In defense of land rights: A monitoring report on land conflicts in six Asian countries
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conflicts reflect the strong correlation between land grabs and rights violations
for rights defenders and communities alike. Incidences of killings and
harassments exist with the hunger for land and the consequent onslaught of
“development” for mining, plantations, and economic zones. Displacements
are a necessary development cost, and communities are the collateral damage.
As land rights activists and defenders disappear or killed, subtle ways of
harassment through legal means are being employed by the State authorities
to silence them. In most instances, the judicial system is restricting public
participation/right to seek redress as cases related to public interest are
monitored. This has an effect of limiting space available to CSOs for demanding
accountability from the State and other stakeholders. On the other hand, filing
of criminal cases against farmers, indigenous peoples, women (e.g., qualified
theft/arson/trespassing) is hurled left and right as they assert their rights and
rights to land.
It is in this context that the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural
Development (ANGOC) in partnership with Land Watch Asia (LWA) partners
in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines, are
implementing the “Defending Land Rights and Human Rights Defenders”
which seeks to gain recognition for the right to land as a human right, by
engaging land rights organizations and communities in country and regional
dialogues. One component of this initiative is the conduct of Country Land
Conflict Monitoring Reports that aim to contribute to the growing body of
evidence that land and resource conflicts impinge on human rights.
ANGOC
The specific objectives of the land conflict monitoring report are to:
n discuss the impacts and outcomes of land and resource conflicts on local
communities and on land rights defenders;
n assess the nature and causes of land and resource conflicts;
n discuss the available conflict response, and resolution mechanisms in the
country; and,
n recommend actions towards the prevention and resolution of such conflicts.
Country Land Conflict Monitoring Reports were prepared by CSO partners to
understand the nature, causes and impacts of land and resource conflicts, and
to highlight human rights issues in the context of these conflicts. The reports
likewise provided an overview of some of the available conflict response
and resolution mechanisms in the country. Finally, the reports included