SUDAN: Durable solutions elusive as southern IDPs return and ...

under five in the surveyed area were suffering from malnutrition (Reuters, 30 March 2010;
UNICEF, 12 November 2009).
See also:
- FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to Southern Sudan, FAO&WFP,
17 February 2010 and Rapid Crop Assessment (RCA) Mission Results, FAO, September 2009
- Southern Sudan Food Security Update: Oct/Nov 2009, Government of Southern Sudan,
4 December 2009
- FEWS NET Southern Sudan Food Security Updates and Food Security Alerts at
http://www.fews.net/Pages/country.aspx?gb=sd&l=en
Property, Livelihoods, Education and other Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights
Land and property
Land and property problems pose a serious obstacle to the successful return and reintegration of
large numbers of IDPs and returnees. In a December 2007 report, The Land Question: Sudan’s
Peace Nemesis, the Overseas Development Institute observes that, “A satisfactory reform of land
policy, management and administration is particularly urgent for returning IDPs and refugees,
residents in rural areas with no codified title to land (especially those who have communal
customary land rights, like pastoralists), IDPs residing in urban areas and women” (ODI,
December 2007, p.5).
Similarly, Human Rights Watch stated in a February 2009 report, “Southern Sudan had yet to
establish a legal and regulatory framework for land use and ownership. The vacuum has opened
the door to forcible land grabs, illegal occupations, coerced sales, and multiple sales of the same
property, fuelling various types of land disputes during and after the war that have had an
especially negative impact on returning IDPs and refugees” (HRW, February 2009, pp. 31).
According to the ODI report (December 2007, p.7):
"The process of land alienation is symptomatic of a lack of attention to the importance of land and
property problems in the context of IDPs and refugee return, both by the GNU and the GoSS.
New expropriations or the recuperation of old land leases and concessions, legally or otherwise,
may cause a new wave of displacement, or may jeopardise the chances of people returning to
their areas of origin. […]
Further displacement may also result as returning IDPs and refugees find their land occupied by
other, often more influential, parties. In some cases the GNU and the GoSS have discussed the
possibility of resettlement in demarcated areas for returning citizens whose land is no longer
available. Previous resettlement experiences in Sudan and elsewhere have proven largely
unsuccessful, especially when aimed at rural people. People are generally allocated a single plot
of limited size, when they need access to a large area to sustain their livelihoods. Compensation
through customary land restitution mechanisms has been discussed as a solution to disputes
during the return process, but there are no mechanisms at present to make this a legitimate and
legal alternative. Likewise, there is no legislative framework to regulate monetary and in-kind
compensation.
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