Moving towards a Right to Land: The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ Treatment of Land Rights as Human Rights (original) (raw)
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Land Rights as Human Rights: The Case for a Specific Right to Land
Sur - International Journal on Human Rights, 2014
Land rights have received some attention as an issue concerning property rights and have been considered a specifically important right for indigenous peoples and women, but a right to land is absent from all international human rights instruments. This article reviews how land rights have been approached from five different angles under international human rights law: as an issue of property right, as a specifically important right for indigenous peoples; as an ingredient for gender equality; and as a rallying slogan against unequal access to food and housing. By examining these different approaches, the article proposes to identify the place of land rights within the international human rights instruments and jurisprudence as well as to examine why they have not been – and whether they should be - included in such documents as a stand-alone and specific right to land.
2020
This commentary is written in support of the advocacy for a new human right to land put forward by Miloon Kothari. As highlighted by Kothari, access to land and natural resources is a fundamental issue for many people across the globe and should be included in international human rights law. With increased change to the planet’s climate, increasing investment in agribusiness, high demands for food and increasing populations, the demand for land is reaching breaking point. On top of these factors, the dominant market economy increasingly sees land as an important portfolio for investment, leading to what has been labelled ‘land grabbing’ across the globe. All these factors are analysed widely in the literature. What this commentary wishes to do is to ask whether the human right to land is ‘new’ or whether it is only the reinterpretation of other existing rights. To do so it will focus on three main questions. Why was the right to land not included as a stand-alone human rights norm (...
Everybody needs and uses land. Land is indispensable to many aspects of human life on this planet. Moreover, as a matter of state, land and land administration are essential factors in governance and world order, as well as specific contexts of conflict, peace building, sustainable development and human rights. While land is a constant subject of our daily lives, it has figured prominently in global policy instruments and the reviews of numerous states' implementation of treaty obligations. With its mandate to monitor and interpret the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has found land to be a constant subject of states' periodic treaty performance, although ICESCR does not mention land explicitly.
Resistance against the appropriation of nature, especially land, has been one of the key struggles of the transnational agrarian movement La Via Campesina (LVC) since its inception in 1993. The issue of access to land has become even more central after the food crisis of 2007-08, in a context increasingly marked by land grabbing and climate change. This contribution offers a critical examination of the emergence of the « right to land and territory », both as a collective action frame deployed by transnational peasant movements, and as a new human right in international law. It explores the various ways in which agrarian movements are using the human rights framework to question the establishment of absolute private property rights over land, and restore political limits on access to land. It argues that peasant movements are claiming a new human right to land through a combination of institutional and extra-institutional channels, in an effort not only to achieve increased protection of peasants’ land rights (against and by the state), but also to advance an alternative conception of human rights that resonates with their worldviews, and allows for the development of food sovereignty alternatives, including outside the state.
Land administration, planning and human rights
Planning Theory, 2014
The people-to-land relationship is dynamic and changes over time in response to cultural, social and economic development. Land policies, institutions and land administration systems are key tools aimed at governing this relationship. Such tools will normally include the means for allocating and controlling rights, restrictions and responsibilities in land -often termed RRRs. Each of the rights, restrictions and responsibilities encompasses a human rights dimension that should be seen and unfolded as more than just political rhetoric. This article attempts to analyse the aspect of human rights in relation to land administration systems with a special focus on less developed countries struggling to build adequate systems for governing the rights, restrictions and responsibilities in land. In doing so, the article conceives planning as a key function and means of land administration systems by which human rights should be underpinned in solving concrete land issues.
The Right to Land and Territory: New Human Right and Collective Action Frame
Resistance against the appropriation of nature, especially land, has been one of the key struggles of the transnational agrarian movement La Via Campesina (LVC) since its inception in 1993. The issue of access to land has become even more central after the food crisis of 2007-08, in a context increasingly marked by land grabbing and climate change. This contribution addresses one of the most significant dimensions of the contemporary agrarian question – i.e. access to and control over land and natural resources—, through a critical examination of the emergence of the “right to land and territory”, both as a collective action frame deployed by transnational peasant movements, and as a new human right in international law. After describing how LVC activists have used the human rights framework to formulate land claims (II), this article discusses a number of tensions that underlie the recognition and protection of land rights, either through institutional channels (“from above”)(III), or through the defense and control of lands and territories (“from below”)(IV). It ends with a discussion of the various frames that are deployed by La Via Campesina activists in ongoing land struggles, and of the possible impact of institutional progress on these struggles.
LAND RIGHTS: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAND POLICY FRAMEWORK, TREATIES AND GRASSROOTS REALITIES
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Technology, 2023
Ownership of land and allied resources is an emerging reason for dispute all over the globe. These disputes affect the perspective of rural growth, human rights, indigenous culture, ecological conversation, and attempt to combat changes in climate conditions. Traditionally, most of the land resources are governed and owned by the local and indigenous communities through their customary tenure system. In the last several decades due to various reasons, the perspective towards land resources is changed and land became a commodity. The landowners have also changed their perspective and used it as a commodity to get financial resources. The land is a primary source of developing livelihood assets of humans and the life cycle of biodiversity. Recent trends in land markets and emerging land conflicts are indications of future societal and administrative problems. To minimize further impacts proper policies and protection measures are important. Protection of the traditional rights of indigenous people is a primary duty of governance and society. The appropriate policies and conflict resolution mechanism is important to secure the livelihood of forest dwellers. This paper is intended to address the emerging challenges and land rights issues from a wider perspective.
Towards Actualizing the Continuum of Land Rights in Support of Sustainable Development Goals
2017
Pro-poor approaches to land administration are increasingly gaining impetus and getting promoted in global agreements, national land policies and NGO's briefs. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers four prominent land targets on poverty, food security, land degradation and gender. In addition, the role of land is well captured in the New Urban Agenda (NUA), with its social, ecological and economic functions well-articulated in the recently adopted document (Habitat III), which outlines a very prominent role for land tenure security and property rights in pursuit of sustainable land governance interventions for the next 20 years. Improved land governance and achievement of sustainable development underpin these global covenants. The need for efficient land management and administration systems and the recognition of the complexity of land rights cannot be overemphasized. In most developed nations, land records are generally well kept and cover most of the territories...
Human Rights and Land in Africa: Highlighting the Need for Democratic Land Governance
Human Rights Matters, 2021
Human rights principles form the foundation for the move towards responsible land administration. They are embedded in such international treatises as the Sustainable Development Goals, New Urban Agenda, and Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure, among others. These treatises provide the backdrop to the development of land policies and administration systems that seek to secure land tenure and land rights for all through adherence to human rights principles such as non-discrimination, equity and justice, gender responsiveness, transparency and accountability. Yet the human rights tradition is built on Western values and biases, and there is some contention as to the universal acceptance of this. In discussing land rights in Africa, assumptions about the universality of human rights should be weighed against such contentions if land reform programmes are to sustainably succeed. In this chapter, the arguments around human rights are presented in the context of African land reform, and a model of democratic land governance is proposed.