A/HRC/41/39/Add.2 BRI as a way to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, 25 some countries are very significantly reducing previously unfavourable terms. 26 As BRI projects extend across the globe, China, borrowing countries and the international community should develop a more informed and nuanced understanding of the potential attendant risks and benefits, as well as the importance of transparency. B. Links between land and poverty 29. Land is crucial to many poor people’s livelihoods, yet their land security is often tenuous. The Government has pursued large-scale initiatives, including infrastructure projects and industrial plantations, that have separated people from their land, often resulting in hardship and debt. The Special Rapporteur received multiple reports of land loss and resettlement, leading to loss of livelihoods, food insecurity, lack of access to water, inadequate or no compensation for lost resources, impoverishment and indebtedness owing to the forced transition to a cash-based economy. A policy of “Turning Land into Capital” has blanketed the country with more than 1,750 concessions, 27 giving companies the right to use vast tracts of land, sometimes for as long as a century and often without adequate regard for existing land use. 30. The Government deserves credit for taking steps to rethink its approach, including a 2012 moratorium on mining and rubber and eucalyptus plantation projects. In 2017, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party observed that land expropriation represented a “heavy burden”.28 Officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment explained that, at the direction of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, they had ceased issuing concessions while a review was undertaken. 31. That re-evaluation should be about more than simply cancelling some underperforming contracts. It offers an opportunity for the Government to recognize the importance of land to people and to protect their land tenure rights as a way of reducing poverty. Land management should not be carried out on an ad hoc basis, but should be truly participatory, reflect and offer protections for existing land use and be executed in a regular, transparent fashion, with access to remedies. 32. The outcome of the ongoing review should be made public and any future concessions approved only after complete fulfilment of all legally required assessments and processes, including meaningful consultation with the local population and fair compensation. The Government should seek to bring into compliance existing concessions that are not in accord with their contract terms or that have had demonstrably adverse impacts on communities, cancel or otherwise address them and provide a remedy for people who have been harmed. 33. While in-country, the Special Rapporteur received multiple first-hand accounts of the extremely challenging circumstances faced by people in Thateng District, Sekong Province, who were affected by loss of land to a rubber tree plantation. He is alarmed that 10 people reportedly remain in custody without charge. 29 The Government should remedy 25 26 27 28 29 See United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “Jointly building the ‘Belt and Road’ towards the Sustainable Development Goals”, 16 August 2016. Available from www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/policy/building-belt-road-towards-sdgs.html; United Nations Development Programme and China Center for International Economic Exchanges, “The Belt and Road Initiative: A new means to transformative global governance towards sustainable development”, 2017. Available from www.cn.undp.org/content/dam/china/docs/Publications/UNDP-CHGGR%202017.pdf. The Economist, “Country report: Malaysia”, Intelligence Unit, 2 April 2019, p. 25. According to figures provided by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment. Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party resolution No. 026/CC of 2017 on the enhancement of land management and development in new period. International Federation for Human Rights and Lao Movement for Human Rights, “Key Human Rights Issues of Concern”, 7 March 2019. Available from www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/EPoverty/Lao/FIDH.pdf. 9