The new scramble for Africa: towards a human-rights based approach to large-scale land acquisitions in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) sub-region

The chapter examines the implications of a contemporary ‘land grab’ in the SADC region, or the growing acquisition of lands by foreign investors at the behest of Asian or Middle Eastern states, to produce crops for their own consumption and security in the wake of the global food crisis. The analysis provides a rights-based approach to large-scale land acquisition, particularly looking at the right to food and land rights for the local communities, including an exploration of the meaning and reach of customary land rights. It also examines the right to development, which is used as a justification for leasing lands, and highlights that this right concurrently confers obligations on SADC states to protect the rights of peoples to control decisions which affect their economic and social development. Overall the aim is to signal the alarming move towards large-scale land acquisitions in the SADC region, and the potential for human rights to provide a regulatory framework. It is suggested that the issue could galvanise the international movement towards non-state actor accountability, which has been evolving for several decades.

Embargoed, awaiting copyright cleartance. (9/2/11)