Land disputes are threatening the prospects of post-war reconstruction in Afghanistan. Population growth, returning refugees, opium poppy production, ethnic tension and drought have increased the pressure on the land. A growing number of rural Afghans are either landless or own plots too small for survival. Competition over pasture is leading to armed clashes between nomads and settled farmers. Neither the Karzai government nor the international community is doing enough to restore order to land relations.

A report from the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) warns that urgent action is needed to untangle a muddle of overlapping laws, policies and titles which are complex, contradictory and currently unenforceable. Support must be given to innovative local approaches to resolving disputes, addressing inequities and providing security of tenure.

From the returning refugee widow unable to wrest her husband’s land from his family, to villagers evicted by a land-hungry warlord, land insecurity is widespread. Multiple claims may exist over the same land; the claims often being based in different laws and customary rights. Years of bad policy has led to deeply unequal land ownership and rights among tribes, between agricultural and pastoral systems and among feudal-like social classes.

AREU warns that the conventional approach taken by the Afghanistan Transitional Administration is flawed. The approach has involved restoring order in land ownership by seeking to return land to pre-1978 owners.  Many aspects of that pattern of ownership remain contested and played an unacknowledged role in generating conflicts. High rates of sharecropping by both landowners and the landless, and the ambivalent status of mortgaged plots make a precise definition of ‘owners’ difficult. The little land policy planning undertaken by the Transitional Authority has been driven by the objective of helping foreign investors to secure land.

Although the Transitional Authority has created a court to hear land claims, it has not developed laws upon which the court can base its judgments. Its policies have not recognized the need to resolve conflicts in order to allow the landless to farm. The author notes that the Authority has been poorly advised by the international community:

• Post-Taliban agricultural surveys commissioned by aid agencies have failed to focus on basic land access and rights as a factor of production.
• By reinforcing the perception that land ownership problems are too complex, bewildering or sensitive to be addressed, the aid community has reduced momentum for action and reconciliation.
• The aid community’s ad hoc approach to tenure problems is not helping the Transitional Authority address the gravest obstacle to achieving agricultural self-sufficiency.

Afghan policy-makers and donors are urged to:

• recognise that many current land practices are promoting homelessness and rural landlessness, and that Islamic charity cannot, by itself impede or remedy these effects
• define basic land ownership principles within a constitution
• adopt community-based approaches to problem-solving, incrementally building up conflict resolution and good practice in safe areas

Overall, policy-makers need to recognize that the management of land ownership is a cornerstone of creating stability in agrarian societies. Dealing with land ownership issues will create opportunities for development, contributing to greater equality and better relations between ethnic groups.

Source(s):
‘Land rights in crisis: restoring tenure security in Afghanistan’ by Liz Alden Wily, Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, March 2003 Full document.

Funded by: European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO)

id21 Research Highlight: 9 January 2004

Further Information:
Thomas Muller
Communications Manager
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit
House No 21B
Street 55
F-7/4
Islamabad
Pakistan

Tel: +92(0) 227 7260
Fax: +92 (0) 282 5099
Contact the contributor: tom@areu.org.pk

Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

Liz Alden Wily
Wisteria House
1 Cullompton Hill
Bradninch
Devon EX5 4NP
UK

Tel: 44 (0)1392 881533
Contact the contributor: lizaldenwily@clara.co.uk

Other related links:
Land disputes as major source of conflict in Afghanistan - Report

'IRC Pushes for Property Rights in Afghanistan'

'Land rights in crisis: Restoring tenure security in Afghanistan'

'Getting rights right. Is access to justice as important as access to health or education?'