The state’s high cost of living and tourism-focused development is making it difficult for some Native Hawaiians to keep their homes.

Joddy ʻIwalani Manuwai and her family will lose their ancestral home in Kailua, on the island of O’ahu in Hawaiʻi, if they don’t raise $1 million to buy back land that has been theirs for five generations ― and they only have until Thursday to do it. Otherwise, their only hope is convincing a judge to give them more time.

It is an 8 x 8 room without any ventilation or windows, but Shimon, a 20-year-old youth from Bihar, calls it home. It is his kitchen, living room and bedroom. It does not boast of any luxuries like a toilet and a bath, but he pays Rs. 1,500 for this "company-provided accommodation". Add to it the Rs. 5,000 he was asked to pay as advance by the garment factory he has been working for six years now. Yes, do the math. Shimon started work here as a child labourer.

Countries and regions devastated by war and civil strife remain fragile and vulnerable for decades after the fighting has ceased. In this post-conflict period, as social, political, and economic institutions are rebuilt, reconfigured or established anew, land is increasingly acknowledged as not only a key driver or root cause for conflicts, but as a critical factor for relapse and a bottleneck to recovery.

It is difficult to traverse the muddy terrain of the colony’s settlements. Truckloads of soil are being deposited by huge cranes in the distance; vast stretches of marshy land stare back in defiance. A short spell of rain and the place turns back into the flood channel that it once was. Uninhabitable concrete structures lie abandoned with cracks in their walls and ceilings. Sewer spills emanate an acrid smell.

Indigenous communities in Nicaragua are facing violence and displacement, but agroecology is helping empower the Miskito people.

What do you do when your access to rivers, sacred sites, and forests, is cut off, especially when your whole identity has grown from a spiritual connection to nature?

When you face displacement from your native lands, discrimination, and human rights abuses, how do you survive?

This article was first published at The Lush Times.

Waorani people accuse Ecuador of violating their rights and putting their territory up for international oil auction.

Puyo, Ecuador - More than 200 indigenous Waorani people and their supporters marched to the court in the Amazon city of Puyo on Thursday to begin their high-stakes hearing against the Ecuadorian government.

Despite a legal ruling and international attention, Kenya's Ogiek people have continued to face evictions, underlining the inherent difficulties in implementing judgments

The continued dominance of colonial-imposed laws over pre-existing customary legal systems, has been the bane of land rights disputes involving indigenous peoples across the globe for many years.

Post-colonial states have been unable to address such issues since formal law has continued to prevail over ancient customary systems even post-independence.

‘Slum clearance’ or ‘city beautification’ drives accounted for nearly half of the evictions.

New Delhi: Over two lakh people were forcefully evicted from their homes in the year 2018, a new study by the Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) has found. The HLRN documented the demolition of 41,730 homes in 2018 that impacted the lives of 2,02,233 people. That is 554 people every day or 23 people every hour.

The protesters said there was widespread frustration among those still waiting to be rehoused more than a decade after war drove them from their homes

TBILISI, April 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Dozens of Georgian families occupied a tower block this week in a protest activists said highlighted widespread frustration among people still waiting to be rehoused more than a decade after war drove them from their homes.

Este miércoles en la sede de la Comisión de la Verdad se llevó a cabo el seminario ‘Despojo de tierras’, que contó con la participación de los expertos en el tema de tierras Darío Fajardo y Alejandro Reyes y el comisionado Alfredo Molano. En el seminario, se discutió y se aportaron luces sobre la crisis agraria que vive el país, la problemática que significa el despojo de tierras y las expectativas para los próximos años en el campo colombiano.

By Mariana Palau

Read the orignial article here

Clashes between unidentified armed groups forced 263 families to leave their homes.

Over 700 Indigenous and Afro-Colombians from eight communities have been displaced in Tumaco, Colombia, forced out of their homes by violent clashes between unidentified armed groups on Jan. 16.