where high value crops are grown, land reform has hardly begun. In cases where collectivized farming persists and land has not been distributed, productivity remains low and individual households benefit little from farming.

The challenges faced by more than five and a half million Afghan refugees who have returned since 2002 receive scant regard in most international media or official proceedings concerning Afghanistan. Attention is primarily focused on Afghanistan’s intensified armed conflict, NATO’s withdrawal planning, and faltering peace efforts. Moreover, despite the millions of refugees who have returned in the past ten years, Afghans still comprise the world’s largest refugee population.

The Afghanistan land sector is plagued by a multitude of problems linked to weak governance, corruption and lack of capacity. There are competing claims to land, widespread conflicts, resultant landlessness and poverty. Other issues are limited availability of undisputed farmland, difficulties in accessing grazing lands and many disputes over pasture lands. These issues are exacerbated by conflicting land ownership systems, insecure land tenure and registration, weak land governance environment and uncertain and incomplete legal frameworks.

More than half the villages of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are affected by a peculiar issue of tenurial ambiguity called “orange areas.” This issue impacts nearly 1.2 million hectares and 1.5 million, largely poor, landless and tribal families, that depend on these lands for food, fuel, fodder and other sources of income. This lack of tenurial clarity also impacts forest protection outcomes in the state and constrains the achievement of biodiversity, water and climate targets.

Up to one quarter of the world’s population is estimated to be landless, including 200 million
people living in rural areas,1
and approximately 75% of the world’s population living in extreme
poverty (less than $1/day) live in rural areas.2
According to the Food and Agriculture Agency of the
United Nations (FAO), “rural landlessness is often the best predictor of poverty and hunger.”3
“While not the only pathway out of poverty, ample evidence suggests that access to land is effective

This background briefing reports on a study of land access
for returnees in Rwanda, and the impacts of land access
policies in the post-conflict period. It also seeks to
understand better the roles international humanitarian
agencies and NGOs have played, and how their performance
can be improved. It is not suggested that Rwanda is typical,
but rather that the centrality of land issues there has thrown
up a revealing set of broader questions.

A new report by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) outlines eight reasons why it is important to address HLP issues from the outset of a humanitarian response, including:
Saving lives, preventing further displacement and human rights violations
Adapting humanitarian response to complex urban environments
Ensuring equal access to humanitarian assistance
Promoting access to justice in crises contexts and contributing towards durable solutions

“It is paradoxical but hardly surprising that the right to food has been endorsed more often and with greater unanimity and urgency than most other human rights, while at the same time being violated more comprehensively and systematically than probably any other.”

Richard Cohen, in Causes of Hunger, 1994

This report is part of a broader comparative effort by As the author worked with colleagues in Rwanda,
two other important dimensions of the Rwandan
experience became clear. Refugee return and land
access in Rwanda has been an extraordinarily
complex matter, with some refugees leaving just in
time for others returning to take up their homes and
lands. Rwanda has important lessons to teach us
about the need to maintain flexibility in dealing with
complexity, and raises questions about whether