A new 76-page report prepared by DS Director Scott Leckie with the collaboration of Jose Arraiza of NRC, with the support of the Joint Peace Fund, outlines the components of what an eventual agreement in Myanmar on housing, land and property restitution could look like. The report, entitled BUILDING AGREEMENT ON RESTITUTION RIGHTS WITH THE MYANMAR PEACE PROCESS AND NATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK examines all of the necessary components that would need to find recognition within an eventual national agreement designed to ensure that everyone with a viable HLP restitution claim could submit these to an independent judicial body with enforcement powers strong enough to ensure the full enjoyment of restitution rights throughout all corners of the country. Millions of people with legitimate restitution claims have yet to be able to have these claims heard by judicial bodies with the power to enforce these claims to return to, recover and/or re-inhabit the homes and lands from which they have been forced to flee over the past several decades. The report points out that HLP restitution rights are widely recognised in international law, and that many other countries have adopted restitution laws and procedures as key elements within peace processes and the context of post-conflict peace-building. The practically-oriented report contains a full draft of a National Restitution Agreement which could serve as a model for peace negotiators and government officials as they continue to search for ways to secure a sustainable peace and strengthened democracy throughout the country as a whole. The full report is available here: Building Agreement on Restitution Rights in Myanmar (March 2019).
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Ten Years of DS Efforts on Housing, Land and Property Rights in Myanmar - An Overview
DVB on DS Report: The Peace Process and Land Rights
The Democratic Voice of Burma has recently covered the release of Displacement Solutions report "Bridging the HLP Gap" and states that the housing, land and property rights of Burma's displaced ethnic people have been largely ignored during the ongoing peace process. Read the full article here. This article is also covered on ReliefWeb....
DS Launches Pioneering Report: "Land Rights and Mine Action in Myanmar"
Vast areas of land in Myanmar are currently contaminated by landmines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW) as a legacy of decades of armed conflict between the national government and a wide range of ethnic armed groups. However, the political climate in Myanmar has been rapidly changing, peace talks have been progressing, and plans are being developed to commence demining of contaminated lands. Programme and policy formulation by mine action related organisations in Myanmar is currently underway, and landmine and ERW survey and clearance operations are expected to commence in the near future. In addition, the Myanmar Mine Action Center (MMAC) is about to be established under the Myanmar Peace Centre (MPC) and, once it has been activated, will be expected to play the key governmental role in mine action efforts. Mine action is a vital component of broader strategies to secure sustainable peace in countries emerging from conflict and instability. At the same time, mine action is inextricably linked to broader land rights questions because demining frees land that was previously unusable and/or difficult and dangerous to access. If managed poorly or if carried out purely on a technical basis without taking land rights questions into account, de-mining…...
DS & YPSA Launch Phase 3 of One House, One Family at a time in Bangladesh
DS and YPSA are delighted to announce the launch of Phase 3 of our One House, One Family at a time project in Bangladesh where we raise funds and build permanent homes for some of this country's most vulnerable climate displaced families. If you have you ever wanted to do something directly about climate change, now you can. During the first two phases of OHOF we built nine (9) high quality, safe houses providing permanent, lifelong housing solutions for more than 50 people who through no fault of their own have been displaced because of the ravages of climate change Once Phase 3 is completed, OHOF will have built 20 homes and provided much needed housing to some 120 Bangladeshi citizens With your help we are planning to build eleven (11) more homes and assist up to 70 more climate displaced people. As is well-known, Bangladesh is one of the countries hardest hit by climate change. Every year tens of thousands of people across the country permanently lose their homes to rising sea levels, violent tropical cyclones, devastating floods and other effects of climate change. Most have nowhere else to go. Solving this problem starts with land. Displacement Solutions has worked on…...
Ten Years of DS Efforts on Housing, Land and Property Rights in Myanmar - An Overview
Over the past decade, Displacement Solutions has undertaken extensive research aimed at shedding light on the numerous housing, land and property (HLP) rights issues facing the people of Myanmar. Through these efforts DS aims to build the capacity of the people of Myanmar to exercise and enforce their HLP rights. To this end, DS provides practical guidance to citizens and their governments through the development of institutional and policy frameworks, guiding principles and practical steps which seek to reduce, eliminate and redress HLP rights abuses. A new report documents eleven books and reports published by DS on these themes with the intent of informing and aiding the Myanmar government, key ethnic actors, humanitarian organisations and citizens on the importance of HLP rights within Myanmar. The documents outlined here are just a portion of DS' research efforts concerning the country. Many of our other papers and reports on more sensitive themes have intentionally been kept internal by the organisations and institutions for whom they were prepared. These publications cover topics spanning national policy development on land grabbing and speculation, recommendations for the development of a comprehensive HLP rights framework within Myanmar, the manner in which HLP rights can be addressed during…...
