News on Land
Get the latest news on land and property rights, brought to you by trusted sources from across the globe.
South Africa: Lawmakers open way for land reform
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.
Securing land rights for Pakistani women
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.
Touted as a model abroad, Ethiopia’s rural land registration raises serious questions at home
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
YOUNG ACTIVISTS OFFER THEIR CLIMATE DEMANDS AT COP24: 'WE'RE FIGHTING. WHERE ARE YOU?'
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."
Telangana’s Farmers’ Friend Scheme Has Failed To Stem Farm Distress, Or Farmers’ Anger
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.
Sarawak natives to document oral histories, use drones to map traditional lands
MIRI: Two crucial pioneering projects have started in Sarawak. First, an effort to publish the oral history of the 6,000 indigenous settlements statewide, and second, to use drones and GPS devices to do aerial mappings of native land.
The documentation of native oral history is meant to ensure that rich ancestral traditions and ways of life will not be forgotten.
Vacancy Announcement: Senior Land and Resource Governance Officer
Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3) FSL-01 Senior Land and Resource Governance Officer
Official Position Title: Natural Resources Officer, Backstop 40, FSL-0401-01
Functional Position Title: Senior Land and Resource Governance Advisor
Location of Position: U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment, Office of Land and Urban (E3/LU)
Chile: Mapuche Leaders Meet, Call For Demilitarization
Mapuche leaders met Saturday and discussed a set of demands for the Chilean government, mainly the demilitarization of Mapuche regions.
A group of Mapuche leaders Saturday met in Temucuicui to decide next possible steps after the assassination of Camilo Catrillanca on Nov. 14 by Chilean Carabineros (police).
The leaders decided on four demands they will put forward to the Chilean state.
Targeting of indigenous people fighting for forest rights in India is a fact, say experts
As a new report reveals a rise in the number of indigenous activists being killed for defending forest and land rights worldwide, Down To Earth poses questions about the situation in India
Indigenous or tribal people fighting to defend their forests, land and other resources in India are being targeted prominently, though not in the way one sees in other nations, say tribal and forest rights activists.
Indigenous rights 'invisible' as Ecuador pushes mining, oil projects: U.N.
A United Nations expert says Ecuador has awarded concessions for energy projects on indigenous land without consulting local people
QUITO - Excluding indigenous Ecuadoreans from the country's development plans has made their rights "invisible", a U.N. expert said, citing a government push to approve oil and mining projects to extract resources from their territories.
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, made the comments on Thursday at the end of an 11-day fact-finding mission in the country.