BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS / Šturma, Mozetic (eds)

7 Land grabbing as a human rights challenge

Martin Faix 1

1. Introduction One of the most significant trends which emerged out of the 2008 worldwide food crisis, 2 the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, was the large-scale acquisition and leasing of land. Soon the “green rush” trend, denoted nowadays commonly as land grabbing, has been identified as having two faces: foreign investments bear opportunities for improvement of agricultural structures, economic growth, and prosperity. However, they also have a dark side, as it was described for example by Nevem Mimica, the EU Commissioner in charge of International Cooperation and Development: “ Millions of people around the globe depend on farmland, fisheries and forests for their livelihoods. But the increasing pressures on our precious natural resources carry multiple social, economic and environmental threats. In their most serious expression, they can lead to conflict, displacement and hunger. So it’s no exaggeration to state that the issues … are fundamental issues of human rights and relate to the future of humanity ”. 3 It is apparent that land grabbing raises several international law issues, most importantly issues in the field of human rights. It is therefore the goal of this contribution to identify such legal implications. However, this will be done in a different way than how the topic is usually looked at. This chapter shall also serve the goal of contributing to a very fresh debate reflecting and recognizing the fact that land grabbing has become a truly global phenomenon. For the last two decades the discussion on the consequences of land grabbing focused on the context of developing countries, however, largely neglecting the fact that this phenomenon is also equally problematic in the developed world, e.g. within the European Union. The EU countries which acceded to the Union in 2004 provide an example that the “green rush” phenomenon, especially in the form of the so- 1 JUDr. Martin Faix, Ph.D., MJI , is a Senior Lecturer of International Law and a member of the Centre of Excellence – Research Centre for Human Rights (UNCE) at Charles University in Prague, and a Senior Lecturer of International Law at the Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. He serves also as Alternate Member for the Czech Republic in the Management Board of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency. This contribution was produced with the support of the Charles University Programme UNCE No. 204006. 2 For details on the crisis from the perspective of the United Nations see e.g.: United Nations. The Global Social Crises. Report on the World Social Situation 2011 , ST/ESA/334, New York, June 2011, available online at: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/rwss/docs/2011/rwss2011.pdf (accessed 14 January 2018). 3 Neven Mimica’s (EU Commissioner in charge of International Cooperation and Development) intervention in the opening remarks of the high-level event to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the VGGT – the Voluntary Guidelines for Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests. The event was jointly organized by the FAO and the EU on 10 October 2017 at the FAO Headquarters in Rome. Information available online at: https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/hunger-foodsecurity-nutrition/discussions/ high-level-event-commemorate-5th-anniversary-vggt-main-messages-rome (accessed 14 January 2018).

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