A/HRC/42/CRP.5 Through consultations, IDPs have stated that the VFV land law amendment is a factor pushing them to return to their places of origin before they believe those areas are safe. However, with limited access to land administration services or legal guidance, such returns are extremely unlikely to result in successful regularisation of their land use. Further, premature returns carry significant risks: humanitarian organisations have received reports of IDPs being injured by landmines when visiting their villages of origin to explore the possibility of return. 1469 614. According to reports the Mission received, many view the implementation of the amended law as a tool to make land available for investment projects,1470 enabling the central Government to make land concessions to investors1471 and making “political and business elites who have been able to lease so-called government land” the primary beneficiaries of the amendment.1472 615. Reports received by the Mission raised concerns regarding the granting of concessions to investors to use land classified as “vacant” or “fallow” that may be owned by IDPs or under customary tenure or left fallow deliberately based on traditional agricultural practices.1473 616. Access to land and livelihoods remains a crucial element in the sustainability of potential returns of IDPs.1474 In a statement issued in November 2018, representatives of IDPs from Kachin and northern Shan States said that the amendment to the law threatens land security of IDPs. They expressed concerns about the fact that companies were coming and working the land they had left behind for banana and other plantations ..1475 They called on the Government to protect their lands and property so that they can return to their places of origin.1476 617. A joint statement issued in November 2018 by two civil society networks and later endorsed by some 346 civil society organizations across Myanmar labelled the law “unjust” because it “prioritizes the creation of a land market for investors to come in the name of development”.1477 The letter assessed the law as making “millions of people into landless criminals; and it eliminates their livelihoods, culture, identity, and social status”.1478 618. Some civil society networks called for a moratorium on the allocation of VFV land to private sectors entities.1479 Article 16 of the VFV Law stipulates that those who acquired the right to cultivate or use vacant, fallow or virgin land under the law should develop it within four years. Although some exceptions are included in Article 16 (b), such as natural disasters and insecurity, displacement is not explicitly mentioned in the law as being one of these exceptions. 619. A report issued in May 2018 by a consortium of organizations regarding conflictaffected communities and their land of origin in Kachin State 1480 indicated “legal or administrative procedures are being used in a way that undermines the rights of those displaced by conflict and ignores the exceptional circumstances of displacement.… Even when conditions are eventually met for those displaced to safely and voluntarily return to their land of origin, their inability to reclaim their 1469 1470 1471 1472 1473 1474 1475 1476 1477 1478 1479 1480 https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/ngos-call-halting-implementation-vfv-land-law-amendmentprotect-rights-displaced V-365, GM-019. GM-020, V-369, V-365, V-414. V-365. V-348, V-415. V-348. V-413. V-413. V-369. V-369. V-365. V-417. 163