Human Rights Against Land Grabbing? A Reflection on Norms, Policies, and Power

Bibliographic Data

ID12496105
AuthorsPoul Wisborg (0000-0001-8550-407X, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume26
Issue6
Pages1199-1222
Publication date2013-04-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1187-7863 • E-ISSN: 1573-322X
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s10806-013-9449-8
OpenAlexW2034045423
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited21

Large-scale transnational land acquisition of agricultural land in the global south by rich corporations or countries raises challenging normative questions. In this article, the author critically examines and advocates a human rights approach to these questions. Mutually reinforcing, policies, governance and practice promote equitable and secure land tenure that in turn, strengthens other human rights, such as to employment, livelihood and food. Human rights therefore provide standards for evaluating processes and outcomes of transnational land acquisitions and, thus, for determining whether they are ethically unacceptable land grabs. A variety of recent policy initiatives on the issue have evoked human rights, most centrally through the consultation and negotiation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests concluded in 2012. However, a case of transnational land appropriation illustrates weak host and investor state enforcement of human rights, leaving the parties to in interaction with local groups in charge of protecting human rights. Generally, we have so far seen limited direct application of human rights by states in their governance of transnational land acquisition. Normative responses to transnational land acquisition—codes of conduct, principles of responsible agricultural investment or voluntary guidelines—do not in themselves secure necessary action and change. Applying human rights approaches one must therefore also analyze the material conditions, power relations and political processes that determine whether and how women and men can secure the human rights accountability of the corporations and governments that promote large-scale, transnational land acquisition in the global south

Accountability · Agriculture · Appropriation · Business · Corporate governance · Human rights · Land grabbing · Land law · Land tenure · Political science · Property rights · Transnational governance · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Human Rights and Development · Land Rights and Reforms · Law · Finance

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access