Officials adopt legislation on land, property ownership

An end to disputes over land and property ownership in countries emerging from conflict in the Great Lakes is in sight if draft legislation drawn up at a regional conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, is implemented.

The legislation, the first of its kind in the region, is mainly aimed at guaranteeing the property rights of returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in countries such as Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Rwanda and Uganda.

"We are not making legislation for states," Chaloka Beyani, a legal consultant, said on Thursday at the end of the three-day conference. "The decision lies with national experts on the implementation."

Delegates representing 10 countries - Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia - attended the conference, organised by a joint secretariat of the African Union and the United Nations.

The legislation seeks to protect IDPs' and refugees' property from pillage, violence, military use, reprisal, destruction and takeover. It would serve as a reference for implementation by individual countries in the region.

Lydia Wanyoto Mutende

A Ugandan Member of Parliament in the East African Legislative Assembly, Lydia Wanyoto Mutende, described Thursday's draft legislation as timely for her country. "This is important as Uganda will be resettling thousands of IDPs in the northern part of the country," she said.

The resettlement plan follows the signing of a truce between the government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army on 26 August, aimed at ending a 20-year old war that has caused massive displacement in the north.

"The draft legislation is a noble idea but there is need to finetune the practical aspects on how the government will implement the legislation," Mutende said.

The public information officer in the Office of the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative to the Great Lakes Region, George Ola-Davies, said on Friday that the region's heads of state were due to adopt this draft legislation, with protocols on peace and security, democracy and governance, economic development and regional integration, and humanitarian and social issues, at a summit in Nairobi in December.

Most countries in the region lack adequate legislation on land issues and loopholes exist in the current laws.

An official from a Burundian NGO known as ACORD, Juliette Kavabuha, said women were not allowed to inherit land in her country. The draft legislation adopted on Thursday provides the legal means for women to own and inherit land.

"The land question in Burundi is critical," Kavabuha said. "It can become a source of conflict."

She said the government had established a land committee to review cases relating to the returnees and other vulnerable groups and to come up with legislative measures for property recovery.

Moreover, she said, the country was planning a draft law on inheritance and marriage although a lot of controversy surrounded it. "This will act as a springboard for action, along with the draft legislation, which will hopefully serve as a model for our land laws," Kavabuha said.

A similar situation prevails in Zambia where there are loopholes in the land laws, said the Zambian delegate to the conference, Joseph Chilengi. "Anybody who presents land ownership documents is taken to be the legal owner," Chilengi said.

However, he said, the country's constitution review process, expected to begin after elections later in September, "will serve as a window of opportunity for the review of the country's land policy".

The AU Ambassador to the Great Lakes, Sophie Kalinde, said, "The legislation itself not a guarantee of implementation, there should be commitment from the countries."

aw/js/mw/oss