A/HRC/42/CRP.5 system.1459 Several ethnic organizations and stakeholders reported that there is no vacant land in their communities.1460 According to the survey: Farmers find the implication that their land is seen as VFV and they only qualify for a concession insulting - 27% of respondents responded that they will not apply for VFV registration because they do not consider their land as VFV. Interviewers also repeatedly heard from farmers that it is insulting to have to request a 30-year concession on their own land which they feel is theirs.1461 610. The land use concessions, in addition to being temporary, cannot be sold or transferred to others, including family members, without Government permission, 1462 resulting in children potentially having no rights to the land that their parents worked. 1463 3. Effects on IDPs 611. The amended law disproportionately affects IDPs in northern Myanmar due to the concentration of ethnic communities dependent on communal land use and IDPs’ inability to assert their claim to their lands due to their displacement. 1464 IDPs are both at risk of losing their land in their places of origin and facing fines or imprisonment for using land in the places to which they have been displaced. Displaced women are acutely affected, due to the high prevalence of female-headed households, coupled with the discriminatory social customs denying their right to access, inherit or own land in many of these ethnic communities.1465 612. Reports received by the Mission indicate that the lack of physical proximity to their properties, compounded by the absence of freedom of movement, lack of property documentation, limited access to administrative services and the centralization of the process determining the status of the land, negatively affected the ability of IDPs to register their land.1466 Civilians, including residents in the IDP camps, reported they feared being arrested if they left to register their lands with the authorities. 1467 613. In March 2019, days before the 11 March deadline for registering land under the amended VFV Law, 17 national and international NGOs supporting conflict-affected communities in Kachin and northern Shan State stated: “Not having been able to return to their lands, the vast majority of IDPs have not had the opportunity to protect their own land rights, particularly within the short 6month time period.”1468 They added, 1459 1460 1461 1462 1463 1464 1465 1466 1467 1468 162 2180, 2181, 2183, GM-017, GM-018, GM-020, GI-056, V-367. GM-018, V-413. 2183. V-416. GM-018, V-415. V-368, V-369, GI-050. See also: https://www.bnionline.net/en/news/idps-worried-land-will-begrabbed-under-new-law Men and women have equal rights to inherit and own land under Myanmar Law. However, the cultural norm is that they have distinct but complementary roles in society, which ultimately impact land ownership. Namati, Gendered Aspects of Land Rights in Myanmar II: Evidence from Paralegal Case Work (June 2019); Gender Profile for Humanitarian Action, and across the HumanitarianPeace-Development Nexus (Rakhine, Kachin and Northern Shan Myanmar) January 2019; Woods, Kevin. “A Political Anatomy of Land Grabs.” Transnational Institute, March 2014; Faxon, Hilary. “The Praxis of Access: Gender in Myanmar’s Land Use Policy.” Conference Paper No. 17, Chiang Mai University, May 2015, pp.7-8. GM-018, GI-050, GI-052, V-348, V-365, V-418. PI-136, PI-161, PM-009, Gender Profile for Humanitarian Action, and across the HumanitarianPeace-Development Nexus (Rakhine, Kachin and Northern Shan Myanmar) January 2019. https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/ngos-call-halting-implementation-vfv-land-law-amendmentprotect-rights-displaced