WUNRN
Land Grabbing, Forced Evictions – Policies & Actions to Secure Land Rights - Women
http://www.actionaid.org/publications/act-it-four-key-steps-stop-land-grabs
Direct Link to Full 40-Page 2015 ActionAid Report:
http://www.actionaid.ie/sites/files/actionaid/act_on_it_-_four_key_steps_to_stop_land_grabs.pdf
Over
the past 15 years, tens of millions of hectares of land have been acquired by
large investors in developing countries. The Land Matrix documented 1,037
transnational land deals covering 37,842,371 hectares during this period, while
many more deals remain undocumented. This global land rush is causing
widespread forced evictions and denial of access to key land and natural
resources for millions of women, small- scale food producers,
pastoralists, gatherers, forest dwellers, fisherfolk, and tribal and indigenous
peoples.
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Access
to and control over land and natural resources is, however, crucial to people’s
livelihoods and to ensuring their rights to food, water, work, housing and a
healthy environment. Governments and donor institutions have the opportunity
and responsibility to ensure that their policies and actions contribute to the
recognition and respect of these rights. To prevent further land grabbing and
help realise the right to food for all, ActionAid urges governments and donors
to adopt a human rights-based approach to development and take the following
four steps:
STEP 1:
Fully implement the Tenure Guidelines on land, fisheries and forests through
participatory, inclusive mechanisms that prioritise the rights and needs of
legitimate tenure users, especially women.
STEP 2:
Ensure the free, prior and informed consent for all communities affected by
land transfers, including the fair and equitable participation of all groups
within local communities, especially excluded and marginalised groups such as
women, children, minorities, the elderly and disabled.
STEP 3:
Review public policies and projects that incentives land grabbing, and instead
support policies that prioritise the needs of small-scale food producers –
particularly women – and sustainable land use.
STEP 4:
Regulate businesses involved in land deals so that they are fully accountable
for respecting human rights, tenure rights and environmental, social and labour
standards. This includes ensuring that investors carry out comprehensive human
rights due diligence, are transparent and are fully accountable throughout all
their operations at home and abroad.
This report sets out how these four steps can be implemented by governments through a detailed checklist of policy reforms and actions, including concrete examples from countries where these were implemented.