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The Legal Services Program
1.0 Introduction
The Uganda Land Alliance, a consortium of national and international non government organisations and individuals with a focus on land from a range of viewpoints aims at attaining fair land laws and policies. While contributing to this overall objective, the Legal Services program compliments other programs that include; the Advocacy and Communications, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation and Regional Cooperation and Networking. The following are the objectives of the Legal Services Program:
- To strengthen Land Rights Centres for the protection and promotion of the land rights of the vulnerable women, children, men and ethnic minorities.
- To establish a sustainable land management and dispute resolution support system through development of community based structures and a systematic change management approach.
- To enhance the capacity of the ULA membership and partners at community, district and national level to assert and protect land rights of the vulnerable women, men, children and ethnic minorities.
2.0 Background
ULA in the past six years has had six robust Land Rights Centres hosted by member organisations that included; Action Aid in Uganda hosted in Kapchorwa, Legal Aid Project of the Uganda Law Society in Kampala, FIDA in Mbale, VEDCO in Apac and Luweero and Uganda Rural Development Trust in Kibaale. The centres were a one stop where information on Land Rights, Law and Policy were available to the public, Legal aid provided for the indigent and Legal and Human Rights Awareness on land law and policy. The centres were also a research unit that collected data that informed the ULA lobby processes at national level.
3.0 Approach
The Legal Services Program is founded on two key pillars which are Legal Aid and Legal Education.
The support for these pillars is drawn from the ULA membership, the three range Land Rights Centres and the community.
ULA membership
The membership support has been structured into a caucus with the mandate to give support to the programming and implementation of activities. The caucus membership of 8 organisations is inspired by the expertise and unique qualities each of the individuals and organisations bring to the Uganda Land Alliance Secretariat. This quarter meets once a month to critic and review performance as well as plan to participate on activities scheduled for the season.
These members to wit include; Land and Equity Movement in Uganda, Kikandwa Environmental Association, VEDCO Luweero and Apac, the Paralegals Associations of Kapchorwa, Apac, Luweero and Mbale.
The three range Land Rights Centres
These are premised on the innovative approach of Uganda Land Alliance in which over the past six years, member organisations with the support of the Secretariat hosted the Land Rights Centres. However these land rights centres have given birth to Paralegal Managed Centres (PMC) which are located in Kapchorwa, Mbale, Apac, Luweero and Kibaale.
Growth comes with age and experience and learning from the past ULA is defining its present in terms of relevance and capacity thus informing the strategic direction of these centres. In view of the fact that the paralgels have sustained land rights work in these districts even without the active involvement of ULA and its host members it is imperative that the Member Hosted ( MHC) Land Rights Centres need to phase out of the six districts and move to districts in which ULA has extended, particularly Moroto, as we envisage three more to be hosted in Amuru, Katakwi and Moyo.
The Secretariat will directly run the Technical Support Units (TSU) Land Rights Centres (LRC) with an Advocate at the regional central points. The TSU are expected to bolster the land rights work carried out by the MHC and PMC. The technical support unit will be rolled out in phases. In 2009 the target is two, one located in Apac and a second in the Eastern region.
The Community
ULA is embarking on a sustainability drive for land rights protection and prevention of conflict through a massive engagement of the community. Training will be carried out to support structures like the local councils, the clans as well as paralegals. The communities will be mobilised and modelled for land rights sensitivity and activism. The program will also support training for Local Government to mainstream land rights into Land related sub county programs.
Over the years we have learnt that land rights training should be carried out in correspondence with human rights awareness and training to give effect to policy and legal reform as well as attitude and practice change. There is an ever growing agitation and discomfort bordering on suspicion from the gender concepts and misconceptions that in our view will serve to demystify the mthys.
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