Transnational Land Acquisitions (TLA) : an evaluation of current legal frameworks and global regulatory responses from a human rights perspective

Transnational land acquisitions (TLA) are promoted by international development agencies such as the World Bank as part of a ‘win-win’ process whereby profitable investment stimulates much needed agricultural and rural development in low-income countries.4 However, there has been widespread opposition to TLA from international and national NGOs, UN agencies, rural peoples associations and other groups, who question the developmental benefits of TLA on a number of grounds, the most common of which is the threat they pose to food and tenure security.5 Though exact numbers are not available, due in large part to the secrecy in which many land acquisitions are conducted, evidence suggests that many thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of rural farmers and other land users have been dispossessed of their land (often without compensation) or otherwise had their human rights violated as a consequence of TLA. The global land rush is a complex phenomena that cuts across the fields of development, international trade and investment, global governance, and international struggles for the protection and promotion of human rights. Scholars are beginning to shed light on these different aspects; in particular, the agro-economic impact of the global land rush has been widely discussed.6 However, the legal and governance questions raised by TLA have received less attention. This paper responds to this knowledge gap by responding to the legal and governance (as opposed to the wider developmental) questions raised by TLA. It will show that the current international, regional and domestic legal frameworks that govern TLA provide excellent security for foreign investments in land but fail to adequately protect the human rights of the rural land users affected by those investments.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Public Law

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• McLaren, Daniel Jamie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Calland, Richard

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9179

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9179