Cambodia: Land in Conflict - An Overview of the Land Situation

In light of the increasingly volatile nature of the land conflict in Cambodia, this Report aims to describe the sources, forms and impact of the conflict throughout the country. The Report offers an overview of the land conflict throughout the country and provides recommendations to the RGC. Chapter 1 (Introduction) provides a brief overview of the status of land rights and the different ownership system throughout Cambodia’s history and of the land situation in today’s Cambodia, before discussing the scope, methodology and purpose of this Report. Chapter 2 (The Theory: a Protective Legal Framework) provides an overview of the international and domestic rights and obligations related to land and housing rights applicable in Cambodia. Chapter 3 (The Practice: Lawlessness) discusses how the poor implementation of the laws described in Chapter 2 facilitates insecurity of tenure, opaque deregulated development and violent forced evictions. It also looks at the lack of dispute resolution mechanisms and remedies in cases of land disputes and right’s violations. Chapter 4 (The Consequences: Impact Assessment of the Land Conflict) emphasizes the devastating socio-economic impact of forced evictions on the population, the particular impact of the land conflict with regards to women, children, and indigenous people and its disastrous impact on the environment. Chapter 5 (Conclusions and Recommendations) concludes that the land conflict in Cambodia is violent, widespread and with no end in sight and further provides recommendations to the RGC in order to bring about positive changes.

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Report