Center for Human Rights Reports on Foreign Land Deals

JILP staff Lauren DeMartini and Sylwia Wewiora have contributed to a recent report by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice on Foreign Land Deals and Human Rights.  The report was developed in support of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter.  From the Executive Summary:

The observations offered in this Report contribute to an understanding of the essential minimum steps that can be taken to enhance the benefits of investments that are already underway, while mitigating the risks moving forward. These observations combine an analysis of obligatory human rights standards applicable to states involved in these investments with proposals for private actors to ensure that their activities respect the rights of affected communities. Ultimately, these recommendations cannot substitute for the need to fundamentally reevaluate an increasingly discredited philosophy: that large-scale industrialized agricultural production and biofuel investments, as currently conceived, can ensure the environmental and developmental needs of the planet in a sustainable and equitable way. The rights of communities affected by large-scale land investments must finally take center stage. Their agency over resources must be respected and the development of policies to address their needs must be made a priority.