A/HRC/4/36 page 15 accompanied by declining access to common property resources. The report concluded that with present trends Cambodia will not meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015. The Cambodia Development Resource Institute, a research institute in Phnom Penh, also concluded in a recent draft study that there is little evidence of a significant reduction in income poverty, human deprivation and inequality. 64. The Special Representative notes with concern that the Government has yet to submit Cambodia’s initial report on its compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which was due in 1994. This report and its consideration by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights presents a valuable opportunity to explicitly integrate Cambodia’s progressive realization of the rights in the Covenant into the National Strategic Development Plan, and for the Government, NGOs, development cooperation and international agencies together to identify and discuss ways to overcome the obstacles to the enjoyment of these rights. VI. ACCESS TO LAND AND LIVELIHOODS 65. The majority of Cambodia’s population lives in rural areas and depends heavily on land and natural resources as a source of livelihood. Thus the question of how Cambodia manages and distributes its land and natural resources, and for whose benefit, is one of the most pressing issues facing the country today. It is also critical to the ability of all Cambodians to benefit from equitable and sustainable development that respects and promotes their human rights. 66. Contrary to the principles set out in the Declaration on the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Cambodia, Cambodia’s rural populations find themselves increasingly displaced from the land, forests and other resources upon which many depend and have legitimate claim, without any protection of the law. The Constitution states that all Cambodian citizens have the right to private ownership of land, a right which shall be protected by law. The Land Law of 2001 provides that any person who has enjoyed peaceful and uncontested possession of land prior to 2001 has the right to request a definitive title of ownership. However, government authorities, who bear the responsibility of upholding people’s rights as set out in the Constitution and Land Law, have been implicated in illegal or coercive land sales that deprive rural communities of their land and source of livelihoods. The judicial system has upheld such unlawful land deals, which comply neither with the provisions nor intent of the Land Law, leading rural Cambodians to mistrust the judicial system as a means to claim their rights and to provide effective redress and remedy. 67. The Special Representative also expresses continuing concern over the eviction of poor people from settlements along the Bassac River in Phnom Penh, and their relocation to sites that lack basic infrastructure and services such as water, sanitation and electricity, and whose distance from Phnom Penh compromises their ability to earn a living. Concerns about this situation have been raised in public statements by the Special Representative, communications to the Government, and a report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living (E/CN.4/2006/41/Add.3).