A case brought to the International
Criminal Court this week could change the way we view the problem of
"land grabbing" and trigger a major review of how the human
rights violations that result are considered under international law.
Land grabbing is rampant globally. Each year, in countries such as
Cambodia, millions of hectares of land are illegally taken from the
people who live on it, often through violence and intimidation, to
make way for mining, timber or agricultural plantations. The
institutions who should provide justice to the victims of land
grabbing are often the very groups driving the problem - national
governments and their elites who frame land seizures as an
unfortunate but inevitable step on the path to economic development,
and quash any resistance.
The case lodged at The Hague on Tuesday
alleges that land grabbing conducted in Cambodia 'on a truly massive
scale' amounts to a crime against humanity, and should be punishable
under international law. It goes on to explain how Cambodia's ruling
elite has waged a campaign of land seizure characterised by murder,
illegal imprisonment and persecution. It provides evidence that since
2000, 770,000 people have been adversely affected by land grabbing,
many of them already forcibly displaced from their homes, with 20,000
new victims in the first three months of 2014 alone. In the capital
Phnom Penh, ten per cent of the population has been directly
affected.
The complaint has been filed on behalf of ten Cambodian
victims, whose identity has been protected due to fears of
retribution. Their lawyer, from Global Diligence LLP, alleges that
the country's ruling elite - senior members of government, security
forces, and business leaders - have waged a widespread and systematic
attack on Cambodian civilians, motivated by 'self-enrichment and
maintaining power at all costs'.
Cambodia is no stranger to
high-profile land rights cases. Since 2000, the equivalent of more
than 70% of Cambodia's arable land has been leased out - a
significant proportion in a country where nearly eight out of ten
people depend on land and natural resources for their livelihoods.
Among the headline-hitting cases were land grabs for sugar
plantations that supply Tate & Lyle, the Boeung Lake fiasco which
resulted in the World Bank suspending funding to Cambodia in 2011,
and acquisitions by rubber companies like Vietnamese giant Hoang Anh
Gia Lai. These disputes must no longer be seen in isolation. The
complaint asks the International Criminal Court to consider them as
symptoms of aggressive state policy, the impacts of which transcend
the boundaries of human rights abuses and domestic crimes, and
contain all of the legal elements that constitute crimes against
humanity.
Many governments and companies peddle the myth that large-scale
agriculture is necessary to feed the world. But this argument ignores
the fact that small-scale farmers still produce more than 80% of the
food consumed in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. And they do this
without routinely resorting to violence, persecution or evictions.
Far from furthering development, taking land away from ordinary
citizens undercuts it, representing one of the biggest threats to
poverty alleviation.
No binding
international regulations exist to stop agribusiness
companies from illegally acquiring, clearing or managing land. If the
Cambodian government is held to account for these crimes, other
governments and the companies involved will have to heed the warning
and recognise that land grabbing is too big a price to pay for doing
business.
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