/20 CASES LANDING PAGE/ CLUSTER 2 : STATE SANCTIONED LAND GRABS
The lives of Papua New Guineans residing in rural communities revolve around land. It provides their daily sustenance, gives the their identities and guarantees the future of their children.
Its significance to PNG compelled the drafters of the PNG Constitution to ensure land rights of the indigenous population is a critical feature of the law. But the Somare and the O’Neil governments have in the last decade formulated controversial policies that created land leases that impinged on the rights of traditional landowners and legitimized land grabbing.