![Neil-Option3_0](/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/user/profile/Neil-Option3_0.jpg?itok=KxSd0v1Z)
Topics and Regions
Neil Sorensen joined the Land Portal as its Communications Specialist in October 2015. He has extensive experience leading communications for international organizations and developing relationships with civil society, donors, intergovernmental agencies, the media and the private sector. Previously, Neil worked for the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) as a Governing Bodies Officer and Strategic Adviser to the Secretary of IFAD. He has also led communications for three international organizations, including the International Land Coalition, the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). He holds a Master’s degree in Global Diplomacy from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) as well as a Bachelor’s degree with a double major in German and Sociology from St. Cloud State University.
Details
Location
Innovations in Land Registry Management (Cross-Cutting)
Land registries play a key role in protecting landholders against dispossession and promoting good governance and economic development. Effective land agencies provide efficient and accessible land registration services, transparent land information, and clear ownership records to prevent disputes. Accurate records of property rights provide a basis for delivering services such as water or electricity, levying property taxes, enforcing zoning and environmental laws, and are necessary (although not sufficient) for landholders to use their properties as collateral.
Reflections on GLII Achievements and Plans
Its June 2018, half a year down the line following the reclassification of several land indicators including 1.4.2 by the IAEG-SDGs in November 2017. To all of us, this milestone was defining and encouraging in our effort towards achieving monitoring of land governance issues at scale.
Land Portal 2017 Annual Report
Improved access to land and data is pivotal for the promotion of land governance reform as well as the fulfillment of human rights and sustainable development. With access to reliable data and information, informed decisions regarding land and property rights can take place.
A Community-Based Practitioner’s Guide: Documenting Citizenship and Other Forms of Legal Identity
This guide provides step-by-step instructions on establishing and operating a paralegal or other community-based program to help people obtain legal identity documents. It is primarily for people designing and managing community-based paralegal projects to help clients access documentary proof of citizenship and other forms of proof of legal identity, such as birth certificates.
The Network Recap – June 2018
Land sector challenges are vast and complex. Insecure rights to land continues to affect more than 2 billion people living in urban and rural informality worldwide, with women, youth and indigenous people faring the worst. We need more strategic partnerships, at all levels, that drive innovative thinking and provide practical solutions to these tenure security challenges.
Defenders Annual Report 2017
This report, and our campaign, is dedicated to all those individuals, communities and organisations that are bravely taking a stand to defend human rights, their land, and our environment.
207 of them were murdered last year for doing just that. On these pages we remember their names, and celebrate their activism.
And we reiterate our resolve to stand alongside those who continue the struggle for a better world and shine a light on these issues which are too often hidden from sight.
You are not alone. Justice will be done.
Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders at Risk in 2017
As human rights defenders around the world put their lives on the line to challenge dictators, destructive multi-national corporations, religious conservatives, and oppressive regimes, there pervades a well-resourced and coordinated strategy of defamation, criminalisation and violence deployed to intimidate, marginalise and silence peaceful, powerful activists. The human cost has been high. More than 300 human rights defenders were murdered in 2017. Yet, in spite of this violence, there are more HRDs, working on more issues, in more countries, than ever before.
A Better World Volume 4
With the establishment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, the Human Development Forum at Tudor Rose has expanded its publishing operation with the creation of a series of volumes entitled A Better World, each dedicated to one or more of the 17 SDGs. This volume, published in September 2018, covers Goal 15: Life on Land, and particularly Goal 15.3, which aims to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality
(LDN) globally by 2030.
Attacks and criminalization of Indigenous Peoples defending their lands and rights
The Secretariat has the honour to present to the Human Rights Council the report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, prepared pursuant to Council resolution 33/12. In the report the Special Rapporteur briefly refers to the activities undertaken since the submission of her last report, provides a thematic study on attacks against and the criminalization of indigenous human rights defenders and reflects on available prevention and protection measures. She concludes with recommendations on how various stakeholders can prevent violations and improve protection.
Land and Conflict
Land is often a critical aspect of conflict: it may be a root cause or trigger conflicts or may become an issue as the conflict progresses. Conflicts lead to forced evictions; the people who are displaced by conflict need somewhere to live and some land to farm or to graze their animals, often leading to further disputes over the use of land and other resources.