Agrarian Reform as a Human Rights Issue in the Activities of United Nations Human Rights Bodies and Specialised Agencies
| Author | Fons Coomans |
| Published date | 01 March 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410602400102 |
| Date | 01 March 2006 |
| Subject Matter | Part A: Article |
AGRARIAN REFORM AS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE IN
THE ACTIVITIES OF UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS
BODIES AND SPECIALISED AGENCIES
FONS COOMANS*
Abstract
Agrarian reform is back on the political agenda. However, from a human rights perspective this
notion is little developed. In international human rights law an individual right to land does
not exist. The present article aims at establishing the link between human rights norms and
agrarian reform issues, such as access to land as a productive resource. It argues that agrarian
reform be characterised as a human rights obligation. The article also discusses whether, and if
so in what way, UN human rights bodies and specialised agencies have dealt with agrarian
reform as a human rights issue. It concludes that the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to
Food has contributed substantially to putting agrarian reform on the human rights agenda.
However, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has failed to develop the
notion agrarian reform in a progressive way. Modest and prudent efforts have been made by the
FAO and IFAD to mainstream human rights in their policies and programmes on agrarian
reform. Although the World Bank lacks an agrarian reform policy that is inspired by human
rights, the Bank seems to be willing to give more attention to the social effects of land reform
programmes on the living conditions of the rural poor.
1. INTRODUCTION
In many developing countries agrarian reform was and still is a controversial issue. It
has caused divided opinions and political and social strife and has often led to
violence against peasants and landless people. Over the last few years agrarian
reform from a rights perspective has been promoted vehemently by grass-roots
organisations of peasants, such as La Vı
´a Campesina. Also human rights NGOs, such
as Food First International Action Network (FIAN), increasingly focus their activities
on agrarian reform as a way of realising the right to feed oneself. In the framework of
conferences and seminars calls are made upon governments of developing
countries, intergovernmental organisations and donor countries to start, implement
and support programmes of agrarian reform that depart from the needs and rights
of peasants to get access to productive resources (such as land) in order to be able to
make a sustainable living.
1
From a human rights perspective it is crucial to establish
PART A: ARTICLES
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 24/1, 7-31, 2006.
#Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), Printed in the Netherlands. 7
* Senior researcher, Centre for Human Rights, Maastricht University, the Netherlands.
1
See, for example, the Report of the Seminar on Agrarian Reform and Human Rights, Maastricht
(the Netherlands), 15-17 April 2002, available at www.rechten.unimaas.nl/humanrights and the
World Forum on Agrarian Reform, Valencia (Spain), 5-8 December 2004, www.fmra.org. From 7-
10 March 2006 an international conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development took place
in Porto Alegre (Brazil). This meeting was organised by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of
the UN and the Government of Brazil. See www.icarrd.org.
8
the link between agrarian reform and human rights notions, such as right holders,
duty bearers and accountability mechanisms. One relevant feature of international
human rights law is that a right to land does not exist as such. Also the notion of
agrarian reform as a human rights concept is little developed. Section 2 of the
present article presents the human rights framework. It aims at establishing the link
between human rights norms and agrarian reform issues. It will discuss which
international human rights are relevant to agrarian reform and what this means in
terms of a human rights based approach to agrarian reform. However, the main
emphasis of the present article will be on the question whether, and if so in what way
international organs and institutions that belong to the United Nations family have
dealt with agrarian reform or land reform as a human rights issue (section 3). This
survey will include both bodies with a clear human rights mandate and a number of
UN specialised agencies whose mandate covers agrarian reform issues.
2. THE NOTION OF AGRARIAN REFORM AND ITS RELATIONSHIP
WITH HUMAN RIGHTS
2.1. The Notion of Agrarian Reform
Agrarian reform in developing countries as a policy objective and governmental
programme aims at promoting access to land for the rural poor and security of
tenure for those agricultural workers who cultivate the land. It does not only deal
with providing physical and economic access to land, but also with access to
agricultural inputs, markets, credit, administrative services and other forms of
assistance. This implies changing power structures and socio-economic relations in
order to ensure a better living for peasants and a more fair and just society.
2
Agrarian
reform is part of the broader concept of land reform. Land reform does not only
include reform for agrarian/rural purposes, but also for residential and rural
purposes in urban areas. However, often both concepts are used interchangeably.
The present article will only deal with reform of land for agrarian purposes in
developing countries. Traditionally, agrarian reform has not been dealt with or
studied from a human rights angle, but from the perspective of private law rights,
land law, customary law and constitutional and administrative law. Furthermore, it
should be said that it will sometimes be more safe for governments to speak of the
need to give access to land, credit etc. to the poor without labelling it as agrarian
reform, thus depoliticising a controversial issue.
Various modes of agrarian reform exist, such as land expropriation and
redistribution, land restitution, new (former State) land colonisation, land markets
and land tenure reform.
3
According to a report of the Secretary-General of the
Fons Coomans
2
See Ghimire, K.B., ‘Land Reform at the End of the Twentieth Century: An Overview of Issues,
Actors and Processes’, in: Ghimire, K.B. (ed.), Land Reform and Peasant Livelihoods – The Social
Dynamics of Rural Poverty and Agrarian Reforms in Developing Countries, ITDG Publishing, London,
2001, pp. 1-25, at pp. 7 and 25.
3
Land tenure reform may be relevant in case of legal insecurity in the relationship between the
landowner and the occupier. For instance, a tenure system based on rights to land in stead of a
permit based system. Its aim is, for example, to protect vulnerable groups against forced evictions.
See for example, Carey Miller, D.L. and Pope, A., Land Title in South Africa, Juta & Co, Cape Town,
2000.
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