Myanmar is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the region, and ethnicity is a
complex, contested and politically sensitive issue where ethnic groups have long believed
that the Government manipulates ethnic categories for political purposes.

Myanmar’s
ethnic minorities make up an estimated 30-40% of the population, and ethnic states
occupy some 57% of the total land area along most of the country’s international
borders.

This document highlights, in English and Burmese, some key chapters of the National Land Use Policy: Objectives...Grants and Leases of Land at the Disposal of Government...Procedures related to Land Acquisition, Relocation, Compensation, Rehabilitation and Restitution...Land Use Rights of the Ethnic Nationalities...Equal Rights of Men and Women...Harmonization of Laws and Enacting New Law...Monitoring and Evaluation...Research and Development.

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission...

...The objective of this research paper is to describe specific ways in which the State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC) deprives the people of Burma of their land
and livelihood. Confiscation of land, labour, crops and capital; destruction of person
and property; forced labour; looting and expropriation of food and possessions;
forced sale of crops to the military; extortion of money through official and
unofficial taxes and levies; forced relocation and other abuses by the State...

...The main objective of this research is to examine housing, land, and property rights in the context of Burma’s societal transition towards a democratic polity and economy. Much has been written and discussed about property rights in their various manifestations, private, public, collective, and common in terms of “rights”. When property rights are widely and fairly distributed, they are inseparable from the rights of people to a means of living.

...Life for farmers and workers in Burma is growing increasingly more difficult. The minimum wage fails to provide the ‘just and favourable remuneration’ that ensures ‘an existence worthy of human dignity’ that is guaranteed by Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Organised by the Land Deals Politics Initiative (LDPI) in collaboration with the Journal of Peasant Studies and hosted by the Future Agricultures Consortium at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex...Rich site with full texts of more than 170 papers and presentations from the Conference

Customary communal tenure is characteristic of many local shifting cultivation upland communities in S.E. Asia. These communities have strong ancestral relationships to their land, which has never been held under individual rights, but considered common property of the village. Communal tenure has been the norm and land has never been a commodity...

High-quality speakers and panels. From 2009. Some of the meetings have recorded webcasts available online.

While Burma’s ethnic states are blessed with a wealth of natural resources and biodiversity, they
have been cursed by the unsustainable extraction and sale of those resources, which has fuelled
armed conflict. Instituting a system of devolved federal management of natural resources can
play a key role in resolving conflict and building a lasting peace in Burma.
Despite some ceasefires on paper, Burma remains in a state of conflict. Ongoing offensives in
Kachin and Shan states alone have left hundreds of thousands homeless. Fundamental calls for

A RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT

The government has promised to secure ethnic rights and the rights of original landowners in setting a new national land use policy...A national forum to discuss a draft national land use policy, which will create a framework for a new national land law, was held on June 29 and 30 in Nay Pyi Taw. Discussion was dominated by the question of the rights of ethnic community organisations and other rights groups.