Whatever happened to "the Constitution State," and "the land of steady habits?" And, more important, what has been done to the state's stellar reputation?
After the breakup of the federation in 1963 and Prime Minister Smith's unilateral declaration of independence from Britain two years later, Bishop Lamont criticized the new segregationist Constitution and land apportionment acts, which divided the country into black and white areas, calling them "a direct contradiction of the New Testament's teaching".
After the overthrow of the Derg regime from power in 1991, the 1995 Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Constitution declared land to be the property of the State and the People of Ethiopia.
Under the constitution, much land has been granted to ejidos (peasant communities), many of which have disputed boundaries.
Although, according to the 1980 constitution, all land in Vanuatu is under ni-Vanuatu customary collective ownership and cannot be sold to foreigners, increasing interest from abroad in the late 20th and early 21st centuries prompted the government to allow land to be leased for 75-year periods.
In order to achieve the goals of the challenge, Tiwari says the government must include provisions on the human right to adequate food and nutrition in the constitution; protect land rights and focus investment on women farmers – all of which she says require a high level of political commitment.
Although the constitution says land must be used for social benefit, which is their main justification for occupations, property laws often run against them and lead to violent expulsions by police or vigilante attacks by landowners fighting against – as they see it – illegal invasion by a mob.
Under Ethiopia's constitution, the state owns all land and provides long-term leases to the tenants; land use certificates are now being issued in some areas so that tenants have more recognizable rights to continued occupancy and hence make more concerted efforts to improve their leaseholds.
When Chavez was elected president in 1998, he passed a new constitution which included land reforms, allowing the government to nationalise "idle land".
