La exigencia de responsabilidad a las empresas por las violaciones de derechos humanos relacionadas con el land grabbing: evolución y perspectivas

The global rush for land, also known as 'land grabbing', has become an area of growing concern due to its impact on a range of fundamental human rights, with the consequence that renewed attention has been brought to how land is distributed, used, controlled and managed. In this context, specific emphasis is increasingly assigned to the human rights responsibilities of business enterprises, the other influential actors in the governance of land, and of other natural resources, alongside the states. Indeed, when companies express an interest to acquire long-term use or ownership rights over land and forests (or when a government solicits investments from companies in its country), they frequently negotiate and enter into agreements that usually overlook the rights of local land users and owners. Minorities, indigenous peoples and the communities that use land and forests, are often left out of the negotiations between companies and the governments, thus laying the basis for new conflicts with the companies or for a re-ignition of pre-existing ones. The present paper aspires to briefly peek inside the international standards applicable from a human rights law perspective to companies involved in such large-scale land acquisitions and leases: these standards pertain to that intellectually challenging, and still under development, realm of the international human rights law also known as 'business and human right'