I thank the committee for this opportunity to address it on the current human rights issues in Angola. I will read a presentation prepared by our partner, ACM Kwanza-Sul, the provincial branch of YMCA. We would like the opportunity for our partners to have this voice here.
ACM Kwanza-Sul is one of Christian Aid's partners funded through MAPS and the local branch of the international YMCA-YWCA. As has been mentioned, the recent elections in Angola represented an opportunity for change. Following 27 years of civil war, Angola has a window of opportunity to pursue a peace that includes all Angolans in a post-conflict settlement. Angola can follow a path of equitable development through the promotion of democratic principles and by using its vast natural resources to fuel economic and social development. However, the risk is that Angola follows the failed state model and becomes deeply divided and again prone to conflict.
As has also been mentioned, on 6 October Angola will host the UN World Habitat Day conference. This presents an important opportunity to highlight the issue of land rights for Angolans on an international stage. The local authorities pointed out that the choice of Angola to host these celebrations is due to the successes of its programme of urbanisation, something that many question.
Angola is a country very rich in natural resources. As the Chairman said, it is now Africa's largest oil producer. With continuing growth in oil production, set to reach 2 million barrels a day soon, Angola's economy is predicted to grow by 15% in 2008 and approximately 10% in 2009. Yet this economic wealth is not distributed throughout the population. Furthermore, spiralling property prices and pressure for land in the country is leading to systematic abuse of land rights and mass evictions of the poor, often with minimal or no compensation.
People have been expropriated of their agricultural land, at times without advance warning and without compensation. When there is compensation it is limited. On the other hand, more often than not, the expropriations have been made by people or official entities according to Angolan legislation.
As highlighted by an Angolan national organisation, Land Network:
the inadequate and above all, the lack of compensation, has resulted in the misery of many families whose land is their principal source of income, if not the only source of survival. This constitutes a violation of the human rights, consecrated in the domestic and International law.
Within the rural areas there are conflicts between people with power, specifically army chiefs, generals and ministers, against the agricultural communities. A practical example is the irrigated perimeter of the Humpata - some years ago some generals of the armed forces created vast areas of fruit cultivation here, alleging this to be a project of the social security insurance of the armed forces. A traditional leader of Humpata, without advance warning to the communities, illegally sold more land to the generals, which joined with the area already occupied by them, coming to a total of 300 hectares. A conflict started and a civil society land coalition intervened, but with little success.
In Gambos, in the province of Huila, there was a rush to former colonial demarcations by new entrepreneurs. Pastoral populations reacted negatively to this movement, as new farmers made it difficult or impossible to access certain water sources and pastures. The authorities of Huila province revealed that many of these farmers held more land than was registered or than they needed. In one case, subsequent reorganization allowed the communities to recover more than 5,000 hectares for their collective use. This case was partly settled in a negotiated manner, but elsewhere in Gambos there are similar situations in which conflicts are still ongoing.
The land conflict in the ACM work area of Waku-Kungo started with new arrivals who dispossessed more than 50 families of their lands without compensation. Following independence in 1975, the new Angolan state nationalised all property which had been abandoned by the Portuguese colonists. The communities who had previously been expelled from their lands began to return in an effort to reclaim them. Many who were not the previous owners but were relatives of the previous owners reclaimed the land of their ancestors.
Since the end of the war in 2002, the Angolan Government has begun many agricultural development programmes in the province of Kwanza-Sul, particularly in the municipality of Waku-Kungo. Many of those who benefit from the programme are politically or militarily influential. Often, lands are sold to large farmers and companies wishing to expand their farms by residents who are not the rightful owners of the land. The government advocates the continuation of the fazenda-style development model, a cornerstone of its programme.
The complicated issue of land conflict is a national problem and is not restricted to Waku-Kungo. With the various actors now involved - post-colonial owners, post-independence settlers, displaced populations, the Angolan State, and the individuals and companies attached to the new commercial agricultural sector - rights of access to and ownership of land are convoluted and subject to abuse. The rights of many rural communities are unprotected.
ACM, in general, has been working to prevent conflicts, informing the most vulnerable populations of the agrarian rights recognised and consecrated by law. The land law of Angola, which was approved in 2004, is based on the principle that all and any intervention for development must start by respecting the agricultural communities for whom land is the main means of subsistence and survival. ACM co-ordinates the Land Forum of Kwanza-Sul, a consortium of 13 organizations that works so that the agrarian rights of the poor persons and vulnerable groups of Kwanza-Sul are recognized and supported by positive policies and practices of the Government and other actors. Currently, we are engaged in the following activities: publication of a small manual with a summary of the key aspects of land law, so that people can increase their knowledge levels; dissemination of the new land law in the villages, churches, and even in the government structures related to land issues; enabling and fortifying local communitarian groups in agrarian rights to improve their means in the defence of their lands; together with the appropriate government structures, supporting the demarcation and ownership of communitarian lands in partnership with related institutions; and carrying out case studies to support monitoring activities to the public on land politics, with a focus on regulation of the land law, to support advocacy actions in order to influence political decision makers, and to reformulate and implement policies and practices that do not harm poor people.
Angola is in a post-conflict window of opportunity in which, with appropriate governance, it can take advantage of the rich resources within the country. However, the economic wealth of the country is currently creating significant problems for the poorest and most vulnerable. Angola is also taking its place on the international political stage. In 2007, Angola was elected to the new UN Commission on Human Rights, and discussions have begun regarding the ratification of the UN conventions against corruption and on social and economic rights. These are opportunities for the international community to take action.
In order to avoid future problems, ACM believes that the following measure should be taken. The Government should be held to account by the international community in abiding by its international treaty obligations in relation to housing, land and property rights. In particular, it should be held to account in the following areas: international standards surrounding evictions; the public administration, before proceeding to the expropriation right, must adequately inform the families who may be affected, in such a way to prevent conflicts; and whenever the state has necessity to grant lands belonging to individuals, it must first integrate them in its public domain and only after that proceed with the concessions that are convenient to the state.
We therefore appeal to the Irish Government to use its diplomatic relations and political influence to ensure that international donors support the efforts to implement land law and support other initiatives that aim to empower communities to have ownership of land insurance and land titles; international donors continue to support the initiatives of the Government of Angola to strengthen existing actions relating to good governance and anti-corruption measures; and international donors help the Government of Angola to continue its efforts to put land and property relations on a sounder legal footing and to strengthen its administrative and adjudicative mechanisms.
