FIG present at Workshop on Legal Empowerment of the Poor in
the UN/ECE Region
Bergen, Norway, 10-11 April 2008
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Participants of the UN/ECE meeting in the harbour of Bergen. |
The event was being hosted by the Mapping and Cadastre Authority of
Norway (Statens Kartverk), in association with the United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe’s (UN ECE) Working Party on Land Administration (WPLA)
and was attended by 110 participants from about 36 countries, amongst them
Prof. Paul van der Molen, Vice President of FIG) and Dr. Chryssy
Potsiou, Chair of Commission 3. The conference, chaired by Mr. Magnar
Danielson (Director Cadastre and Land Registry Division, Norwegian
Mapping and Cadastre Authority), aimed at presenting outcomes of the work of
the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, and discussing its
relevance for the UN ECE region.
Several speakers highlighted the background of the work of the Commission
such a Mrs. Paola Deda (Secretary Committee Housing and Land
Management Environment UN/ECE), Mr. Morten Wasstøl
(Political advisor to the Minister of Environment and International
Development of Norway) and Mr. Olav Kjørven
(Assistant DG UNDP), and Prof. Peter Dale (emeritus professor UCL).
The work of the Commission more specifically was commented by Dr. Liz
Alden Wily (independent consultant and member of the property work group
of the Commission), Mrs. Sheela Patel (SPARC India about grassroots
involvement), Mr. Darren Thorne (International Development Law
Organisation, about the right to property as a human right), Mrs. Nsama
Nsemimwe (Campbell University Zambia, about empowering women through
land), Mr. Theodoros Alexandridis (European Roma Rights Centre, about
minorities’ access to land, specially the Roma), Mr. Pål Nesse
(Norwegian Refugee Council, about property rights of IDP’s and refugees),
Mr. Stevan Dobrilovic (consultant USA, about legal aid to land and
real property owners), Mr. Tomislav Penić (Ministry of Justice
Croatia, about free legal aid services), Mrs. Angelika Brustinov
(consultant Switzerland, about resolving disputes), and Mr. Robert Home
(Anglia Ruskin University UK about Islamic land law and legal entitlement of
the poor). All these presentations were – as expected - quite ‘legal’ in
nature. Other presentations included a variety of related topics such as
Mrs. Sasha Tsenkova and Dr. Chryssy Potsiou (University resp.
Calgary and Athens, about informal settlements in the UN/ECE region), Dr. Clarissa Augustinus (UN/HABITAT, about GLTN), Mr.
Maksym Fedorschenko
(MyLand Centre Urkraine, about land reform in Ukraine), Mr. Mikayel
Pashayan (State Committee Property Cadastre Armenia, about poverty
reduction in Armenia), Mr. Geoffrey Payne (consultant UK, about
impact of titling), and Mr. Paul van der Molen (Kadaster Netherlands,
about corruption).
Finally the chair of WPLA, Mr. Peter Creuzer (Germany) drew the
conclusions.
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