Economic Land Concessions in Cambodia - At the Expense of Adequate Housing? A Minor Field Study

The inspiration to this thesis springs from the phenomenon of “land grabbing”, which have had forced evictions of numerous persons and communities across the world as one of its devastating effects. International human rights law recognizes a right to adequate housing, and instances of forced eviction are considered a prima facie violation of this right. This thesis is a case study on adequate housing in Cambodia, a country that is one of the poorest in Asia and still suffers from the legacies of decades of civil war during the second half of the 20th century. At the turn of the millennium, a system of Economic Land Concessions was introduced as a strategy to reduce rural poverty. However, since the introduction of this system concerns regarding the human rights impacts of it have been reported frequently, and so has instances of forced eviction throughout Cambodia. Cambodia has ratified all the core human rights instruments, and against this background the purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether Cambodia can be considered to fulfill its international human rights obligations regarding the right to adequate housing. The purpose is further to examine whether the system of Economic Land Concessions affects the enjoyment of the right to housing. The thesis describes the right to adequate housing as set forth by international human rights law, and thereafter it explores how the right to housing is protected in Cambodia through legislative and policy measures. Relevant parts of the regulation on Economic Land Concessions are then brought up, and a number of controversial issues in relation to housing and Economic Land Concessions are highlighted, namely: land disputes, landlessness, eviction and resettlement, access to justice, corruption and the Government’s lack of transparency. The thesis concludes that Cambodia not can be considered to fulfill its international human rights obligations regarding the right to adequate housing, mainly because of the low degree of security of tenure throughout the country. The thesis further concludes that the enjoyment of the right to adequate housing can be considered affected by the system of Economic Land Concessions, and that this system many times have made the rural poor even poorer, contrary to the original purpose of it.