News on Land

The Indonesian government launched the One Map Policy Geoportal (KSP Geoportal). This policy involves a more detailed map of land use, hence aiming at resolving overlapping claims - as well as preventing the emergence of new cases - across the country, including in forest areas. The map was launched by Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Tuesday (11/12).

Although achieving equality for women across the world has been a major focus of human rights movements in 2018, women continue to bear the brunt of inequality. This is according to a new Amnesty International report released on Monday.

City representatives said they had moved beyond national climate battles and were now taking action

KATOWICE, Poland - Compact pedestrian neighborhoods, urban forests and even carbon-sucking technologies must make the to-do list of more city mayors if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change, scientists said at U.N. talks on Monday.

The Liberia Land Authority (LLA) has said Liberia continues to experience huge land conflicts in Montserrado, Margibi, Nimba, Bong, and Grand Bassa counties as these are the “red zones” of land conflicts in the country. This assertion comes against the current backdrop of a spate of land-related conflicts which appear to be on the increase.

Georgia’s Constitutional Court has suspended a moratorium on purchasing agricultural land by foreign citizens. While the court ruled the ban was unconstitutional, the suspension will only be temporary as constitutional amendments are set to kick in. Foreign citizens now have nine days left to register land they have bought or inherited.

When the water reached some of Kisiwa Panza's graveyards, people found themselves scrambling to protect the remains of their friends and families

KISIWA PANZA, Tanzania - First, the encroaching sea started eating away at homes and killing crops on the small island of Kisiwa Panza. Then the rising tides began bringing up the dead.

For over 25 years, rising seas linked to climate change have caused repeated flooding on this remote islet in the Tanzanian archipelago, saturating the land with saltwater.

South African lawmakers have agreed to amend the law, making way for land expropriation without compensation. Most of the land is still in the hands of the white minority, traditional leaders and South Africa's elite.

South Africa's National Assembly has given the green light to change the constitution on the issue of land distribution, making way for land expropriation without compensation for the previous owners. The lawmakers agreed to establish a committee of 25 people, representing all parliamentary parties, to flesh out  and introduce a new bill on land reform.

Land ownership remains highly skewed within our country. The lack of access to land is even more glaring when we look at the minuscule proportion of women who own land in both rural and urban settings. Providing women land ownership is one sure way to address a range of gender-empowerment challenges plaguing our country. It is thus noteworthy that our Ministry of Human Rights has recently launched a public campaign concerning the rights of women to inherit land under Islamic jurisprudence and the Constitution.

Government and aid agencies are trying to regularize land rights through registration but do rural people benefit?

Mekonnen Firew Ayano is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for African Studies at Harvard University

While climate negotiators meet behind closed doors to implement the Paris Agreement, climate activists have put out their own set of demands.

On Monday, as delegates entered the maze of the COP24 conference center in Katowice, Poland, they were greeted by the upbeat sound of a Polish marching band. On Tuesday it was a chorus: the voices of dozens of young climate activists from all over the world.

"We demand so much more from COP24," the group sang in unison. "We remember, we resist, we rise."

Mushtipalli thanda, Nalgonda district, Telangana: July 6, 2017, had started as an ordinary day for 26-year-old Ramavath Challi, who had spent it picking cotton for a daily wage. However, on returning home that evening, she had found the entire thanda (tribal hamlet) gathered there, surrounding her husband Madhu’s lifeless body. “Appula baadha padaleka ayina mandu taagindu,” she told IndiaSpend on a recent November day, her voice choking.