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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri

Time: 11:58 am

Results for land seizures

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Author: Human Rights Watch

Title: "The Farmer Becomes the Criminal": Land Confiscation in Burma's Karen State

Summary: Conflicts over land in Burma have intensi ed in recent years as the country has embarked on a process of democratic transition, marked by growing foreign investments and efforts to resolve long-running armed conflicts in ethnic areas. As a result, demand for land is greater than ever—whether for resource extraction, agriculture, tourism, or infrastructure development—and powerful interests are seizing control by displacing local people without adequate compensation or effective redress. In Karen State, located on the Thai border, farmers and rural villagers regularly face land confi scation. In a country where over 70 percent of people earn a living through agriculture, losing land oƒen means losing a livelihood. "The Farmer Becomes the Criminal" documents human rights abuses connected to land seizures in Karen State. The report details cases in which government o„ffcials, military personnel, local militia members, and businessmen have used intimidation, coercion, and force to seize land from local people. Farmers and activists who protest land-taking face retaliation by police and prosecution under peaceful assembly and criminal trespass laws. The report analyzes the corrupt land administration structures and abusive laws that have laid the foundation for these practices. Human Rights Watch calls on the Burmese government to release all land rights activists detained for peacefully protesting land seizures and end the arbitrary arrest of activists by police; impartially investigate allegations of unlawful land seizures; and ensure the return of land taken improperly. The government should establish an independent forum with power to adjudicate land disputes for villagers who challenge decisions about land use, and set up mechanisms for individuals to report rights abuses by local government o„fficials.

Details: New York: HRW, 2016. 97p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 3, 2016 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/burma1116_web.pdf

Year: 2016

Country: Burma

URL: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/burma1116_web.pdf

Shelf Number: 145317

Keywords:
Human Rights Abuses
Land Conflicts
Land Seizures