The implementation of the Ogiek judgment is in the hearts and the spirits of the Ogiek people and the indigenous peoples globally. On 26 May 2017, we received the judgment at the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights (ACtHPR) in Arusha Tanzania, after a 12-year process that started in Kenyan courts and involved the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR), The Gambia, besides the Court.

Nigeria’s arid North West is beset by violence between herders and farmers, which has been compounded by an explosion in criminal activity and infiltration by jihadist groups into the region. The last decade has seen thousands of people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, with many fleeing into Niger Republic next door. State-level peace efforts with several armed factions have had some success, but these will not prove durable unless more actors lay down their weapons.

La sécurisation des droits fonciers a pour objectif de garantir les droits réels d’une personne sur un bien foncier. L’absence d’un régime de sécurisation fiable est un frein du développement socio-économique des pays africains. Cette étude vise la réalisation d’une comparaison entre les régimes de sécurisation foncière en Afrique à travers les cas de trois pays africains en voie de développement à savoir le Maroc, la Tunisie et le Rwanda. L’objectif étant de tirer les atouts et les faiblesses du régime adopté dans chacun de ces pays.

The “Responsible Governance of Investments in Land” (RGIL) project in Uganda fosters investment quality promotion to ensure that agriculture and forestry investments in land are productive, contribute to sustainable land management and respect the rights and needs of local populations, including vulnerable groups and women.

In many countries around the world, the land administration system deals only with formal land rights, often subject to legislation passed during the colonial period. Formal or statutory tenure is where a landholder’s rights are specified in the law. This enables the owner(s) or rightholder(s) to rely on the law to defend his or her rights. But the poor often hold their land through customary or informal tenure systems which are often not recognized in law or in practice and therefore they lack the tenure security provided by the law.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi women displaced by war remain unable to return to their homes because of systemic injustices that prevent them from proving or claiming ownership of their property.

New research by the Norwegian Refugee Council reveals that displaced women in Iraq are much worse off than men: they are 11 per cent more likely to face barriers impeding them from going back home after years of suffering in displacement camps since the end of the war against Islamic State group in their areas of origin.

Despite an inflow of investment in rural communities, there are concerns about negative impacts on local people’s livelihoods, access to farming land, productivity, income levels, food security and access to social services. The Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) research partnership assessed the impact and benefits of large-scale investments in the agricultural sector on livelihoods of smallholder farmers using two case studies. Evidence from this project suggests that the large-scale investments increased the income of surrounding communities.

L’acquisition de larges superficies de terres arables dans les pays en développement pour y effectuer des investissements a pris forme et ampleur au Sénégal en 2000 avec l’avènement des réformes dans le secteur agricole. Une étude d’IPAR de 2011 dresse un tableau sombre d’attribution de grandes surfaces au profit d’investisseurs privés.Les femmes sont particulièrement touchées par ce phénomène.

Communities around the world are reeling from the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken to contain it. Now more than ever, the ability to know, use, and shape the law is critical. Access to health care and various forms of relief hinge on the ability to know one’s rights and navigate complex systems. As emergency actions escalate, citizens must ensure that governments do not use the pandemic as an excuse to entrench unjust or discriminatory policies.

Namati has created a list of COVID-19 resources that address topics relevant to grassroots justice groups (available as a Google Doc 52 or PDF 74). Inside, you’ll find reflections and advice on:

In late March, Indian Premier Narendra Modi imposed a three-week lockdown to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. Since then, tens of thousands of migrant workers who had previously provided cheap labour in wealthy homes or on construction sites in the nation’s growing metropolises have been making their way back to their rural home regions.