PAN AP| 16 April 2015

#NoLandNoLife regional confab on land reform

News release

Penang, Malaysia – The Asian Peasant Coalition (APC), in cooperation with PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and other organizations, will hold a two-day conference on land reform from 18-19 April in Jakarta, Indonesia.
 
APC said that the conference is being held in the context of massive landlessness, land-grabbing, land-use conversions and plunders of natural resources by foreign and local investors which are the perennial problems confronted by small food producers, farmers, peasants and indigenous peoples in Asia.
 
With the theme “Advancing Genuine Agrarian Reform Movement in Asia”, the confab’s goal is to foster deeper understanding and unity on genuine agrarian reform among land rights defenders across Asia. It further aims to intensify the campaign and advocacy for genuine agrarian reform and food sovereignty.

PANAP is a member of APC, which groups together the region’s farmers, landless peasants, farmworkers, peasant women, fisherfolk, dalits, herders, pastoralists, indigenous peoples, rural youth and their allies against imperialist and feudal oppression and exploitation.
 
It will be recalled that last 29 March, several groups across Asia Pacific supported the launching of the “No Land, No Life!” campaign along with the declaration of the “Day of the Landless” through regionally coordinated actions. The campaign "No Land, No Life!" aims to highlight and stop land and resource grabbing as a gross violation of the human rights of the people.
 
The “No Land, No Life!” campaign is also a venue for collective and coordinated actions to identify and document struggles of local communities on land and resources, foster greater awareness on and support for ongoing local cases of land and resource grabbing, to reinforce the various national campaigns against land and resource grabbing and lastly, to encourage more networks, organizations and individuals to join the campaign.
 
PANAP will provide live updates of the conference through its social media platforms by using the hashtag #NoLandNoLife and urged all netizens to join the discussion.
 
Visit the campaign page for more information: http://www.panap.net/nolandnolife