Not free for the taking: a human rights approach to transnational land aquisitions

Global capitalist expansion is transforming the distribution and governance of agricultural land. This expansion brings opportunities for increased investments and production but may come at the expense of local resource rights, human rights and even social and political stability. Land and human rights have a diverse and complex interface that calls for further normative analysis and policy development. In this synthesis of former work, we advocate a human rights approach to questions related to large-scale transnational land acquisition and discuss the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Security (VGGT) in this perspective. Under such an approach, land acquisitions and accompanying investments can be analysed and re-designed to aim for the realization of human rights along four axes: governance, fairness of process, justness of outcomes, and development trajectories that can fulfil human rights. The challenge of moving from conflict and dispossession to rights-based development processes requires new forms of interaction between states, communities, investors and civil society. The text is based on the article “Human Rights Against Land Grabbing? A Reflection on Norms, Policies, and Power”, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2013. It is included here to frame the discussion of recent developments concerning business, land acquisitions and human rights.