Land tenure and agrarian reform in Ruanda-Urundi

XV. RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED ON THE REPORTS OF THE FOURTH COMMITTEE
1606. Land tenure and agrarian reform in Ruanda-Urundi

The General Assembly, Recalling that the United Nations Visiting Mission to Trust Territories in East Africa, 1960, stated in its report on Ruanda-Urundi that since the November 1959 disturbances the question of the necessary changes in the land tenure system has become even more urgent, and that the present position represents an obstacle to lasting peace in the country and impedes the rational utilization of and, without which agriculture and stockbreeding cannot properly develop,[1] Recalling that the Trusteeship Council at its twenty-sixth session adopted the following recommendation: "The Council, noting that basic reforms are needed in the land tenure system on the Trust Territory, expresses the hope that the new representative bodies to be constituted in Ruanda-Urundi will give urgent consideration to these problems",[2] Recalling that the Trusteeship Council and the Committee on Rural Economic Development have in the past made various studies of the problem of population, land utilization and land tenure system in Ruanda-Urundi, Bearing in mind that the majority of the petitioners are agreed that this problem is of vital importance to the Territory, Considering that a satisfactory land tenure system is essential to the peaceful evolution and satisfactory economic development of newly independent territories,

1. Recommends that the Administering Authority urgently request the United Nations and the specialized agencies, under the technical assistance programmes, to dispatch an expert mission to study the problem of land tenure and land utilization in Ruanda-Urundi, in co-operation with the local authorities, with a view to determining how far the present system is prejudicial to the Territory's social and economic development, and to recommend corrective measures;

2. Expresses the hope that the Technical Assistance Board and the specialized agencies concerned will give favourable consideration to such a request.

994th plenary meeting,
21 April 1961.

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[1] Official Records of the Trusteeship Council, Twenty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 3 (T/1551), document T/1538, para. 494. [2] Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifteenth Session, Supplement No. 4 (A/4404), part II, chapter II, para. 184.