CCHR | Cambodian Center for Human Rights

What ?

The Land Reform Project is a new approach to promoting human rights related to land disputes throughout Cambodia. The Project will implement cooperation over a broad scope of activities with governmental representatives, other NGOs, community based organizations (CBOs) and political party representatives in order to initiate a positive debate amongst the stakeholders toward a more effective management of the land right violations.

The overall objective of the project is to reform of the legal, institutional and policy framework that facilitates the widespread transfer of land from vulnerable and marginalized groups to a wealthy, political and economic elite together with the achievement of land security and tenure for all Cambodians.

Therefore, the Project will organize a series of Roundtables discussion and policy platform for the participants to scrutinize the laws, policies and institutions that regulate the land sector and the formulation of recommendations for land reform. Moreover, the Project aims at improving the role of civil society in promoting human rights by providing them with the opportunity to address their concerns and push for democratic reforms of the land sector in the perspective of the legislative and national elections. Research activities, including field investigations, will also be undertaken for the production of a global report on the legal, institutional and decision-making process components of the land reform occurring today in Cambodia.

Why ?

Land violations are the most prominent and prevalent form of human rights violation occuring in Cambodia today. In the after math of the Khmer Rouge era, the transition from a possessory system of land titles to a system of cadastral titles has been poorly managed and as a result, the evictees struggle to claim ownership on the land they occupy, with only 0.7% of them being able to prove their official title in land disputes. Moreover, while current laws appear to encourage socially sustainable development, these safeguards are superficial and in many cases the law is disregarded entirely. More particularly, the legal obligations of the relevant authorities involved in the attribution of ELCs to consult with local residents, undertake social and environmental impact assessments and provide comprehensive resettlement solutions for those living on the target land without rights are almost never fulfilled.

Therefore the Land Reform Project aims at improving the legal safeguards and the communities resilience capacities when facing land disputes by providing them with relevant legal and institutional information through capacity building activities and dialogue with participants from the government and the polical parties. As a result, the CBOs will have the opportunity to express their views and share their experiences on land rights violations directly with the different stakeholders before the election in order to influence the land reform process.

How ?

CCHR Land Reform Project is implementing a broad set of activities in order to improve the human rights and legal standards directly related to land issues.

Report on the Situation of Land in Cambodia: CCHR Land Reform Project team is currently drafting a report that addresses the entire land problem – rather than a number of individual cases – including the legislative, institutional and policy shortcomings;
Awareness and understanding of the situation of land in Cambodia : This includes the daily monitoring of land conflicts, contacting government ministries and UN agencies, mapping individual cases, printing documents for distribution, broadcasting information, publishing all relevant information ;
Recommendations for legal, institutional and policy reform : This includes meeting with stakeholders, designing and organizing 6 Roundtables and discussing land issues with civil society representatives and political parties ;
In the run-up to the elections, providing a platform to all political parties to outline their policies on land : This includes conducting a policy platform inviting all the political parties, recording and broadcasting the policy platform on radio and publishing and disseminating a report on land policies.

Who ?

CCHR Land Reform Project team is cooperating with a broad set of actors, including government officials, community representatives, individuals affected by land conflicts, representatives of political parties and human rights activists throughout Cambodia. The project in the scope of cooperation with the above mentioned targeted groups is seeking to ensure that the new government has clear legal, institutional, and policy reform agenda and that the ordinary public and communities - including women, children, disabled people, minorities and indigenous people - affected by land conflicts together with HRDs, CSOs, and the political opposition, have a concrete project for land reform advocacy after the general election in 2013.