Thies, Dec 14 (APS) – Collectives of land rights defenders are meeting in Thies for training in advocacy techniques against land grabbing, APS noted.
The workshop on monitoring and building the capacity of local initiatives to fight against land grabbing and monitoring cases of violation of the rights of land rights defenders commenced on Monday.
The workshop, which will last two days, was initiated by several technical and financial partners including Enda Pronat and CICODEV.
The land issue in Senegal has led several communities to come together in collectives to fight, with the support of civil society, hence the emergence of groups of land rights defenders who have obtained results in Diokoul, Guede, Dodel, Dya, Sandiara and Mbour among others.
But often, communities find themselves destitute and without pleas and are deprived of their land.
Mamadou Alassane Ba of the Dodel collective, in the Podor department, who read Thies’ statement stated that they’re “determined” to fight to “safeguard” their land’s heritage and that of their natural resources.
”We are committed to pooling our resources and experiences to block the road off to grabbers and we call on Senegal’s government to respect the rights of communities over their land resources, and to initiate reforms guaranteeing land rights to communities,” he declared.
Ibrahima Diatta, president of the Diender Kayaar platform denounced “groundwater exploitation.”
“We should review the way we obtain water from the groundwater because there are many boreholes built in an uncontrolled manner,” said Mr. Diatta, who specified that the collectives are in the process of identifying and making an inventory of all of these offenses.
The first day was devoted to monitoring and sharing experiences on good practices in terms of advocacy and the fight against land grabbing. The participants also shared the tools for protecting land defenders’ rights. The second day will be dedicated to discussions on legal and regulatory texts.
Source: APS of December 14, 2020