Presentation of Law on Land
Management and
Land Clearance Process
PREPARED BY ABDUL RAB
SAMADI
LAND CLEARANCE MANAGER
AFGHANISTAN LAND
AUTHORITIES
MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE,
IRRIGATION AND LIVESTOCK
Objectives of Law on land management
affairs
1. Creation of a unitary and reliable order across the
country.
2. Management of property books and land registration
based on the credible documents of relevant offices.
3. Collection of authentic figures and statistics tbr the
purpose of using them in the future economic and
development plans of government.
4. Solving the problems resulting from performance of land
related reforms of former regimes.
Objectives of Law on land management
affairs
5. Segregation of government, individual, virgin and arid
and pasture (grazing) and endowed lands.
6. Distribution of government lands as well as virgin and
arid lands.
7. Restoration of land distributed illegally.
8. Provision of adequate opportunities for active and broad
private sector participation in landholding sphere.
9. Prevention of government land confiscation.
10. Providing the opportunity for people to access land.
Law on Land Management Affairs
With reference to the above points, the Law on Land
Management Affairs prepared in 11 chapters and 90
articles was enacted by the President of the Islamic
Republic of Afghanistan.
1. General Provisions
2. Title deeds
3. Settlement of land
4. Restoration of appropriated lands to their owners
5. Eligible persons
Law on Land Management Affairs
6. Land distribution
7. Transfer and alterations of land
8. Land leasing
9. Pastures and endowed lands
10. Penal provisions
11. Final provisions
Law on Land Management Affairs
As today’s workshop has been organized concerning the issues of
land acquisition, the article 21 of law on Land Management
Affairs states the following:
Article 21
In order to ensure public interests, the State, if necessary
and according to provisions of law, can appropriate the
land of a person, which shall take place after the land
Settlement, therefore, the settlement of the land paves the
way for the land acquisition. In other words, the principal
facilitator of the land acquisition is land settlement.
Therefore, it is important to collect information about land
settlement.
What is land settlement
Land settlement is an activity in which the land is
defined from viewpoint of location, boundary, size,
extent of water right, tax amount, number of plots of
land, type of property and type of title deed.
Conducting the settlement process
 The Ministry of Agriculture & Irrigation and Livestock
shall conduct the process of landholding settlement
and management from technical and administrative
Points of view.
 The Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan, Finance, Energy & Water and Agriculture
& Irrigation and Livestock ministries, General
Administration of Geodesy and Cartography as well as
relevant local departments shall be jointly responsible
to implement the settlement process
Composition of the land settlement
commission
Article 14: Law on Management of Land Affairs
To settle the landholding area, the settlement commission shall perform its
functions with the following composition:
1. Representative of the land management organ izat ion of Ministry of Agriculture.
Irrigation and Livestock as chief.
2. In charge of settlement affairs of the land management organization, as member.
3. In charge of administrative affairs of the land management organization, as
member.
4. Representative of Ministry of Finance, as member.
5. Representative of Ministry of Energy and Water, as member.
6. Representative of local promotion and propagation department of Ministry of
Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, as member.
7. Representative of cadaster team of the General Department of Geodesy and
Cartography, as member.
The number of members of the settlement commission mentioned under clause (1)
of the present article is assigned each year based on the suggestion of Ministry of
Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock and endorsement of the President of the Islamic
Republic of Afghanistan.
Objectives of settlement
1- to settle the lands under the coverage of the public
and governmental projects
2- to settle the lands under disputes ( land related
disputes between the government and people or
between individuals and governmental agencies)
3- General settlement of lands across the country
The procedure to execute the process of land
settlement from the start to the end
Land settlement requested by the provincial governor office
A proposal is prepared by the Afghanistan Land Authority, signed
by the Minister of Agriculture and submitted to the office of the
President of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for issuance of
settlement decree
To circulate letter to the relevant entities to complete the
composition of the commission
To issue the introductory letter and dispatch of the commission to
the targeted area
To introduce members of the commission to the authorities of the
relevant province and district
The procedure to execute the process of land
settlement from the start to the end
To announce via local media the land settlement of the targeted
area by the Agriculture department in order to inform the land
owners
The land owners refers to the commission of the land settlement
A land measurement form is distributed to the land owner
The land owner fill out the specified part of the Form Sheet
Submission of the Land Measurement Form by the land owner to
the Cadastre Team
The procedure to execute the process of land
settlement from the start to the end
The Cadastre Team and representatives of the Ministry of Energy
and Water including land settlement officer or head of the
commission visits the land claimed by the land owner as his
property on the Form sheet
To implement the cadastral map on the area claimed by the land
owner
Members of the Land Settlement Commision determines the
boundary, size, location, extent of water right, and degree of land
quality and write them down on the Land Measurement Form
To submit the Land Measurement Form and land owner documents
to the Land Settlement Officer
To complete the information through the relevant offices in regard
to the verification of the land owner’s documents
The procedure to execute the process of land
settlement from the start to the end
The Land Settlement Officer fills out the Land Registration Form and he
notes down his settlement comments following the reconciliation of the
Land Measuring Form to the statements of the land owner, Title deed of
land owner.
Signature of the settlement commission at the bottom of the form
and verified by the head of settlement commission
To send to the relevant court the land settlement documents to prepare and
convert the documents of the land owner to legal title deed or verification of
the previous title deed as per the article 6 of the Law on land management.
After being processed by the Court as per the law on land
management, the title deed is sent to the relevant local entities for
registration
To submit the settlement documents at the end of the process as
per the article 91 of the law on land Management and stipulate the
additional land belonging to the state into the form sheet and keep
it on file in the archive of the local lands
To prepare report about the execution of the settlement as per the
decree of the President and submit it to the Afghanistan Central
Land Authority to the Governor Office and and other relevant entity
The procedure used by the Land Settlement
Commission to identify the governmental land
In the event that no claim of ownership is made to a plot of land,
the land is identified as governmental property against principal
books of properties, taxes and cadastre
To register the land as per its quantitative and qualitative
characteristics as governmental property on the Land Measuring
Form
To send the Land Measuring Form to the offices of the
governmental properties and to the directorate of the local lands
through official letters to be kept and recorded provided it has not
previously been recorded.
The procedure used by the Settlement Commission if
landowner is not satisfied
The Settlement Commission must notify the dissatisfaction of any
person in writing
After receipt of the letter regarding the dissatisfaction of the
landholding, the issue is referred to the court for the final decision
as per the article 23 of the Law on Land Management
Obligations and the powers of the
settlement commission
1- Settlement of landholding areas, distribution of
document and land.
2. Determining the limits, category, water rights and tax of
the land.
3. Determining and segregation of individual, state, as well
as grazing, endowed,
virgin and arid lands, jungles and so forth.
4. Referring the disputes and lawsuits related to grazing,
endowed, virgin and arid
lands, jungles and so forth to the competent authorities.
5. Registration of land settlement conclusions in the
relevant book.
Obligations and the powers of the settlement
commission
6- Referring the conclusions of land settlement for
registration in the principal books of properties (Amlak)
and local tax as well as preparing legal document in the
relevant court.
7. Restoration of previously illegally-distributed land to the
owner, or to his legal inheritors.
8. Sending performance report to the relevant provincial
land management department
and to the central land management organization.
9. Other duties for the purpose of enforcement of
provisions of the present law that are assigned by
Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock.
The title deeds
1. A deed based on the purchase, ownership, gift,
inheritance, letter of division, letter of correncton
and marriage certificate.
2. State decree
3. Customary deed
4. Taxation ticket
5. The water right document
6. Formal title deed (Babarak Karmal Administration)
7. Formal title deed (legal title deed) Dr. Najib
Administration)