China's Supreme People's Court took a notable step to defend the
rights of farmers on a land contract Friday, by publishing a
judicial explanation on the issue.
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Currently, violations of farmers' rights on land contracts and
relevant laws and policies were widely reported, and in some areas,
the violations have turned into a factor causing social
instability, said Huang Songyou, vice president of the supreme
court, at a press conference.
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It is aimed to promote the public's sense of respecting and
protecting farmers' rights, Huang said.
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According to official reports, last year, 60-70 percent of
complaints governments at different levels received from farmers
involved disputes on land contracts. Violent confrontations
occurred in some provinces.
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Now, local courts should handle suits on this kind of disputes, if
the suitors have contracted the land and their rights have been
infringed upon, said Huang.
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He criticized some local governments who have violated farmers'
rights on land contracts in the name of implementing the policies
of reclaiming cultivated land to plant trees or of turning small
scale farming into a larger projects.
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Many farmers who have returned home from cities thanks to the
government's new policy to boost agriculture are now demanding to
take back their farmland from the leaser. This has also aroused
some land-related disputes.
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Farmers have acquired a kind of property rights through signing of
land contracts, and thus, the violation of their contract rights
has infringed upon their property rights, says the supreme court
document. The court should support farmers to take back land from
leasers, it says.
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The owner of rural land, namely a village committee, in line with
law, is not righteous in taking back the contracted land from the
contractor, it says.?
(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2005)