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	Uganda: Homeless Children face Violence, Exploitation by Human Rights Watch   Uganda is failing to protect homeless children against police abuse and other violence, Human Rights Watch says in a new report.   Street children throughout Uganda’s urban centers face violence, and physical and sexual abuse. National and local government officials should put an end to organized roundups of street children, hold police and others accountable for beatings, and provide improved access for these children to education and healthcare.   The 71-page report, “‘Where Do You Want Us to Go?’ Abuses against Street Children in Uganda,” documents human rights violations against street children by police and local government officials, as well as abuses by members of the community and older homeless children and adults. Police and other officials, including those from the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), have beaten, extorted money from, and arbitrarily detained street children after targeted roundups.   In police cells children have faced further beatings and forced labor, including cleaning the cells and police living quarters. On the streets, homeless adults and older children harass, threaten, beat, sexually abuse, force drugs upon, and exploit street children, often with impunity.   “Ugandan authorities should be protecting and helping homeless children, not beating them up or throwing them in police jails with adults,” said Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher. “The government should end arbitrary roundups of street children and protect them from abuse.”   Over half of all Ugandans are under 15, and children are the single largest demographic group living in poverty. According to independent groups, local government officials, and police officers from the Child and Family Protection Unit (CFPU), the number of Ugandan children living on the streets is increasing, though the total number is not known.   Human Rights Watch interviewed over 130 current and former street children from December 2013 to February 2014 in seven town centers throughout Uganda. Human Rights Watch also interviewed 49 members of organizations providing assistance to street children, health care workers, international humanitarian and children’s organizations, police, and local government officials.   “For children to be effectively protected and cared for, the government should ensure that all children, including those on the streets, can find shelter and get an education,” Burnett said. “They should be treated with dignity and have the opportunity to find a safe way off the streets.”   * Access the report via the link below. Visit the related web page
	Community land rights in the Post-2015 Agenda by Global Action on Community Land & Resource Rights   The lack of clarity and recognition of community land and resource rights across the developing world has become a global crisis undermining progress on social and economic development, human rights, peace, food security, environmental conservation, and our ability to confront and adapt to climate change.   Ownership of roughly one-half of rural, forest and dryland areas of the developing world is contested, directly affecting the lives and livelihoods of over two billion people.   These lands, which contain the soil, water, carbon, and mineral resources that the future of all humanity depends upon, are the primary targets of rapidly expanding investments in industrial agribusiness, mining, oil and gas, and hydro-electric production.   Community land rights in the Post-2015 Agenda   The United Nation’s post-2015 development agenda’s transformative potential depends on the extent to which it can address the structural factors that entrench global inequalities ranging from poverty to food insecurity. Many organizations consider secure and equitable rights to land and natural resources to be fundamental to achieving the agenda’s goals.   However, the current zero draft fails to recognize that land tenure governance is often community-based, and is organized according to local, customary laws. It is imperative that these tenure systems are strengthened rather than fragmented, and that collective rights are recognized alongside purely individual ones.   The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), Oxfam, and the Secretariat of the International Land Coalition (ILC) have proposed a revision of six of the agenda’s goals to better ensure that positive change reaches those most reliant on land-based resources, particularly women and Indigenous Peoples.   http://www.communitylandrights.org/policy-brief-community-land-rights-in-the-zero-draft-of-the-post-2015-agenda/ http://www.communitylandrights.org/ Visit the related web page
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