MAKING INVESTMENT WORK FOR AFRICA
PAN AFRICAN PARLIAMENT,
MIDRAND, SOUTH AFRICA
21-22 JULY 2011
Human Rights Impacts
By
Angela Mulenga, Foodfirst Information and Action Network
Introduction
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What are Human rights :
Universal and inalienable: All human beings are
born free and equal in dignity and rights
Indivisible: The right of everyone to an adequate
standard of living cannot compromised at the
expense of other rights
Interdependent and interrelated: Each right
contributes to the realization of a person’s human
dignity
Introduction
Rights related to the right to food Include;
 The right to feed oneself (adequate, sustainable..)
 The right to food sovereignty and to self determination (People
freely establish their political condition and provide their own
economic, social and cultural development)
 The right to livelihood resources(People freely use their natural
wealth and resources, without prejudice to any obligations
arising out of international economic cooperation.)
States‘ obligations
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Obligation to respect: States are required not to
interfere with the existing access to and availability of
the adequate food
Obligation to protect: States should adopt measures to
ensure that private enterprises or individuals do not
deprive individuals of their access to available and
adequate food
Obligation to fulfill: States must pro-actively engage in
activities intended to strengthen people’s access to and
utilization of resources and means to ensure their
livelihood, including food security
Extra-territorial obligations (ETOs)
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4.
Obligation beyond states‘ borders: obligation of a
state towards a person outside its territory
Shared responsibility: between victims‘ state and
foreign states (bilaterally and multilaterally)
Shared responsibility : between foreign states
(bilaterally and multilaterally)
Obligation to provide remedy including: restitution,
compensation, satisfaction and guarantee of nonrepetition
Human Rights Impacts and land grabing
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Unfortunate now that ..Over one quarter of the
world’s population is estimated to be landless,
including over 200 million people who live in rural
areas
Yet Land is the main asset from which the rural poor
are able to derive a livelihood, yet millions of
families do not enjoy ownership rights over the land
that they cultivate and are thus considered landless.
Human Rights Impacts and land grabbing
landlessness is caused by a number of factors e.g
population growth, scarcity of land, environmental
degradation, natural disasters, inadequate legal
protections for land ownership, poor governance
 However the most recent and frightening form, has
been the acquisition of large-scale areas of land by
foreign investors.
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Human Rights Impacts and land grabbing
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According to the World Bank, direct foreign investment ( land
grabbing ) in agricultural farmland throughout the Global
South, amounted to an estimated 45 million hectares in 2009
alone, with South America, Central America, Southeast Asia,
and most significantly, Sub-Saharan Africa being the sites of
these major land deal.
There is no doubt that Direct foreign investment is needed in
Africa but should it negatively impact on human rights , take
way people’s livelihoods ??
The answer is NO, NO, NO, NO
Human Rights Impacts and land grabbing
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Why ? Land acquisitions present a serious threat to violation of
Human rights …threatens national food security ,agriculture
upon which most of African governments still depends.
Land grabs are particularly detrimental as peasants and
pastoralists, who depend on access to land and natural
resources in order to sustain themselves, face eviction. Hence
violation of Human rights.
Other Land grabbing human rights implications include
;impoverishment, insecurity, loss of property, lack of access to
means to livelihood, hunger, disease, injury or death.
Human Rights Impacts and land grabbing
Women are often victims of excessive force and endure
the risk of being raped, tortured, or killed.
 Reduces the political space for peasant oriented
agricultural policies
 Distorts markets towards increasingly concentrated
agribusiness interests and global trade
 Damages environment (biodiversity, logging,...)
 violates the right to food
 Reduces water availability in case of irrigation schemes
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Remedies
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While there is no official right to land codified in international
human rights law, rights have been established in the
international legal framework that relate to land access for
particular groups and several remedies for victims can be
applicable such as ;
Domestic Remedies -African commission on human and
peoples 'rights, African court on human and peoples‘rights
and Office of the high commissioner for human rights
UN Remedies: Optional Protocol to the International Covenant
on Economic and Cultural Rights (The Individual complaints
procedure The inquiry procedure)
Remedies
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Special mechanisms ; Working group on economic, social and
cultural rights Chaired by : Commissioner Angela Melo
Special procedures of the human rights council
Intervention of FIAN
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Draft of the protest letters in the form of urgent actions
sent to the responsible authorities of alleged violations
Open letters to concerned authorities of the violation in
the form of SISI*
Draft of the OECD* complaint
Support for the tripartite meeting (victims + company+
government)
Letters to the special rapporteur
Report to the Universal Periodic Review
Report to CESCR
ETO consortium (international corporations have to
respect international human rights law)
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FIAN International is the Secretariat of the steering
committee of the ETO consortium (ETO guiding principles)
80 members (lawyers, academicians and other experts in
different domains)
In Africa we have 10 members in the steering committee
of the Consortium
There is a need of more members in the steering
committee: Civil Society organizations, Social movements
(ideas, campaign after adoption of the guiding principles
on ETO)
Membership application form
Thank you for your attention !