from Right to Food, 11-06-2009

  Large scale land investments:
Recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food

Following the global food crisis, agricultural land has become more than ever a valuable source of food security. Taking into account the increasing trend of large scale investments on arable land in developing countries the Special Rapporteur on the right to food stressed the importance to integrate human rights principles in the negotiation and implementation of land investment agreements. He provided a set of recommendations in order to ensure the progressive realization of the right to food, the right to development and the right to self determination of local people.

The recommendations of the Special Rapporteur recognized that investments constitute an opportunity for economic development. However, he stressed that important risks for local population needed to be addressed under a human rights framework. He affirmed that the negotiation and implementation stages of the investment agreements must actively involve local farmers: civil society should have access to transparent information in order to participate and express their free consent about issues affecting their own land rights. Indeed, the Special Rapporteur recommended strengthening national legal frameworks related in particular to the property rights system. Currently, many communities are victims of forced evictions without being consulted nor compensated and this phenomenon seriously affects the right to food as well as other human rights. In addition, the Special Rapporteur affirmed that the agreement itself should include provisions aiming to benefit local people in terms of employment and food sovereignty. Rather than highly mechanized operations, the agreements should consider sustainable farming systems based in intensive labor in order to reinforce local livelihoods.

He also pointed out environmental concerns, and recommended sustainable modes of production that would require ex post assessments. The enforceability of commitments and obligations was also raised in its recommendations. He suggested including pre-defined sanctions in case of non compliance and promoted the implementation of legal mechanisms in case of human rights violations and in particular the right to adequate food .

According to Mr. De Schutter, “While these measures may give the impression of representing additional constraints, they should be seen as true success factors in the short and long term”.

The statement of the Special Rapporteur is available at:
http://www.srfood.org/index.php/en

The Right to Food Unit considers land tenure as an essential component for the realization of the right to food and will be publishing a short brief on this subject in its "Focus on" series soon.