Senior Minister explains issues of land rights of smallholders and indigenous communities

Senior Minister explains issues of land rights of smallholders and indigenous communities

H.E.Im Chhun Lim, Senior Ministers and Minister of land management, urbanization planning and construction explained about issues of land rights of smallholders and indigenous communities to development partners and civil society representatives in a sideline of two -day third Cambodian development Cooperation Forum (CDCF).

“The land rights is important work which the royal Government of Cambodia has paid great efforts with positive results in order to promote and protect the land rights of smallholders and indigenous communities,” senior minister stressed in the forum.

He said as a response and explanation to the issues raised in the report of documents on the position of non- governmental organization on land rights. “Regarding to the systematic land registration, the RGC implements in compliance with the legal framework, register general land including land belonged to the rich, the poor and other vulnerable peoples who have occupied land legally, he said, adding that the systematic land registration is conducted in the form of village by village basis where everyone is equal before the law with transparency and without discrimination.

“Until today, the systematic land registration has been implemented in 16 municipalities and provinces, 50 districts and khans, 275 communes and sangkats and 2321 villages. The achieved outcomes included the collection information on land of about 1,900,000 parcels and issued land title of more than 1,300,000 titles to land owners. He stated that nonetheless, the sporadic land registration has issued land title of about 600,000 parcels. As the results, the total land titles which have been already distributed to land owners from both systems amount to almost 2 million parcels. Such results can only be achieved by the joints efforts made by the RGC and the support provided by the development partners and with fully participation of land owners.

“regarding to the indigenous ethnic minority land registration, based on the results achieved so far regarding to the indigenous ethnic minority land registration and future work plan, the international parliament union (IPU) has recognized and complimented the effort have been made by the RGC in promoting land rights of indigenous ethnic minority communities in Cambodia. “MLMUPC will establish and train the provincial land registration teams to continue register land for the indigenous ethnic minority communities, especially among the seven indigenous ethnic minority communities which are undergoing preparation to seek legal recognition in accordance to the laws,” she noted.

He explained that regarding to social land concession (SLCs), under instruction from the Samdech Techo Prime Minister, the RGC has been working intensively to prepare land distribution program in the framework of land for social concession to civil population, former veterans and their families. To achieve this goals, lands of 49 locations with the size of 130,000 hectares have been indentified by the already having collect preliminary data on those lands to be used in the program. He continued that presently, the task force is conducting target land recipients while the task force on details land suitability is also undergoing preparation in order to be able to carry out this program by 2011.

He highlighted that for land dispute resolution outside the court system, the RGC is making great effort to improve land dispute resolutions mechanism through the cadastral commission, by having delegated decision making power to the provincial level.

He said that nevertheless, in response to the positions paper of NGos on Cambodia development 2009-2010 for the third CDCF, “MLMUPC welcome the productive criticism with goodwill, but the criticism made in the report are against the truths and the great efforts made by the RGC in implementing the land sector reform program”. He said that furthermore, in regard to the case studies in Phnom Penh and other urban areas, the focus is only on the rights without paying attention on “responsibilities ad law abiding,”. He noted that in addition, the report based entirely upon the reports of NGOs and only, without seeking the consultation with the implementing institutions and development partners. ###