CHR sees land rights as key to peace in conflict areas

From GMANews (Nov 15): CHR sees land rights as key to peace in conflict areas

Commission on Human Rights chair Etta Rosales Rosales said Wednesday that "the struggle for land rights must be seen from the question of a key issue in building peace on the ground." Furthermore, conflict areas will remain such “unless we are able to help the people have access to land, access to food, access to information, access to social justice,” she added during a policy forum titled “Breaking Barriers to Peace: Conflict and Land Rights”, which was held at the Balay Kalinaw in the University of the Philippines’ Diliman campus. The forum aimed to develop new policies or ways by which to strengthen existing ones regarding agrarian reform and the protection of ancestral domains. It was co-hosted by the CHR and the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court (PCICC), a non-government organization seeks to find ways in which to assist people living in conflict-ridden areas. Also, through workshops during the forum, the PCICC will collect and analyze input provided by invited guests from conflict-ridden areas and government agencies, and submit these to the CHR and DAR. Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes was also invited to the event to speak about the issue of land rights, but was on an out-of-town trip that he committed to earlier. Meanwhile, Rosales urged residents of conflict-ridden to be patient. “Kahit gaano kahirap ang mga hinaharap nating problema, basta malinaw ang direksyon kung saan natin gusto pumunta, at malinaw kung ano ang paraan para makapunta sa direksyon na ito, wala tayong dapat katakutan,” she said.

One of the efforts taken to relieve conflicts over land ownership is the PCICC’s project called Building Bridges for Peace (BBP). Launched In 2009 with the support of the German Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (IFA), the project “that empowers farmers and IP (Indigenous Peoples) communities, and brings them to the table with LGUs, executive agencies, the military, to engage in dialogue and assert their claims to farms and ancestral lands.” The BBP projects particularly focused on the conflict-ridden areas of Quezon, Agusan del Norte and Misamis Oriental. These places are either facing issues of corporate interests in ancestral lands or armed conflict due to frustration in the process of fighting for land rights. According to the PCICC, its BPP dialogues have helped “effective rights assertions” in, among others, the following: facilitation of dialogues among stakeholders (farmers, indigenous peoples, government); a multi-sectoral review of the implementation of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act and processing of Certificates of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT); and clarification of the role of the army in protecting the rights of farmers and IP.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/282315/news/nation/chr-sees-land-rights-as-key-to-peace-in-conflict-areas