Land
The Right to Land
The right to one’s land is a fundamental human right protected by the right to an adequate standard of living under Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the right to privacy under Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the right to property under Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The right to one’s land includes the right to be free from forced eviction. In Haiti, the right to land also implicates the right to food since much land in rural communities is used for subsistence farming.
Peasants–rural people who collectively farm the land–are the ‘poto mitan’ or the center post of Haiti’s culture, economy, and identity. Activists, scholars, members of civil society, and residents of communities living on land under mining permits have expressed during interviews with Kolektif Jistis Min and the Global Justice Clinic that Haitians are inextricably connected to their land. This significance can be linked to vodou spirituality, and Haiti’s agrarian history. Most people in northern Haiti, where there are more than 50 mining permits, live in subsistence farming communities. Samuel Nesner, a founding member of Kolektif Jistis Min, emphasized that “the life of the farmer is tied to the land. It is a force; the connection farmers have with the land is irreplaceable.”
In October 2021, Samuel Nesner explained in a hearing on the impact of extractive industries on human rights and climate change in the Caribbean before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, that in Haiti, the mining industry “brutally evicts peasants from their farmlands and causes serious damage to the already degraded environment.”
Mining threatens the rights of Haitians to their land in two key ways:
Displacement and land grabs
Damage to land
Land Grabs and Displacement
Congo Pea Crops and a schoolhouse, La Montay, Northwest Haiti. Photo: Ellie Happel, 2014.
Mining uses a large amount of land. Haiti is the most densely populated country in the Western hemisphere and is very mountainous. Land for farming is already in short supply. A significant amount of land under mining permit in Haiti is home to several subsistence farming communities. Mining threatens to displace these communities from their farmland.
Many people in Haiti have lived on land for generations without formal title and depend on this land for their livelihoods. Haitians have a right to their land regardless of formal title. However, Haiti’s mining regulations and enforcement agencies provide insufficient protection of the right of Haitians to their land. In rural areas of Haiti, there is a crisis of repeated expropriation of land, also known as land grabs. Land grabs have forced farmers and their families off their land, many times under threat of violence and without adequate compensation, to the benefit of large businesses and foreign companies. In the mid-20th century, mining by American and Canadian companies displaced thousands of families from their land. More recently in 2010, the Caracol Industrial Park, a project with significant funding by the United States, displaced 4000 people without compensation. Compensation is now underway after extensive advocacy and the filing of a complaint against the Inter-American Development Bank by civil society and a collective of victim families.
Mining companies have demonstrated a lack of respect for the rights of Haitians to their land. Under mining permits granted without consultation of communities living on the land, companies entered communities without permission, taking samples and digging holes in farmland. In La Montagne, an area in the Northwest department of Haiti, Newmont convinced residents to sign land access agreements without providing adequate information about the content of these contracts. During interviews with Kolektif Jistis Min and the Global Justice Clinic, some residents of La Montagne reported believing that the agreements would bring them benefits akin to a non-profit development project. For more information about these land access agreements, see Right to Access to Information.
Damage to Land
Mineral exploration and, to a much greater extent, mineral exploitation risks causing permanent physical damage to Haiti’s soil. In rural communities, where the majority of the population derives their livelihood from farming, damage to Haiti’s land is highly concerning, especially since people already lack access to sufficient farmland. Mining creates a high risk of land erosion. Even before a mine is built, the construction of roads and trenches to carry out exploratory activities can lead to erosion that contaminates groundwater. Exploratory drilling can release toxic substances contained in the underlying bedrock. Mineral exploration can be incredibly harmful to soil and topsoil, making land uninhabitable for agricultural activity. Mineral exploration, and even road construction, often requires removing topsoil, which can cause erosion and irreversible damage. In addition to threatening the livelihoods of the many farmers in Haiti, erosion also increases the likelihood and severity of deadly disasters like landslides and flooding. For more information about how mining exacerbates the threat of climate disasters, see Climate Disaster.
Resident of Patricko, North Haiti, Next to a Hole a Company Left Uncovered After Drilling. Photo: Ellie Happel, 2013.
[M]ining has changed the land. There are fewer trees. You can’t grow things. We all live off of the land. If it does not produce for us, we are not good, not good at all.
– Resident of La Montagne
Every time the capitalist system renews itself, whether it is enslavement or land, it turns people and land into elements that can make other people rich. This is all part of a vision that is not an ecological vision. It is not a feminist vision. How people can live with animals, with the land. How can we live with one another in harmony?
– Sabine Lamour, Sociologist and coordinator of feminist organization, Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn (SOFA)