Open Collections

Marcus, Michelle

University of British Columbia

This paper examines how efforts to clear landmines in post-conflict settings have led to housing, land and property (HLP) rights violations for civilian populations who were displaced from their land during armed conflict. Using the example of Angola, it demonstrates that these violations have occurred because of the mine action community’s (1) disregard for the HLP rights of displaced populations, (2) failure to coordinate their efforts with other peacebuilding actors, and (3) assumption that post-conflict land laws and institutions can protect returnees without accounting for local contexts and customs. The mine action community recognizes the need to adapt their approach to uphold the sector’s commitment to remain ‘neutral’ and ‘do no harm’, but has been inhibited by strict funding requirements from donor states. In turn, the paper argues for international mine action donors to fund collaborative initiatives between mine action, refugee, and land rights organizations to enhance holistic and culturally sensitive restitution processes promoting the rights of displaced civilians in post-conflict zones. By embracing existing innovations protecting the HLP rights of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), this paper advances a three-step framework for integrated peacebuilding in demining operations to promote sustainable post-conflict geographies as part of the solution to human displacement.

Text

2024-08-06

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88888

Political Science

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/