DS Calls for a National HLP Summit in Myanmar

October 24

Media Coverage

Dvb.no. Interview with Scott Leckie: ‘Burma could very easily become the displacement capital or Asia.’
The Irrawaddy. Article. Report Urges Govt to Address Land Grabbing Issue.
Myanmar Times. Article. Government needs to act on land, says NGO.

Yangon (26 Oct) – A highly anticipated report released today in Yangon by Displacement Solutions urges the government, opposition parties and civil society groups to urgently convene a national summit to urgently discuss the housing, land and property rights crisis in Myanmar.

The report – Myanmar at the HLP Crossroads – details growing problems of land grabbing, land speculation, housing unaffordability and the lack of adequate housing and basic services in the country and calls for a unified and concerted approach to tackle these vital issues for the countries future.

Myanmar at the HLP Crossroads is the first comprehensive report to focus on housing, land, and property rights (HLP rights) in Myanmar since President Thein Sein took office in March 2011. According to the main author of the report, Scott Leckie, “Myanmar now finds itself at a critical juncture. Whichever way the country decides to go will decisively shape the housing, land and property realities of everyone in the years to come. The decisions taken now need to well-informed, inspired by the best practices of other countries that have undergone structural political transition and based squarely on the will of the people”.

The report outlines four specific recommendations that it beleives can greatly improve the HLP prospects of the country in the coming period. Beyond calling for a National HLP Summit, the report also urges that work commence immediately to reform the inadequate and outdated HLP legal code in the country (including the revision of the two 2012 land laws) resulting in a consolidated National HLP Law, and for far greater attention to be paid to the consequences of land grabbing and speculation.

“With political will and commitment from all political actors, there is every reason to believe that Myanmar can become a showcase for how to address questions of HLP rights in a manner that benefits everyone in the country. Likewise, with targeted donor support to these vital sectors, the international community is ideally situated to assist the people of Myanmar to achieve the aim of HLP rights for all within the foreseeable future”, added Leckie.

A full copy of the report is available here

DS Hosts International Workshop on Land Solutions to Climate Displacement

October 08
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 DS hosted an international workshop on land solutions to climate displacement in Auckland, New Zealand on 4 October. The workshop brought together experts and government officials from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and New Zealand to discuss and examine legal and policy solutions to climate displacement in seven focus countries – Bangladesh, Kiribati, Maldives, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. An element of DS’ Land Solutions Project, the workshop examined the role of customary land law, internal relocation programmes and the construction of new housing, land and property options as solutions to ensuring the rights of climate displaced persons. The workshop will lead to the publication of seven papers on rights-based legal and policy solutions to climate displacement in each of the focus countries. These papers will be compiled into an innovative edited volume designed to provide policy-makers and affected groups with an in-depth understanding of the legal issues involved, how they can be approached and where work is already underway today to protect the rights of climate displaced persons. It is expected that this publication will be available in early 2013.

New DS Publication on HLP Rights and International Criminal Justice

September 04
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Crimes against the home are commonplace in situations of armed conflict, both international and national in origin, as well as in non-conflict settings where the perpetrators of such abuses target housing, land and property assets as a means of securing economic gain or simply sowing terror in the hearts and minds of those victimised by these crimes. For too long these particular actions – forced displacement, the wanton destruction of property, land theft/grabbing, unlawful expropriation of land, ethnic cleansing, deprivation of basic services crucial for life such as water and electricity, and so many others – have been treated as unfortunate side effects of conflict, political transition or processes of economic development, rather than as the crimes these acts so clearly constitute.

International law is becoming ever more precise as to which practices constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes, and this publication – prepared by DS legal consultant Ezekiel Simperingham – outlines which acts and omissions satisfy the criteria for being labelled as such crimes, and more importantly, the judicial and other avenues that are now available to provide redress for this misdeeds. To access a copy of this publication, click here.

Tackling Land Grabbing and Speculation in the New Myanmar

August 08
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Though Myanmar/Burma has undergone unprecedented political change in recent months, the country is currently grappling with a severe land grabbing and speculation crisis. The DS Director, Scott Leckie, was requested to provide guidance to the Government about how to address these pressing issues, the views of which are contained in a guidance note on land grabbing and speculation which can be viewed here. DS’ landmark study Myanmar at the HLP Crossroads will be released in the coming weeks.

Climate Displacement in Bangladesh: The Need for Urgent Housing, Land and Property Rights Solutions

June 13
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Displacement Solutions: Climate Displacement in Bangladesh Report May 2012

This 36-page report comprehensively examines the scope and causes of climate displacement across Bangladesh. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the report highlights that climate displacement is not just a phenomenon to be addressed at some point in the future, it is a crisis that is unfolding across Bangladesh now. Sea-level rise and tropical cyclones in coastal areas, as well as flooding and riverbank erosion in mainland areas, are already resulting in the loss of homes, land and property and leading to mass displacement. Further, all of the natural hazards that are causing displacement are expected to increase in both frequency and intensity as a result of climate change – almost inevitably leading to the displacement of many millions more across Bangladesh.

This report – prepared by DS legal consultant Ezekiel Simperingham – is designed to develop awareness and deepen knowledge of this crucial issue as well as to propose concrete, practical recommendations that can be utilised by the Government of Bangladesh, civil society actors, climate affected communities themselves, academics, development practitioners, the regional and international communities and other relevant stakeholders.

This report comprehensively examines current and future causes of climate displacement in Bangladesh. The report also examines existing and proposed Government and civil society policies and programmes intended to provide solutions to climate displacement. The report highlights a number of protection gaps in the response of both the Government of Bangladesh and the international community to the plight of climate displaced persons. The report emphasises that rights-based solutions, in particular, housing, land and property rights solutions must be utilised as the basis for solving this crisis.

The report concludes by proposing a number of concrete recommendations that could be utilized to provide solutions to climate displacement.

New Internationalist Blog Piece: Domestic Land Solutions for Bangladesh

May 28
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Kadir van Lohuizon

Read Scott Leckie and Zeke Simperingham’s recent observational piece on the climate displacement situation in Bangladesh, published by a highly acclaimed independent monthly not-for-profit magazine/blog that reports on actions in support of global justice. The New Internationalist believes in putting people before profit, in climate justice, tax justice, equality, social responsibility and human rights for all, views shared by Displacement Solutions.

The Search for Domestic Land Solutions for Thousands of Climate Displaced Bangladeshis

Much of the world knows little about Bangladesh other than threatened coups, George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, the annual monsoonal floods and perhaps, the Grameen Bank, changing lives one microcredit loan at a time. But it should also be known that this country’s grassroots groups,…. read more

NEW – Photo Essay on Climate Displacement in Kiribati

February 07
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Kiribati – a country of some 110,000 people, living on land with a maximum elevation of a little over 3 metres – has been shot into the international spotlight due to President Anote Tong’s unique “dignified migration” response to looming climate change – an approach that acknowledges the inevitability of climate displacement and thus endeavours to educate and train the i-Kiribati population so as to make them suitable for acceptance as skilled migrants in neighbouring countries when the fateful climate doomsday does indeed arrive. Drawing upon its extensive work in Kiribati over the last 2 years under its Climate Change and Displacement Initiative (CCDI), Displacement Solutions has just released a photo essay that analyses the government’s climate change approach and proposes a range of innovative yet practical solutions to climate displacement, featuring photographs taken by Jocelyn Carlin during the 2011 joint DS-UN HABITAT mission to the Pacific.

View the Photoessay below.

NEW – Photo Essay on Climate Displacement in Tuvalu

February 07
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Few countries, if any, are as threatened by climate change as one of the world’s most unique nations – Tuvalu. DS has been active in Tuvalu since 2010 working on the question of climate displacement and related housing, land and property rights questions. With a view to revealing to the world the reality of life in Tuvalu today, and what stands to be lost forever if steps are not taken immediately to halt rising sea levels, DS has released a photo essay describing the challenges facing Tuvalu as a consequence of climate-induced displacement, whilst also outlining creative, well-informed and nuanced solutions to this crisis. Based upon DS’s field visits together with UN Habitat to Tuvalu in 2010 and 2011, and utilising pictures taken by the renowned Pacific photographer, Jocelyn Carlin, the message of this photo essay is one of both hope and the need for planning for an uncertain future.

View the photo essay on climate displacement in Tuvalu below.

 

NEW – DS “Climate Change and Displacement Reader” Published by Earthscan

December 01
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UK publishing house, Earthscan, has just released “Climate Change and Displacement Reader” – a compilation that brings together fifty-one of the leading texts on climate change and displacement written by Scott Leckie, Ezekiel Simperingham and Jordan Bakker of Displacement Solutions. It provides a consolidated source and substantive overview of the key issues relating to climate change and displacement, including: the reality of climate displacement; the shape of current and proposed international law on this matter; the institutional and governance framework that will address and respond to this crisis; and an analysis of what a cross-section of governments and civil society organizations are already doing to prepare for and act against climate displacement. To learn more about it or place an order, click here.

New article about DS published in Deutsche Welle

August 22
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Deutsche Welle recently published an article about Displacement Solutions and its work in finding solutions for displaced persons throughout the world. Included in this article is information about the work of DS in Bangladesh and other climate-affected countries. To access the article, click here.

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