to the courts, rather than to the customary or administrative mechanisms, though of the 117 victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch, only one had gone to the justice system. To restore land to people wrongfully dispossessed while displaced, the Pinheiro Principles call on states to “establish and support equitable, timely, independent, transparent and non-discriminatory procedures, institutions and mechanisms to assess and enforce housing, land and property restitution claims.”186 Moreover, states are to provide “adequate financial, human and other resources” to institutions, agencies, and mechanisms involved in addressing cases of land dispossession in order “to facilitate restitution in a just and timely manner.”187 In its letter, the Ivorian government said it “shared with [Human Rights Watch] the concern for ensuring restitution for those who were unjustly deprived of their land as a result of their displacement or any other cause.”188 It further noted the government’s “commitment … to resolve land problems by the end of 2013 was manifest by the vote of the National Assembly” to extend by 10 years the period for people to formalize their customary claims to land ownership.189 The government also described its efforts to redeploy law enforcement and judicial officials around the country, highlighting in particular the recent opening of a new tribunal in Guiglo, “not far from Bloléquin, where [Human Rights Watch] notes that there seem to be a number of cases of illegal occupation of land.”190 Human Rights Watch welcomes the government’s actions to date as well as its shared concern for ensuring land restitution. However, the government should see these actions as first steps, far from resolving the land problems that plague western Côte d’Ivoire. The 1998 law on rural land reform previously gave people 10 years to formalize their customary claims to land rights; due to the lack of implementation and follow through under previous Ivorian governments, land conflicts proliferated, rather than decreased, during that period. Land appeal system linking dispute resolution mechanisms, creating confusion about who actually had the power to resolve land disputes and where disputants should first bring the case to attempt to resolve it. This creates opportunities for manipulation and forum shopping, where individuals take their disputes to multiple authorities until they receive a result to their dispute in their favor.” NRC, “Land Conflict and Food Security in the Liberian-Ivoirian Border Region,” December 2012, p. 17. 186 Pinheiro Principles, principle 12(1). 187 Ibid., principle 12(1,3). 188 Letter from Gnénéma Mamadou Coulibaly, minister of justice, human rights, and public liberties, to Human Rights Watch, September 13, 2013, p. 7. 189 Ibid. 190 Ibid. 63 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | OCTOBER 2013