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Welcome to Land Times
The Housing and Land Rights Network team welcomes you to this inaugural issue of Land Times, the new periodical newsletter of the HIC-HLRN’s Middle East/North Africa program. While this issue represents the beginning of a service to Members of Habitat International Coalition’s Housing and Land Rights Network and the concerned public, it also embodies a
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Al-Gaddafi Regime and the Internal Colonization of Libya
The Gaddafi regime in Libya has practiced gross violations against the Libyan people. Similar to other regimes in the region, the leadership has carried out land grabbing in Tripoli, Sert, Banghazi and al-Baidha, and consequently protected Gaddafi family interests by building palaces resorts and leading a luxurious lifestyle. According to some reports, this large-scale theft of the Libyan people’s resources
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Yemen: Land Corruption and Social Unrest
Land tenure issues have been a source of conflict in Yemen over years, but, not unlike Egypt, pillaging the land in Yemen has became unabated as a function of the abuse of power and tribal families’ control families of vast territories, especially in the south. Private interests have abused land rights, whether they represent supporters of the regime, or even
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Waves of Resistance and the Call for Fundamental Change: What’s Habitat Got to Do with It?
On last International Housing and Land Rights Day (Habitat Day), 3 October 2011, HIC-HLRN reported in detail the dramatic prominence of habitat issues since we commemorated the date in 2010. Not only has it been revealed that the polar ice cap is melting at a far more-rapid rate that previously estimated, but an unexpected uprising in a region of entrenched
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“The Goldberg Opportunity” Revisited
Following the Israeli government-appointed Goldberg Commission in 2008, an inquiry into how to “regulate” the 45 “unrecognized” Bedouin villages in of the country’s southern Naqab region, HIC-HLRN organized in an international fact-finding mission (IFFM) of eminent experts to proffer human rights-based solutions to the planning and land-rights problems addressed in the Goldberg recommendations. HIC-HLRN submitted
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UN Legal Body Reviews Housing and Land Rights in Israel
On 5 December 2011, the UN’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) published its Concluding Observations, following its critical review of Israel’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). In this, its third periodic review of Israel as a State party to the Covenant, the monitoring body had conducted a “constructive dialog” with
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Revolutionary Devices to Change the Culture of Water Management in MENA: Water Protests (Lebanon, Morocco and Mauritania)
The regimes not do not articulate policies in terms of people`s rights to access to clean and safe water, but follow neoliberal policies, that are motivated by profit.This is despite legislative systems and laws in those countries that stipulate that water is public property and may not be privately owned or disposed of. However, those texts lack implementation on the
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HIC-HLRN Hosts Land Forum III in Cairo
HIC-HLRN hosted Members organizations, experts and activists in Cairo on 15–17 January 2012 in the third edition of the Middle East/North Africa Land Forum. This session’s theme, “The Land, People’s Sovereignty and Self-determination,” reflected the region’s changing governance landscape. While previous iterations of the Land Forum also have focused on the human rights dimensions of land and natural resources, this
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Counting Costs
Forced evictions and displacement of communities from their homes and habitats destroy lives and livelihoods, particularly of the poor, with support from both the state and private actors. In the context of urbanization and the scramble for economic resources, this phenomenon continues to accelerate across many countries. Despite the development of ample international human rights norms, a lack of effective
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Principles on Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations Adopted
HIC-HLRN, in a consortium of international human rights organizations, academic centers and experts, announced the 11 October 2011 adoption of the Maastricht Principles on Extra-territorial Obligations (ETOs) of States under legal obligation to uphold Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. These international principles clarify the human rights treaty obligations of States beyond their own borders.
The Principles cover all Economic, Social and
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The Case of the Gunditjmara and Eastern Maar Peoples of Australia
While uncovering the corruption of the MENA region’s authoritarian regimes and the looting of the territory and wealth of their people, we take note of a positive development from the Australian continent, in which a group of indigenous peoples on the continent won recognition of their right to ownership of the territory of the island on which they live. This
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One More Step toward an International Convention on the Rights of Peasants
The Advisory Committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council will present a final study on ways and means to further advance the rights of people working in rural areas in February 2012. The preliminary study is available here: This study stresses the urgent need to establish the human rights of peasants and agricultural workers, particularly when considering the context
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Chronic Hunger: Consequence of Impunity of Right to Food Violations
Despite the growth of a worldwide Right to Food movement and the existence of international frameworks and mechanisms to protect human rights, violations are also widespread and continue to go unpunished. In response to this unacceptable pattern, the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2011, a consortium of 15 specialized human rights NGOs was formed, including HIC. The Watch has
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New Guidelines for States on Land Administration
The Committee on World Food Security led intergovernmental negotiations toward a new set of Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. The negotiations took place on 10–15 October, 2011, with significant progress made, as participants reviewed 75% of the guidelines. The negotiations have been adjourned and will
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UN Transitional Justice Resolution Bodes Well for Arab Spring
The United Nations (UN) has sent a strong signal that impunity for serious human rights violations will not be tolerated. The UN’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution (Arabic) at its last session creating a new Special Procedure with a mandate to report on transitional justice. The mandate establishes a Special Rapporteur on the promotion of justice, reparation and
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| Terminology Corner |
| Contributors to this Land Times |
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