Phnom Penh, June 29, 2015: The NGO Forum on Cambodia (NGOF) organized one-day CSOs Land Strategic Forum, theme “Working Together toward Land Dispute Resolutions in Cambodia” that aimed to bring network members and other relevant stakeholders to work together on land dispute resolutions. In this event, members joined together to analyse the status and trends on various aspects of land conflicts in Cambodia, accomplishments, outcomes and challenges in advocacy work as well as develop advocacy strategies in strengthening advocacy on land conflict issues. The forum was comprised of 42 participants (6 females) as the representatives from development partners, NGOs based in Phnom Penh and provinces, including IBJ, CHRAC, LAC, SK, ICSO, KKKHRDA, HRTF, Oxfam GB, UNOHCHR, CLEC, Media, Adhoc, CCHR, HBF, CED, STT, GVO, Vigilance, WVC, LWD, Pin, Legal Town and Diakonia.
Speaking at the opening remarks, Dr. Tek Vannara, NGOF’s Executive Director said that In worse cases, the land disputes could lead to the loss of land, culture and tradition, and relatively, losing access to resources. Furthermore, it also represents a significant challenge to Cambodia’s reputation in the international arena. “Records in the database of the NGO Forum on Cambodia suggest that some land dispute cases have been going on for a number of years and this has compromised the living conditions and livelihoods of the affected people” he added.
According to civil society’s Statistical Analysis of Land Disputes in Cambodia, 2014, the total of 23 new land dispute cases meeting the Research and Information (RIC) criteria[1] were recorded as commencing in 2014. This number is however lower compared to the cases that emerged during the years 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 with 39, 39, 46, 28 and new 23 disputes respectively.
The total number of land disputes analyzed by RIC based on their methodology in 2014 is 352. Among them, 68 cases were resolved in 2014 and 14 land dispute cases were abandoned. As a result, 77%, or 270 cases out of the total 352 land disputes recorded have not been fully resolved as of 2014. With this number, the affected household was counted 55,795 and this would affect up to 256,657 people. This figure is equal to approximately 1.74% of total HHs throughout the country. By 2014, eighty six Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) have caused dispute. And these disputes have affected 17,150 households or 78,890 people.
[1] Land disputes mentioned in the media, Land dispute cases involving 5 households (HHs) or more; Land dispute cases that have not yet been resolved or are only partially resolved. Land dispute cases that were solved before 2014 are excluded from this analysis. However, cases that were resolved during the course of 2014 are included.