New York — Companies and states investing in large-scale land deals must be held to standards of transparency and accountability to ensure that these deals do not threaten human rights and food security, said the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU School of Law in a report released at a public launch today.
The 118-page Report, Foreign Land Deals and Human Rights: Case Studies on Agricultural and Biofuel Investment, examines both the immediate and anticipated impacts of large-scale land deals on the fulfillment of human rights in host communities. Based on a year-long study, the Report includes four case studies that evaluate, in unprecedented detail, investments in biofuels, food crops, timber, and carbon credits in Tanzania, Sudan, Mali, and Pakistan—countries that suffer from acute poverty, food insecurity, and in some cases, are still in fragile, post-crisis transitions. According to the Report, these factors heighten the risk of serious human rights consequences for the host communities of these investments, which makes the call for transparency and regulation all the more urgent.
landreport (2.8 MB)