A/HRC/42/CRP.5 harvesters and dryers to harvest 30 to 40,000 acres of rice paddies in Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships “because farmers and owners left their places”. 219 123. Rohingya-owned and cultivated land was also confiscated in areas of northern Rakhine State where Rohingya remained. Rohingya farmers living in Ah Lel Chaung in Buthidaung described the situation as becoming increasingly difficult from around October 2017, when security forces began harvesting Rohingya fields to the west of the village and took the crops away in trucks.220 According to the Rakhine State Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Mining, the UEHRD oversaw the harvesting and sale of 45,000 acres of “ownerless Bengali land” in northern Rakhine State. 221 A Rakhine State lawmaker was quoted as saying that farmland formerly owned and cultivated by Rohingya would be leased out to local ethnic [Rakhine] farmers and private rice-growing companies.222 124. Recent amendments to the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Managament Act (VFV Law)223 increase greatly the insecurity of tenure Rohingya people have over the land they own and farm. Under the VFV Law as amended, anyone living on land categorized as “vacant, fallow, or virgin” must apply for a permit to continue using it. Failure to do this can result in harsh criminal sanctions, including imprisonment and fines.224 In May 2019, the Government announced that it would confiscate 19,000 acres (7,689 hectares) of land for not complying with the law.225 According to government estimates, “vacant, fallow or virgin” land totals more than 20 million hectares, 30 per cent of Myanmar’s land area. Seventy-five percent of this land is located in Myanmar’s most ethnically diverse states, as a result of the Government’s failure to recognize the ethnic groups’ traditional and informal documentation of land ownership.226 Rakhine State has one of the highest proportions of land categorized as “vacant, fallow or virgin”, amounting to 42 per cent of its land area. 227 Under the VFV Law, Rohingya cannot apply for permits for their land as they are not recognized as members of a “national race”. This could result in the confiscation of the land owned by nearly one million forcibly displaced and deported Rohingya. 125. In 2019, seven Special Procedures mandate holders of the UN Human Rights Council expressed serious concerns that the law could result in the dispossession of land without adequate notice, loss of livelihoods and adequate food and that it could drive people into poverty.228 Combined with the Government’s other land access restrictions, the law will have a disproportionate impact on Rohingya. 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 38 Thai Biz, “Myanmar Rice Federation and Myanmar Agribusiness Public Cooperation made efforts to develop the agriculture sector in northern Rakhine State”, 31 October 2017, available from http://www.thaibizmyanmar.com/en/news/detail.php?ID=818. V-371. Consult-Myanmar, “UEHRD says Rakhine harvest will be returned to owners”, 16 November 2017, The Irrawaddy, “Rakhine Govt Undecided on How to Use Farmland Abandoned by Rohingya Refugees”, 31 May 2018. Myanmar Library, Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Law No. 10/2012 - Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Land Management Act. For additional discussion of this law in the context of noethern Myanmar see Displacement, Livelihoods and Land. Burma Library, Government of the Union of Myanmar Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Central Committee, 30 October 2018. The Republic of Union of Myanmar, Ministry of Information, Over 19,000 acres of vacant, fallow, virgin land to be confiscated, available from https://www.moi.gov.mm/moi:eng/?q=news/24/05/2019/id-17794 Myanmar Library, Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Law No. 10/2012 - Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Land Management Act. News Deeply, “Land Confiscation Is Latest Barrier to Return for Myanmar’s Displaced”, 15 March 2019. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar; the Special Rapporteur on the right to food; the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples; the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context; the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons; the Special Rapporteur on minority issues and the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. MMR 5/2018, available from https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=24275,