Land Law Program

Overview

Land alienation and insecurity is one of the most serious problems facing poor Cambodians and indigenous people. Landlessness constitutes a major impediment for reaching the Millennium Development Goals including the overarching goal of poverty reduction. The Land Law Program focuses on issues such as illegal land grabbing, economic concessions and logging by rich and powerful individuals. The involvement of local, district, provincial and national government as well as police and military makes the power balance in these conflicts often uneven.
The specific objectives of the Land Law Program are:

• Access to justice and legal aid for poor Cambodian and Indigenous people who are involved in land law disputes
• A fair justice system in Cambodia that enables the poor to protect their land rights
• Prevention of land law disputes by development of skills and legal empowerment of the poor to protect and exercise their land rights
• Promotion of alternative dispute resolution for land law disputes through negotiations, mediation and other alternative dispute resolution techniques.

The main activities of the Land Law Program are:

• Legal representation of poor Cambodians and Indigenous people, including advice on legal procedures and alternative dispute resolutions
• Advocacy on behalf of the poor Cambodians and Indigenous people to protect their land rights and in big land law issues to involve the media through media campaigns to raise the awareness on the issues
• Training of stakeholders, e.g. community leaders, judiciary, Cadastral Commission representatives, other law enforcement officers to enhance knowledge with and cooperation between the various parties
• Legal empowerment of the poor by training, workshops and Street Law sessions to inform the poor on their rights and ways to exercise their rights

Donors

• East-West Management Institute
• Canadian International Development Agency

Staff