LAND RIGHTS
The last twenty years have seen the rapid acquisition of large plots of land in the global south by national and international elites, often referred to as land grabbing. Land grabbing can be defined as the control of land – whether through ownership, lease, concession, contracts, quotas, or general power – for purposes of speculation, extraction, resource control or commodification. (Ecoruralis 2016)
Land grabbing is a violation of human rights by threatening access to food and livelihoods. The new land proprietors often favor profitable export of their crops or minerals over feeding the hungry. Peasant farmers lose access to their land and thus their income and nutrition. The environmental health of the land is compromised as industrial forms of agriculture are implemented.
CIDSE is supporting the resistance of land grabbing in Africa, by connecting church actors with social movements and organising spaces for exchange. In 2015, CIDSE contributed to the organisation of a Pan-African Conference on Land Grabbing and Just Governance in Kenya, which brought together church and non-church actors to exchange knowledge and strategies on land grabbing, resulting in the establishment of a permanent platform called “Our land is our life” for these purposes. A similar conference was organised again in 2017 in Abidjan. The reflection and discussion on land grabbing from the perspective of Laudato Si’ and Catholic Church social teachings that began at the conference in Abidjan was then concretized in a paper on the theology of land grabbing to facilitate the opening of a concrete dialogue on land issues with church actors.
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Manny Yap
yap(at)cidse.org
Stories
Publications
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Halting evictions of Palestinian families from Masafer Yatta
May 17, 2022CIDSE call to action On 4 May 2022, the Israeli Supreme Court approved the eviction of over 1 400 Palestinian […]
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Film by RECOWA denounces land grabbing in West Africa
May 5, 2022On Tuesday 2 May, the 4th Plenary Assembly of the West African Bishops’ Conference, RECOWA, was launched in Abuja, Nigeria. […]
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News from CIDSE – March-April 2022
May 3, 2022Read our latest newsletter for an overview of our activities from March and April and find out what’s coming next! […]
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Take action to end European trade with illegal settlements
April 7, 2022Cover photo: The Um Zuqa farm is one of six “farms” set up by settlers in the northern Jordan Valley […]
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Multimedia story
Report
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- Binding Treaty
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- Human Rights Due Diligence
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- Land grabbing
- Land rights
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- Rethinking Development
- Right to Say No
- Systemic Change
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Protecting our common home against the effects of extractivism and
March 30, 2022A recount of the event “But Let justice roll-on like a river” with representatives from affected areas in Latin America […]