International Justice and Human Rights Clinic | Peter A. Allard School of Law | The University of British Columbia Breaking New Ground Investigating and Prosecuting Land Grabbing as an International Crime February 2018 1 Acknowledgements & Methodology This report was written by Rochelle Kelava, Cindy Phillips, and Sasha Vukovic of the International Justice and Human Rights Clinic at Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia. Clinic Fellow Julie Hunter supervised and assisted with research, and Clinic Director Nicole Barrett reviewed and edited the report. We are truly grateful to Khin Zaw Win (activist and former political prisoner, Myanmar), Martyn Namorong (Papua New Guinea Resource Governance Coalition), Richard Rogers (Global Diligence), Tomaso Ferrando (University of Warwick), Sofía Monsalve (FIAN International), Andrea Nuila Herrmannsdorfer (FIAN International), Jon Festinger, Q.C., and Professor James Stewart, all of whom graciously donated their time and provided valuable input into this project. Research for this report consisted of a mix of desk research and interviews with regional and thematic experts. Information was collected from a wide range of academic scholarship, reputable news sources, human rights reports, and government and industry documents, among others. Due to time and other considerations, interviews were restricted to a limited number of experts and did not extend to the victims of land grabs. Case research concluded in May 2017 and is current up to that date. A longer confidential version of this report with detailed case studies was delivered to the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) in December 2017. Nicole Barrett and Sasha Vukovic presented the confidential report and its findings to the OTP in The Hague on 24 February 2018. Opinions expressed in the report are those of the authors and should not be attributed to other parties. The report does not represent the official position of the Allard School of Law or the University of British Columbia. Reporting of events is based on publicly available information and should not be taken as allegations of guilt against any individual persons or corporate entities. At the time of publication, none of the actors named in the report had been found guilty of crimes against humanity in connection with land grabbing. Versions of events in the report are subject to additional facts and verification. Comments on the report may be directed to: International Justice and Human Rights Clinic Peter A. Allard School of Law 1822 East Mall Vancouver, British Columbia Canada V6T 1Z1 Email: [email protected] Telephone: +1-604-822-9298 © 2018, International Justice & Human Rights Clinic Peter A. Allard School of Law The University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada Suggested Citation “Breaking New Ground: Investigating and Prosecuting Land Grabbing as an International Crime,” Allard International Justice and Human Rights Clinic (Vancouver: Allard School of Law, February 2018). 2 Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................ 5 I. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 7 II. Terminology: Defining Land Grabbing and Other Core Concepts ............................................................. 10 III. Global Reach of Land Grabbing ................................................................................................................... 13 A. Industries and Regions ............................................................................................................................................... 13 -Spotlight- Papua New Guinea: Decimation through Resource Grabs ...................................................................... 14 B. Victims ........................................................................................................................................................................ 16 C. Key Players: Economic and Political Actors ............................................................................................................. 20 -Spotlight- Brazil: Violence in the Amazon ................................................................................................................... 24 IV. Sources of Law ............................................................................................................................................. 26 A. International Treaties ................................................................................................................................................ 27 3 B. The Rome Statute ..................................................................................................................................................... 28 C. Survey of Jurisprudence ............................................................................................................................................ 29 V. Legal Analysis: Building a Land Grabbing Case .......................................................................................... 35 A. Jurisdiction and Admissibility .................................................................................................................................... 35 -Spotlight- Myanmar: From Bullets to Bulldozers ....................................................................................................... 37 B. Chapeau Elements ..................................................................................................................................................... 40 C. Underlying Crimes ..................................................................................................................................................... 43 D. Defendants ................................................................................................................................................................ 49 -Spotlight- Cambodia: Blood Sugar ............................................................................................................................. 53 E. Modes of Liability ....................................................................................................................................................... 55 F. Challenges to Building a Case .................................................................................................................................... 59 VI. General Guidelines for Legitimate Expropriation ...................................................................................... 61 VII. Remedies .....................................................................................................................................................64 A. Reparations: Trust Fund for Victims ......................................................................................................................... 64 B. The Right of Return .................................................................................................................................................... 65 C. Reputational Damage and Loss of Bargaining Power ............................................................................................ 66 D. Jail Time for Executives ............................................................................................................................................. 66 VIII. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 67 Appendix A: Table of Cases – Forcible Transfer ..............................................................................................68 4 INDIA: A little girl stands in front of her demolished home, on the outskirts of an open-pit coal mine. In the Jharia region of India, hundreds of villagers are being removed from their homes, which are being demolished to yield coal from this reserve. Sudipto Das, Das Lone Existence (2014 May), retrieved from: <http://www.allardprize.org/galleries>. Executive Summary Since 2000, governments, financial investors, and national and transnational corporate actors have been involved in land deals covering over 38.9 million hectares of land in developing countries – an area greater in size than Germany.1 Conservative estimates suggest that over 12 million people have lost their incomes as a result of the recent land rush – more than a third of the number of people internally displaced due to conflict and a quarter of the number of migrations induced by natural hazards in 2012.2 In Cambodia alone, an estimated 830,000 people have been affected by land grabbing since 2000, including over 60,000 additional victims in an eighteen-month period beginning in early 2014.3 Although some of these land deals occur peacefully and within the bounds of the law, many do not, constituting illegal “land grabs” in violation of international law.4 Within that context, land grabbing for natural resource exploitation has emerged as a rampant global human rights issue, threatening food security and livelihoods and often resulting in forced eviction and transfer, environmental degradation, and even murder and other forms of physical violence. Vulnerable and marginalized populations – in particular, impoverished communities, women and children, indigenous