Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

128
Security of tenure
Box 5.11 Urban growth causes large-scale rural land seizures and relocations in China
Rapid urban growth in China is a major cause of forced evictions
and development-related relocations of farmers or other rural
dwellers as cities expand into what were previously rural areas. In
addition to the development of new infrastructure, three other
major causes of such evictions have been highlighted:
Economic development zones
During the early 1990s, many urban authorities set out to replicate
the efforts of Shenzhen, Xiamen, Shantou and other successful
export processors to attract foreign investment. This resulted in a
massive investment in new ‘economic development zones’. By
1996, within the areas requisitioned for construction of the zones,
approximately 120,000 hectares of land remained undeveloped for
lack of investment. Roughly half was agricultural land, of which half
could not be converted back to agricultural use. Proper compensation
to the farmers was often ignored. Nevertheless, the number
of economic development zones continued to grow, exceeding
6000 by 2003. Among these, 3763 had already been ordered shut
down after a series of investigations begun in the same year
revealed that they had been set up on illegally seized farmland.
More closures may result as investigations are pending for many of
the remaining more than 2000 zones.
University cities
These are a recent variant of economic development zones in
which local authorities and university officials take over suburban
agricultural land for the construction of new educational and
research facilities. For city officials who preside over the installation
of such facilities, demonstrating that they are able to do things
on a grand scale while significantly pumping up local gross domestic
product is key to gaining promotions. For universities, the
attractions include economies of scale in shared educational facilities
and urban networks; modernized physical plants; expanded
enrolment capacity; and, typically, an opportunity to raise revenue
through real estate projects within the zones. By the end of 2003,
the 50 university cities already established occupied land surface
equal to 89 per cent of the land occupied by all of the other
universities in the country. In one of the most egregious land grab
cases of this kind, city and provincial officials of Zhengzhou
acquired nearly 1000 hectares of agricultural land without
payment. They also hid their actions from the city office of the
State Bureau of Land and Resources, from whom they were bound
by law to seek approval of their planned action. Once caught in the
fraud, Zhengzhou city officials directed the city office (of land and
resources) to help cover up continuing efforts to bring their
project to fruition. Within nine months of acquiring the land, city
officials completed construction of the facilities and moved in five
universities. Apparently, local officials could count on success: three
other university cities had already been built in Zhengzhou City.
Villa and golf course complexes
Exclusive residential complexes have sprung up in the suburbs of
China’s large cities, and many of the country’s 320 golf courses are
among their chief amenities. Indeed, the world’s largest golfing
complex, Mission Hills, is sited just outside the city of Shenzhen,
adjacent to Hong Kong. According to official sources, among the
first 200 courses completed, only a dozen were built legally. In
November 2004, the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources
classified golf courses among ‘the five most egregious examples of
illegal land seizures in China, noting that nearly a third of the land
was taken improperly and that compensation had not been paid’.
Source: Westendorff, 2007
Box 5.12 The epic struggle of the Kerrigan family
The popular 1997 Australian cult classic film The Castle tells the fictional story of the Kerrigan
family and their epic suburban struggle to resist the compulsory acquisition of their home.
Through the inimitable legal tactics of solicitor Dennis Denudo and QC Lawrence Hammill, the
High Court eventually decides in favour of the Kerrigans and other neighbours similarly threatened
with looming eviction, and their tenure remains secure and intact.
While the story that unfolds in The Castle is surely one of the best housing rights tales
to be told on the big screen, this story of household resistance to expropriation by a small
group of homeowners against far more powerful corporate interests is, unfortunately, the
exception to a larger global rule: housing or residential justice still all too rarely prevails, even
when human rights principles are raised with such eloquence before the highest courts in the
land.
Yet, the very fact that such a story became a very popular movie in Australia, with a
wide audience, exemplifies how housing rights and the freedom from threats of forced evictions
are increasingly being acknowledged around the world. The movie also made important links to
the dispossession of Aboriginal populations from their lands and the encroaching powers of big
business to move ordinary people from their homes against their will.
■ Infrastructure projects
As noted above, forced evictions continue to affect millions
of people every year and cause considerable human suffering,
resulting in what are often gross and systematic human
rights violations. Infrastructure projects, in particular, seem
to be a major cause of forced evictions. One observer has
noted that ‘the word infrastructure is the new code word for
the unceremonious clearance of the fragile shelters of the
poor’. 41 The number of people forcibly evicted by dams in
India alone since 1950 has been estimated at 50 million. 42
Similarly, in China, using government figures, it has been
estimated that reservoirs displaced 10.2 million people
between 1950 and 1989. 43 This figure includes some of the
largest single dam eviction totals on record: Sanmenxia with
410,000; Danjiangkou with 383,000 (plans exist to raise the
dam height and displace a further 225,000 people, many of
whom were displaced by the original reservoir); Xinanjiang
with 306,000; and Dongpinghu with 278,000. 44 More
recently, and according to official sources, the Three Gorges
Dam project has displaced more than 1.2 million people. 45 It
has been estimated that some 4 million people are being