PREPARED BY ABDUL RAB SAMADI LAND CLEARANCE MANAGER AFGHANISTAN LAND AUTHORITIES MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, IRRIGATION AND LIVESTOCK PREPARED BY ABDUL RAB SAMADI LAND CLEARANCE MANAGER AFGHANISTAN LAND AUTHORITIES MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, IRRIGATION AND LIVESTOCK Presentation of Law on Land Management and Land Clearance Process

Objectives of Law on land management affairs 1. Creation of a unitary and reliable order across the country. 2. Management of property books and land registration based on the credible documents of relevant offices. 3. Collection of authentic figures and statistics tbr the purpose of using them in the future economic and development plans of government. 4. Solving the problems resulting from performance of land related reforms of former regimes.

Objectives of Law on land management affairs 5. Segregation of government, individual, virgin and arid and pasture (grazing) and endowed lands. 6. Distribution of government lands as well as virgin and arid lands. 7. Restoration of land distributed illegally. 8. Provision of adequate opportunities for active and broad private sector participation in landholding sphere. 9. Prevention of government land confiscation. 10. Providing the opportunity for people to access land.

Law on Land Management Affairs With reference to the above points, the Law on Land Management Affairs prepared in 11 chapters and 90 articles was enacted by the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. 1. General Provisions 2. Title deeds 3. Settlement of land 4. Restoration of appropriated lands to their owners 5. Eligible persons

Law on Land Management Affairs 6. Land distribution 7. Transfer and alterations of land 8. Land leasing 9. Pastures and endowed lands 10. Penal provisions 11. Final provisions

Law on Land Management Affairs As todays workshop has been organized concerning the issues of land acquisition, the article 21 of law on Land Management Affairs states the following: Article 21 In order to ensure public interests, the State, if necessary and according to provisions of law, can appropriate the land of a person, which shall take place after the land Settlement, therefore, the settlement of the land paves the way for the land acquisition. In other words, the principal facilitator of the land acquisition is land settlement. Therefore, it is important to collect information about land settlement.

What is land settlement Land settlement is an activity in which the land is defined from viewpoint of location, boundary, size, extent of water right, tax amount, number of plots of land, type of property and type of title deed.

Conducting the settlement process The Ministry of Agriculture & Irrigation and Livestock shall conduct the process of landholding settlement and management from technical and administrative Points of view. The Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Finance, Energy & Water and Agriculture & Irrigation and Livestock ministries, General Administration of Geodesy and Cartography as well as relevant local departments shall be jointly responsible to implement the settlement process

Composition of the land settlement commission Article 14: Law on Management of Land Affairs To settle the landholding area, the settlement commission shall perform its functions with the following composition: 1. Representative of the land management organ izat ion of Ministry of Agriculture. Irrigation and Livestock as chief. 2. In charge of settlement affairs of the land management organization, as member. 3. In charge of administrative affairs of the land management organization, as member. 4. Representative of Ministry of Finance, as member. 5. Representative of Ministry of Energy and Water, as member. 6. Representative of local promotion and propagation department of Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, as member. 7. Representative of cadaster team of the General Department of Geodesy and Cartography, as member. The number of members of the settlement commission mentioned under clause (1) of the present article is assigned each year based on the suggestion of Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock and endorsement of the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Objectives of settlement 1- to settle the lands under the coverage of the public and governmental projects 2- to settle the lands under disputes ( land related disputes between the government and people or between individuals and governmental agencies) 3- General settlement of lands across the country

The procedure to execute the process of land settlement from the start to the end Land settlement requested by the provincial governor office A proposal is prepared by the Afghanistan Land Authority, signed by the Minister of Agriculture and submitted to the office of the President of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for issuance of settlement decree To circulate letter to the relevant entities to complete the composition of the commission To issue the introductory letter and dispatch of the commission to the targeted area To introduce members of the commission to the authorities of the relevant province and district

The procedure to execute the process of land settlement from the start to the end To announce via local media the land settlement of the targeted area by the Agriculture department in order to inform the land owners The land owners refers to the commission of the land settlement A land measurement form is distributed to the land owner The land owner fill out the specified part of the Form Sheet Submission of the Land Measurement Form by the land owner to the Cadastre Team

The procedure to execute the process of land settlement from the start to the end The Cadastre Team and representatives of the Ministry of Energy and Water including land settlement officer or head of the commission visits the land claimed by the land owner as his property on the Form sheet To implement the cadastral map on the area claimed by the land owner Members of the Land Settlement Commision determines the boundary, size, location, extent of water right, and degree of land quality and write them down on the Land Measurement Form To submit the Land Measurement Form and land owner documents to the Land Settlement Officer To complete the information through the relevant offices in regard to the verification of the land owners documents

The procedure to execute the process of land settlement from the start to the end The Land Settlement Officer fills out the Land Registration Form and he notes down his settlement comments following the reconciliation of the Land Measuring Form to the statements of the land owner, Title deed of land owner. Signature of the settlement commission at the bottom of the form and verified by the head of settlement commission To send to the relevant court the land settlement documents to prepare and convert the documents of the land owner to legal title deed or verification of the previous title deed as per the article 6 of the Law on land management. After being processed by the Court as per the law on land management, the title deed is sent to the relevant local entities for registration To prepare report about the execution of the settlement as per the decree of the President and submit it to the Afghanistan Central Land Authority to the Governor Office and and other relevant entity To submit the settlement documents at the end of the process as per the article 91 of the law on land Management and stipulate the additional land belonging to the state into the form sheet and keep it on file in the archive of the local lands

The procedure used by the Land Settlement Commission to identify the governmental land In the event that no claim of ownership is made to a plot of land, the land is identified as governmental property against principal books of properties, taxes and cadastre To register the land as per its quantitative and qualitative characteristics as governmental property on the Land Measuring Form To send the Land Measuring Form to the offices of the governmental properties and to the directorate of the local lands through official letters to be kept and recorded provided it has not previously been recorded.

The procedure used by the Settlement Commission if landowner is not satisfied The Settlement Commission must notify the dissatisfaction of any person in writing After receipt of the letter regarding the dissatisfaction of the landholding, the issue is referred to the court for the final decision as per the article 23 of the Law on Land Management

Obligations and the powers of the settlement commission 1- Settlement of landholding areas, distribution of document and land. 2. Determining the limits, category, water rights and tax of the land. 3. Determining and segregation of individual, state, as well as grazing, endowed, virgin and arid lands, jungles and so forth. 4. Referring the disputes and lawsuits related to grazing, endowed, virgin and arid lands, jungles and so forth to the competent authorities. 5. Registration of land settlement conclusions in the relevant book.

Obligations and the powers of the settlement commission 6- Referring the conclusions of land settlement for registration in the principal books of properties (Amlak) and local tax as well as preparing legal document in the relevant court. 7. Restoration of previously illegally-distributed land to the owner, or to his legal inheritors. 8. Sending performance report to the relevant provincial land management department and to the central land management organization. 9. Other duties for the purpose of enforcement of provisions of the present law that are assigned by Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock.

The title deeds 1. A deed based on the purchase, ownership, gift, inheritance, letter of division, letter of correncton and marriage certificate. 2. State decree 3. Customary deed 4. Taxation ticket 5. The water right document 6. Formal title deed (Babarak Karmal Administration) 7. Formal title deed (legal title deed) Dr. Najib Administration)