Documents - Land Rights

Realizing Indigenous Women’s Rights: A Handbook on the CEDAW

This handbook is an introduction to the human rights of indigenous women. It provides details on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as the only instrument specifically for women. It also provides a brief overview of the other available human rights mechanisms (Tebtebba, the Asian Indigenous Women's Network & Forest Peoples Programme, 2013).

Legally Securing Community Lands: Principles & Paths

Land tenure specialist Liz Alden Wily's principles and paths for securing tenure of community lands (2013).

Land rights and the forest peoples of Africa: Historical, legal and anthropological perspectives

FPP has published a series of five country studies, and an in-depth overview, examining indigenous peoples' land rights in the forested countries of Africa. The country studies have been produced in collaboration with African experts from Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda (Forest Peoples Programme, 2009).

Securing community land and resource rights in Africa: A guide to legal reform and best practices

This guide, produced by FERN, the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), ClientEarth and the Centre for Environment and Development (CED), explains key aspects of law and land rights that are important for securing community ownership and control of land and resources – also referred to as secure land and resource tenure. It explains how to identify and create opportunities for law reform and offers examples of reforms that have taken place in several African countries (2014).

Who Owns The Land in Africa? Formal recognition of community-based land rights in Sub-Saharan Africa

This brief summarizes findings on community ownership and control of lands in 19 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that were included in the RRI's global baseline study (RRI, 2015).