Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement: Causes, Consequences, and Socio-Legal Context
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ibidem Press, Stuttgart
List of Acronyms
Foreword
From the author
Introduction—a brief overview of contemporary involuntary migrations
1. An overview of development-induced displacement and resettlement
2. Historical considerations regarding development-induced population displacement and resettlement
3. Theoretical conceptualization of development-induced displacement and resettlement
4. The most important causes of development-induced displacement and resettlement
4.1. Construction of Dams and Irrigation Projects
4.2. Development of transportation infrastructure
4.3. Urbanization, re-urbanization, transformation of urban space and population redistribution schemes in urban areas
4.4. Deforestation and the expansion of agriculture
4.5. Mining and transportation of resources
4.6. Population redistribution schemes
4.7. Conservation of nature
4.8. Other causes of development-induced population displacement
5. The European context of development-induced displacement and resettlement
6. Actors of resettlement processes and their basic functions and objectives
7. Applying the concept of human security to research on development-induced displacement and resettlement.
8. Development-caused displacement and resettlement as a social and economic opportunity
9. Development-induced displacement and the dynamics of social change
10. The politicization of development-induced displacement and resettlement
11. Voluntary resettlement schemes
12. Analysis of the stages of resettlement process
13. Compensation: forms, principles, and potential socio-economic consequences
14. The impact of development-induced displacement and resettlement on families
15. Resources as a key issue determining the causes, course, and the socio-economic consequences of resettlement
16. Irreversible spiral of displacement, evictions and forced migrations
17. Activities of international institutions
18. Development-Induced Displacement and Human Rights
19. In which direction the international human rights should go? The right not to be displaced and the right to be resettled
20. Concluding remarks
21. Abstract
22. Résumé
23. Selected Bibliography
24. Annexes
List of Acronyms
ACHPR African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights ACHPR African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights ACORD Agency for Co-operation and Research in Development ADB Asian Development Bank AFDB African Development Bank AGFE Advisory Group on Forced Evictions (UN-HABITAT) APMEN Asia Pacific Migration and Environment Network ASEAN Association of South-East Asian Nations BPR Berkeley Political Review CABEI Central American Bank for Economic Integration CECOP Council of Communal Land Owners and Communities Against Construction of La Parota Dam CIDPs Conflict-Induced Internally Displaced People CID Conflict-Induced Displacement CIDR Conservation-Induced Displacement and Resettlement COHRE Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions CPRs common property resources CRAB Regional Commission Against Large Dams in Brazil CRSR United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees CSR corporate social responsibility DAC Development Assistance Committee (OECD) DCD Development Cooperation Directorate (OECD) DFDR Development Forced Displacement and Resettlement DIDR Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement DIDPs Development-Induced Displaced People DIDPTB Development-Induced Displaced People To Be DIDS Dam-Induced Displacements DIDR Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement DPs Displaced Persons EBRD European Bank for Reconstruction and Development ECOSOC Economic and Social Council of The United Nations ECOWAS The Economic Community Of West African States ECHO Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission EDP Environmentally Displaced Persons EIA Environmental Impact Assessment ENGOs Environmental Non Governmental Organization ERN European Rivers Network ERTB environmental-refugee-to-be ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific FAO Food and Agriculture Organization FMR Forced Migration Review FRLAN Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter FUNAI The National Indian Foundation (Brazil) GFMD Global Forum on Migration and Development GAP Southeastern Anatolia Project GAP-RDA Southern Anatolia Project Regional Development Administration GTRP Gwembe Tonga Research Project HRAD Human Rights Approach to Development HWR Human Rights Watch IAP International Accountability Project IASFM International Association for the Study of Forced Migration IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development ICC International Criminal Court ICCAs Indigenous and community conserved areas ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ICJ International Court of Justice ICOLD The International Commission of Large Dams IDA International Development Association IDA International Development Agency IDB Inter-American Development Bank IDMC Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre IDPs Internally Displaced Persons IDW Internally Displaced Women IFC International Finance Corporation IIED International Institute for Environment and Development IJRL International Journal of Refugee Law ILA International Law Association ILC International Law Commission ILO International Labour Organisation ILO 169 International Labour Organization's Convention No 169, on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples IMF International Monetary Fund INDR International Network on Displacement and Resettlement IOM International Organization for Migration IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPSA Initial Poverty and Social Analysis IR Involuntary Resettlement IRN International Rivers Network IRR Impoverishment Risks and. Reconstruction Model ISS Indian Social Institute IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature JBIC Japan Bank for International Cooperation JBNQA James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement JCIDP Jamuna Char Integrated Development Project JRS Journal of Refugee Studies LARAP The Land Acquisition and Resettlement Action Plan MAB–Sul Movement of People Affected by Dams–Southern Region in Brazil MAPDER Mexican Movement of Those Affected by Dams and in Defense of Rivers MDB Multilateral Development Banks MDGs Millennium Development Goals MIDR Mining-Induced Displacement and Resettlement MIGA Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency MOSOP Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People NBA Narmada Bachao Andolan NESRC North Eastern Social Research Centre NGO Non Governmental Organization NPRR National Policy on Rehabilitation and Resettlement NRCR National Research Centre on Resettlement (Nanjing, China) NVDA Narmada Valley Development Authority OCHA Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs OD4.30 Operational Directive 4.30 on Involuntary Resettlement OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD/DAC Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development / Development Assistance Committee OECF Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund OHCHR Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights OLS Operation Lifeline Sudan PAs Protected Areas PAFs Project Affected Families PAPs Project-Affected Peoples PDR People's Democratic Republic RAPs Resettlement Action Plans RAPs Resettlement Affected People RSC Refugee Studies Centre (University of Oxford) RSQ Refugee Survey Quarterly SA Social Assessment SEZs Special Economic Zones (India) SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency SOPEMI Système d'observation permanente des migrations SSP Sardar Sarovar Project TVA Tennessee Valley Authority UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNDRIP United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples UNEP United Nations Environmental Programme UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UN United Nations UNCESCR United Nations Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights UN DESA United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs UNGA United Nations General Assembly UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR PDES UNHCR's Policy Development and Evaluation Service UN-Habitat United Nations Human Settlements Programme UNISDR United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction UNOCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs UNRISD United Nations Research Institute for Social Development UNSD United Nations Statistic Division UNTS United Nations Treaty Series UNU United Nations University USAID U.S. Agency for International Development WBCSD World Business Council for Sustainable Development WBED World Bank Environment Department WBG World Bank Group WBR World Bank Review of Projects Involving Involuntary Resettlement 1986–1993 WCD World Commission on Dams WCED World Commission on Environment and Development WCPA IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas WCS Wildlife Conservation Society WFP World Food Programme WHO World Health Organization WREA Water Resources and Environment Agency WRI World Resources Institute WTO World Trade Organization WWF World Wide Fund for Nature VRA Volta River Authority VRW Village Resettlement WorkerForeword
Bogumil Terminski has put together a valuable documentation on development-induced displacement that is demanding attention today as a human rights issue. Land is a non-expandable resource but much of it being alienated from people whose sustain themselves on it, to the corporate sector to whom it is only a source of profit. Such activities change the very concept of land. From people's livelihood to which is linked their economy, culture, social systems and very identity it becomes a commodity of the corporate sector that treats it only as a source of profit. More land is being taken over in recent decades than in the past. According to unofficial sources, around 40 million hectares have been transferred from individual owners and communities to commercial companies in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. In India the estimate for 1947 (year of independence) to 2000 is around 25 million hectares, much of community owned. Under the principle of the State's eminent domain that is the basis of most land laws, such land without individual titles is State property. The law thus turns these communities into encroachers on land that they have inhabited for a thousand years or more before the individual-based laws were enacted.
Involuntary displacement is a consequence of this legal system and of the view of land as only a commodity. People are displaced or deprived of their sustenance in the name of development. Most of those who pay this price are from the subaltern communities but by and large the benefits reach the already well off classes. Those who pay the price are further impoverished and marginalised because loss of land is not merely an economic change but also deprivation of their culture and identity. The social systems that sustained their communities are linked to their land, so are their cultural, spiritual and political systems that ensured equitable distribution of resources. Weakening of these systems renders them economically powerless and deprives them of the social systems that maintained them. They lose hope in their future too. That is marginalisation.
Studies show that even in subaltern communities women pay a higher price than men do. Studies among the tribal communities in India show that tribal women had a higher social status than their dominant class counterparts had. As long as the resource was community owned, they had some decision-making power but no tribe treated them as equal to men. Also most papers presented at the 2007 Commonwealth Conference of Indigenous Women in the Commonwealth showed that women enjoyed a relatively high status as long as they live on community controlled resources, without however being equal to men. That role was linked to their land and forests and is weakened and even disappears with its alienation. All the studies on displacement in India show that tribal women's status deteriorates when the land and forests that were the source of their status are alienated from their communities.
However, the economic and political decision-makers view land acquisition only as an economic activity and ignore its cultural, psychological social and other consequences. A sign of it is the extent of displacement and the absence of an official database on its nature and extent. Studies in India, for example, point to around 60 million persons displaced or otherwise deprived of their sustenance through land acquisition for development. In Mainland China their number is put at around 70 millions. Most of this information has been got through studies done by researchers in institutions outside the official circuit. The absence of an official database is a sign that the economic and political decision-makers are concerned more with corporate profit than with people's impoverishment and marginalisation.
Children are affected in various ways. For example, 49 percent of the displaced families in the State of West Bengal in India and 56 percent in Assam have been forced to keep their children away from school and turn them into child labourers because loss of land deprives adults of access to work. So the family has to survive on the income that children bring to the household as full time labourers. That also symbolises a change in the culture of the community. Children are treated no more as a resource for the future but as a source of income for the present. Girl children are 60 percent of the children who are thus forced to become child labourers. This attitude extends also to the natural resources. Faced with shortages, communities that had traditionally treated land, forests and other resources as sustenance to be used according to present needs and preserved for future generations, begin to destroy them for sheer survival for present income. Deprived of all other income, women begin to view their body as another source of present income. As a result prostitution grows.
One can mention malnutrition and poor health care, of girls and women in particular, as other consequences of forced displacement in the name of development. These and other consequences that have been seen in studies in India and in other South Asian and East African countries turn development-induced displacement into a human rights issue. Every human being has a right to a life with dignity. However, in the name of the State's eminent domain some communities are deprived of this right for the development of another class. Bogumil Terminski brings together documentation on this issue from different parts of the world. That helps human rights activists to understand the problems faced by displaced persons all over the world and take common steps together to change policies that impoverish many for the comforts of a few. I congratulate him on this endeavour and wish him success.