Joint Statement of the participants of the ‘South East Asia Consultation on Land Grabbing and Palm Oil Plantations: CSO and Academic Responses’

This Joint Statement is the outcome of a conference held in Medan on 5 - 10 November 2012, organised by Darma Agung University and grassroots organisation Lentera Rakyat, on land grabbing and oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia. The workshop was an opportunity for civil society groups, universities, the media and policy makers, to gain a deeper understanding of the consequences of large-scale land acquisition for oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia, and related deforestation, climate change, human rights violations and threats to food sovereignty. Endorsing the Bali Declaration on Human Rights and Agribusiness and the Statement of the Phnom Penh Workshop on Human Rights and Agribusiness in Southeast Asia, the Joint Statement calls on the governments of the ASEAN region to respect and uphold land rights for local communities and indigenous peoples, to make the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) a mandatory requirement in national laws pertaining to land tenure. It also calls on ASEAN to extend the mandate of AICHR as an effective and independent human rights mechanism to investigate the violation of farmers and indigenous peoples' rights and to encourage Member States to domesticate the Voluntary Guidelines into national legislation. 

Click here to read the joint statement.