CAPE TOWN HUB- SKILL SHARE SESSION: Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Africa; With a Special Focus on Central, Eastern and Southern Africa

Guest Speaker & author

Dr. Albert Kwokwo Barume,

UN Chair to Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

On the 31^st of October 2016, the Cape Town hub hosted a Skill and Information Sharing Session with our eminent guest speaker, Dr. Albert Barume.  He is an African lawyer from the DRC region. He is one of the leading experts around land, human rights and related matters affecting indigenous peoples. He played a key role in leading the protection of rights and norms of indigenous peoples in especially the Africa region and internationally. He also led on the process engaging African governments to support the vote in favour of adopting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples during 2007. Which resulted in the development of the Advisory Opinion of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights Commission on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples impacting the adoption of the UNDRIP during September 2007. He also serves as an expert member to the African Commission’s special mechanism called the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa.  For our skill share session he was a discussant to his book called, Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Africa: With a Special Focus on Central, Eastern and Southern Africa.

He touched on important issues ranging from the human rights-based meaning pertaining the conceptualization of indigenous peoples’ rights in Africa. He also discussed the land rights challenges faced by IPs in the region. Highlighting the importance of the preservation and protection of their land use and management systems, as well as their ways of life. 

An End to Unjust Conservation? (commentary)

The San peoples of the Kalahari have suffered as a result
of exclusionary forms of conservation. CC Harry Jonas.  

In September 2014, events took place in three different parts of the world, which together highlight the multifaceted relationship between human rights and conservation, write Dilys Roe and Harry Jonas. First, in New York, the UN General Assembly adopted the Outcome Document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples (World Conference). The document reaffirms and recognizes, among other things: a) support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; b) commitments to obtain free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting Indigenous peoples' lands or territories and other resources, c) commitments to acknowledge, advance and adjudicate the rights of Indigenous peoples pertaining to lands, territories and resources; and d) the significant contribution of Indigenous peoples to the promotion of sustainable development and ecosystem management, including their associated knowledge. Read the   full commentary here. 

Inaugural Conference on Land Policy in Africa Held in Addis Ababa

The inaugural Conference on Land Policy inAfrica concluded on Friday 14 November 2014 after three full days of presentations and discussions at African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Themed "The next decade of land policy in Africa: ensuring agricultural development and inclusive growth," the Conference brought together parliamentarians, ministers, practitioners, academics, community representatives and other stakeholders to discuss the issue of land in Africa. The Conference was organized by the Land Policy Initiative, which is a joint programme of the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Natural Justice attended the Conference with the support of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies.

While numerous issues were discussed, from global initiatives to national land policy reform to customary tenure systems, three key themes were raised throughout the Conference: implementation of guidelines and policies; customary tenure; and information dissemination.

Legal and Dialogue Training in George, South Africa

From 20 to 22 October 2014, Natural Justice, with the support of Southern Cape Land Committee, hosted 3 days of legal and negotiation training in George, South Africa, involving community members from across the Karoo, likely to be impacted by hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking"). The meeting was supported by Ford Foundation Southern Africa.

With the support of Centre for Environmental Rights, participants from the community in Nelspoort together with representatives from the Anti-Fracking Task Team and Khoi-San representatives, engaged in one day training on fracking generally, as well as relevant environment and participation laws in South Africa. In addition, the role of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights was discussed, as was the principles of free, prior and informed consent and consultation in international law.

Subsequent days were spent discussing principles and differences between different methods of engaging with external actors, in addition to the role of legislation in supporting engagement between community and the government around fracking issues.

The training session complemented ongoing discussions with community representatives about different methods of mobilisation and the use of the law and participatory methodologies to support this.

More than 93% of Extractives Developments Involve Inhabited Land - New Report

In a new analysis of almost 73,000 concessions in eight tropical forested countries, more than 93% of mining, logging, agriculture, oil and gas developments were found to involve land inhabited by Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The report, Communities as Counterparties: Preliminary Review of Concessions and Conflict in Emerging and Frontier Markets, prepared by The Munden Project, highlights the alarming amount of land that governments have handed over to the private sector for mining, logging, agriculture, oil and gas, including 40% of all land in Peru and 30% in Indonesia. The researchers found that these concessions often generate conflict with local communities. Examining 100 such instances, the report identifies major patterns in how and why these conflicts occurred, and puts forth recommendations for avoiding them.

1st Africa Indigenous Peoples' Conference on Land Policy Frameworks

On 13 and 14 August, Stephanie Booker and Shalom Ndiku of Natural Justice attended the International Land Coalition's 1st Africa Indigenous Peoples' Conference on Land Policy Frameworks in Nairobi, Kenya. The central theme of the two day meeting was: "Mainstreaming Indigenous Peoples' Right to Land in Land Policy and Legislation Framework in Africa within the Indigenous Peoples Rights Framework". Over 50 people based across the continent attended the meeting to discuss a number of core issues including:

• Key issues and the state of play of Indigenous Peoples' rights in Africa;
• Key global and regional trends regarding Indigenous Peoples' land rights;
• The state of land policy frameworks and land reform in Africa;
• Mechanisms to address land and resource rights;
• Good practices in protection and management of indigenous peoples' land, territories and resources; and,
• Benefit-sharing mechanisms on natural resources.

Supreme Court of Canada Grants Aboriginal title over Tsilhqot'in First Nation land

A Supreme Court of Canada decision has granted the Tsilhqot'in First Nation of British Columbia Aboriginal title over a wide area of traditional territory. The unanimous 8-0 decision, gives the Tsilhqot'in First Nation rights to more than 1,700 square kilometers of land. The group now has rights to the land, the right to use land and the right to profit from the land. Reports indicate that this is the Supreme Court's first on Aboriginal title, and can be used as a precedent wherever there are unresolved land claims.

In 2012, the B.C. Court of Appeal granted the Tsilhqot'in rights to hunt, trap and trade in its traditional territory, but agreed with both the federal and provincial governments that the Tsilhqot'in must indicate specific sites where its people had lived instead of claiming a broad area. The Tsilhqot'in criticized that initial decision, arguing that they had traditionally never resided permanently in one area of the land and that the government had failed to consider their traditional way of life.

This decision by the Supreme Court of Canada now requires governments to meet one of two criteria before conducting economic development on Aboriginal land.

Community land rights in the “Zero Draft” of the Post-2015 Agenda

The Secretariat of the International Land Coalition together with various partners, including Natural Justice, has produced a technical brief with suggesting improved targets on land rights in the “zero draft” of the Open Working Group 12 on the Sustainable Development Goals (June 16-20). This brief complements a first input that builds on the consensus achieved through the Global Land Indicator Initiative.

The necessity for land-concerned organisations and delegations to voice their concern is the speed with which negotiations are advancing, coupled with the ever-present risk that even basic wording on land rights will be substantially eroded in the process.

Indian Women's Rights to Property: Implementation of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005

In India, women’s access and rights of ownership over family property (both moveable and immoveable), in the absence of a will, is governed by succession laws based on religion. Under Hindu law prior to 1937, a woman did not have the right to own any property at all, except what she received from her parents at the time of her wedding. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 was a breakthrough in terms of giving Hindu women a full and equal share of their husbands’ property as the children; yet, the male bias persisted. An amendment to this Act in 2005 took the progressive step of making daughters coparceners at par with sons, such that they receive an equal birthright to a share in the natal family’s ancestral property, i.e., parents’ property.

In December 2013, International Land Coalition (ILC) member Landesa Rural Development Institute and UN Women, India, prepared a report on the formal and informal barriers in the implementation of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 in the context of women agricultural producers of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The study is unique in a number of ways, especially given its focus on women as agricultural labourers, an explicit effort to ask women what they want, and an assessment of the overall awareness of all stakeholders on general awareness relating to this law.

Community Protocols Featured in Land Watch Asia Skill-share

The Land Watch Asia campaign of the Asian NGO Coalition (ANGOC) hosted a skill-share and learning session on 17 January at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. It took place immediately following the Asian People’s Tribunal and included participants from a range of ANGOC partners across the region. The session focused on sharing community experiences with threats to their land rights, sharing existing mechanisms for protecting land rights, and drawing out effective strategies for defending communities’ land rights.

Following opening remarks by facilitator Catherine Liamzon (ANGOC), Dr. Sadeka Halim (Information Commission Bangladesh) presented on the Right to Information Act, underscoring the fundamental importance of access to information in securing further procedural and substantive rights. Sam Pedragosa (Philippine Association for Intercultural Development and Southeast Asia regional coordinator for the ICCA Consortium; pictured above) then gave a critical overview of community experiences with free, prior and informed consent in the Philippines, with particular emphasis on how the spirit of this process has been manipulated by project proponents (primarily mining companies) for their own benefit and to the detriment of the Indigenous peoples and communities concerned, despite being enshrined in the 1997 Indigenous Peoples Rights Act.