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.
Stories
Publications
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EU-Mercosur Agreement: Risks to Climate Protection and Human Rights
June 26, 2020Scroll down this page for infographics On June 28, 2019 the EU and Mercosur concluded the negotiation of the text […]
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West African Bishops call for a binding instrument to regulate
February 27, 2020The following statement was signed by the Bishops Members of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA-CERAO) at the […]
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STRENGTHENING LEGAL FRAMEWORKS ON BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
January 22, 2020Rooted in our direct work with women and men, communities and workers negatively affected by certain business operations, and in […]
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CIDSE Highlights November – December 2019
December 19, 2019Read our latest newsletter for an overview of our activities in September and October and find out what’s coming next! In […]
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The Caravan of Alliances: A documentary on accompanying movements
November 4, 2019Large-scale land acquisitions continues to displace millions of rural Africans from their homes, fields, forests and pastures. According to the […]