Recouping Land Governance in Colombia through Land Rights Protection and Restitution April 11, 2013 Presented by: Diana M. Grusczynski Diana Grusczynski

Recouping Land Governance in Colombia through Land Rights

Protection and Restitution

April 11, 2013

Presented by: Diana M. GrusczynskiDiana GrusczynskiApril 11, 2013

Land Rights and Displacement

Diana GrusczynskiApril 11, 2013

• Colombia’s civil conflict intensified in the 1990s, peaking in 2002, but maintained high levels of displacement throughout the decade.

• Beginning with the 1991 Constitution, Colombia begins to develop a strong legal framework land rights recognizing the social function of land and promoting access to land.

• Law 387/1997 adopts measures to prevent forced displacement, and Decree 2007/2001 outlines a framework for land rights protection.

Source: Acción Social. Desplazamiento Forzado en Colombia. Data from Registro Único de la Población Desplazada, 2010.

Project to Protect the Patrimony and Land of IDPS

• This Project begins in 20003 with the goal of reducing the risk of impoverishing IDPs forced to abandon their land by developing preventative measures to protect their property and territorial rights.

• The interaction of weak land tenure and displacement was poorly understood when the Project initiated.

• Little clarity existed on how to protect land rights or work in the midst of the conflict.

• Data on the magnitude of displacement and dispossession of land was minimal and hotly contested.


Land Rights Protection: Individual Route


Source: Síntesis de la Experiencia del Proyecto Protección de Tierras y Patrimonio de la Población Desplazada, 2011.

Land Rights Protection: Collective Route



Land Rights Protection: Ethnic Route



The Protection Requests Reveal the Magnitude of the Conflict over Land


Land Rights Protection: Collective and Individual Combined

Protection Routes

Rights People Parcels Area (hectares)

Collective 108,791 78,016 81,506 2,549,386Individual 39,472 33,572 38,595 2,200,780Total 148,263 111,588 120,101 4,750,186

Source: Proyecto de Protección de Tierras y Patrimonio de la Población Desplazada. La Experiencia Colombiana en la Salvaguarda de los Derechos Patrimoniales de las

Personas Desplazadas.

Campesinos with Informal Land Rights and Smallholders are More Likely to Be

DisplacedArea Total

Requests Participation

< 1 hectare 11,581 9.71%1-3 ha 10,560 8.86%3-5 ha 7,540 6.32%5-10 ha 10,900 9.14%10-15 ha 6,848 5.74%15-20 ha 4,788 4.02%20-50 ha 14,240 11.94%50-100 6,628 5.56%100-200 ha 3,292 2.76%200-500 ha 2,016 1.69%500-1000 622 0.52%1,000-2,000 ha 293 0.25%> 2,000 ha 228 0.19%NA 39,694 33.29%Total 119,230


Type of Land Tenure Recorded in Protection Requests

Distribution of Protected Parcels by Size

Source: Proyecto de Protección de Tierras y Patrimonio de la Población Desplazada. La Experiencia Colombiana en la Salvaguarda de los Derechos Patrimoniales de las

Personas Desplazadas.

The Factors behind the Project’s Success


The Role of Colombian Institutions in Land Rights Protection

• Constitutional Court– 2005 ruled that the government’s inattention to the displaced was

creating an inconstitutional situation– 2009 demanded that the government reformulate its policy towards

the displaced• Acción Social (Office of the Presidency focused on poverty

reduction)– Housed the Project and allowed it to operate with a great deal of

flexibility– Source for data on displacement and protection

• INCODER (charged with rural development and rural land titling, formalization, access, and governance)– Lacking in institutional capacity and corrupt– Outdated tools and technologies to manage land rights


Law of Victims and Land Restitution• Twice proposed in Congress– 1st bill was approved by Congress, but was not signed into

law by the President.– 2nd bill did not leave committee.

• To build a winning coalition, then candidate Santos accepted that restitution would become a part of his platform.

• 2011 Law 1448 is passed.– Addresses reparations and restitution.– Creates unique legal and institutional frameworks to

support IDPs claiming their land rights.– This program is supported by ample funding.


What has been Lost in the Transition from Protection to Restitution?

• The legal framework for land rights protection still stands.

• The Project implementing unit now supports the Land Restitution Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, which does not have the legal authority to protect lands.

• There is no one to manage the complex institutional framework for land rights protection.

• A new database was created, which does not interface with the protection database (RUPTA).


Protection Activities that are Unsupported

• Training for staff at institutions that collect individual protection requests.

• Training for Committees for Transitional Justice charged with collective land rights protection.

• Funding for studies, especially those to identify land rights for areas at risk of displacement.

• Regular meetings and leadership to support complex institutional framework.

• Deep engagement with civil society.• Donor coordination. • Proactive support to the Ministry of the Interior to support

the ethnic route.


Other Concerns and Opportunities• Mining rights often overlap with ethnic territories

threatening their territorial rights.– Migrants are beginning to outnumber

Afrocolombians.– Paramilitaries extort each mining activity.– Bonanza economy decreases agricultural production

and brings vice.• Areas not prioritized for restitution are once

again without visible land governance. • INCODER and Superintendencia de Notaría y

Registro have tools to restore land rights too.


Lessons for Other Conflict Scenarios• Colombia has strong institutions and large numbers of

skilled professions, albeit they do not extend to the entire country.

• In Colombia, the legal framework to protect land rights operates at 3 levels: international treaties, constitution, and ordinary laws.

• Creative approaches could be taken to make international treaties operational when other elements of legal framework are missing, but it is difficult to imagine how an outside institution could take on the role of the Constitutional Court whose edicts were binding on the executive and legislature.

• Human resource planning.


Lessons for Other Conflict Scenarios (cont.)• Data collection on IDPs/refugees and abandoned lands– Work with an institution or network that is a trusted actor

and has a broad presence.– Create awareness of rights, build community consensus

around need to identify rights.– Build social cadasters complemented by aerial maps or

satellite imagery to identify land rights.– Reach out to IDPs and refugees in their new communities.– Engage local authorities, traditional leaders, and

government staff when possible.– Involve women and children as co-owners and heirs to the

land.Diana GrusczynskiApril 11, 2013

ConclusionsRecommendations. . . •Abide by the Paris Declaration for Aid Effectiveness.•Engage civil society and local authorities.•Foster transparency and •Be prepared.

Why Nations Fail, its authors suggested that “Perhaps structuring foreign aid so that its use and administration brings groups and leaders otherwise excluded from power into the decision making process and empowering a broad segment of the population might be a better prospect.”


Documents

Recouping Land Governance in Colombia through Land Rights Protection and Restitution April 11, 2013 Presented by: Diana M. Grusczynski Diana Grusczynski