ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The most important event in Pakistan during the period under review was the 2018 general election. This was the third general election in a row in which rival civilian individuals and parties contested each other at the ballot box for seats in the legislatures and the chance to form a government. Moreover, it was the second consecutive transfer of power from one elected civilian government to another.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In the period from 2017 to 2019, Tajikistan’s authoritarian retrenchment continued. Political institutions were monopolized by the elite after the destruction of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) in 2015, at the time the only viable political opposition party. The IRPT’s chairman went into exile, its remaining leaders were rounded up, and lawyers who acted on their behalf were also imprisoned for lengthy prison terms.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In 2014, Afghanistan faced two major interconnected transformations. First was the withdrawal of most international troops. On January 1, 2015, the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces officially took over full defense and security related responsibilities in Afghanistan. Second was the first transition of power through elections in the history of the country. In light of the withdrawal of international troops, the new Afghan government was supposed to focus on developing effective policies related to military, economic and security aspects.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The 2017 to 2018 period in Uzbekistan gave rise to a feeling of relief among the population. With the death of the first president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, in September 2016 and the election of Shavkat Mirziyoyev as new president in December 2016, the so-called post-Soviet transition period had come to an end. The new president managed to create a new image as the leader of the country and as a reformer.

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.

En Afrique rurale, la place des tensions autour de la terre et des ressources naturelles dans des conflits armés mettant en danger la sécurité nationale et parfois internationale a attiré l’attention de nombreux observateurs sur les rapports complexes entre foncier et violence politique.

In May 2019, a complaint was lodged with CAO by members of 22 communities from the Margibi and Bong Counties in Liberia (the “Complainants”), supported by the NGOs Green Advocates International (GAI), Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD), Natural Resource Women Platform (NRWP), and the Yeagbamah National Congress for Human Rights (YNCHR) (hereafter referred to collectively as the “Salala Affected Indigenous Communities Support Organizations”).

The recent spate of violence mostly in north-central and southern Nigeria, typically credited to conflicts between herders and farmers, and the reactions, narratives, and representations that have attended them, calls for an examination of core security questions: who or what is to be secured, from what threat and by what means. In fact, it could be further contextualized as: how is the conflict between farmers and herders constructed, framed, and represented as (in)security within the Nigerian context?

Concerns over food insecurity in developing countries are reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030. Given that land plays an important role in the livelihoods of most people in developing countries, food security and poverty reduction cannot be achieved unless issues of access to land, security of tenure, and the capacity to use land productively and in a sustainable manner are addressed.

Securing land rights of all including the youth to allow for investment is very imperative. This is because access to land is very fundamental to ending extreme poverty especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa where agriculture remains the economic backbone of majority of households.  To this end, access to fair and timeous land disputes resolution mechanism to adjudicate and resolve disputes which create tenure insecurity is critical. This study investigates land dispute cases and the resolution mechanisms among the youth land holders in the Techiman area of Ghana.

In 2007-8, the Cambodian government granted Economic Land Concessions (ELC) to two rubber companies, namely Socfin-KCD and Dak Lak Mondulkiri Aphivath in Bousra commune, Mondulkiri province. Through a comparative approach, the Case study examines the impact of these rubber concessions on local land tenure systems. It examines how each company took into consideration the land claims of affected people and communities, and the effectiveness of the conflict resolution approach.