Struggling for a Transnational Right to Land Norm

The right to land is increasingly recognized in transnational governance. In this paper, I argue that it has been established as a transnational norm. This argument is presented by tracing the transnational governance of land over time. I identified four phases that land governance progressed through. Initially, the issue of land was only indirectly included, while later on rights and regulations dealing specifically with land emerged, until the right to land finally became an established norm. It recognizes the crucial role of land for rural lives and livelihoods, grants individuals and communities a right to the land they are using, and protects them from dispossession. With the examples of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (FAO 2012) and the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNGA 2018), I trace the role of social movements in the creation processes of both regulations. I argue that the growing market of land on a large scale in the mid-2000s led to the necessity of its regulation as a double movement. Due to the accompanying salience, social movements took political opportunities, to struggle for the recognition of a right to land. Because of past efforts of those movements, they provided expertise in this context. By closely connecting their claims to already established norms, the movements increased the likelihood of adopting the transnational right to land norm.

About the author

Laura Gerken is a political sociologist and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Sociology of the University of Duisburg-Essen. She wrote her dissertation at the International Max Planck Research School on the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy and the University of Duisburg-Essen, where she studied multilevel governance of land and social mobilization around large-scale land acquisitions in Mozambique. Her research interests include transnational governance and organizations, social movements, rural development, agriculture, and rural livelihoods.

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The Role of Climate Change in Exacerbating Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in International Law: In Search of a Solution

Climate change has emerged as the predominant ‘world problematique’. Though entire populations are affected by climate change, women and girls suffer the most. The consequences of natural disasters, women face heighten real-life challenges, especially exposure to different forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Women are exposed to SGBV due to the lack of social, economic, and political security and the culture of widespread impunity for the perpetrators. There is no specific international legal instrument that deals with SGBV against women. While scholarship outlines how climate change exacerbates SGBV against women and girls, even the texts of the three specific climate change treaties (1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and 2015 Paris Agreement) do not address the issue. Only the decisions of the Conference of the Parties in recent years have reflected the importance more recently. It is a new challenge for international law that needs to be duly addressed in a timely manner as a global common concern. Multilateralism, partnership, and cooperation at the global level could help to address the issue and find solutions. This study analyses the causal relationship between climate change and SGBV, the existing international legal instruments that are addressing the issue, and possible solutions to end SGBV.

About the author

Moumita Mandal is currently an Assistant Professor at TERI-SAS, New Delhi. She completed her Ph.D. and M.Phil in International Law at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and obtained her LL.M in International Law from the W.B National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), India. She was also a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Nehru Chair, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She was a Senior Research Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21), Germany and a Visiting Fellow at the Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, Germany. Her research works include ‘Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in International Law: Making International Institutions Work’, Singapore: Springer Nature, 2022.

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