Development Without Us: Village Agency and Land Confiscations in Southeast Myanmar

Ten years since our report on ‘Village Agency: Rural Rights and Resistance in Militarised Karen State’, KHRG’s agency approach is as important as ever to understanding the experiences of local communities in Southeast Myanmar. Instead of focusing on the ways in which villagers are victimised and left vulnerable by companies and government authorities, KHRG has decided to focus on how rural communities are using agency to protect themselves from land confiscations and corporate development-related human rights abuses. KHRG defines village agency as the capacity, strategies, and efforts taken by villagers to understand, confront, and prevent human rights abuses. KHRG aims to amplify the different strategies villagers use to defend their land: getting involved in consultation processes, negotiating with private actors, defending their land rights through documentation, sending complaint letters, requesting fair compensation, and organising and attending protests. This report also highlights the factors that can empower or disempower villagers from acting, including access to information, access to decision makers, an understanding of the legal framework, and the ability to project their voices as a community. Today’s land disputes are a threat to long-term peace in Southeast Myanmar, as they increase social and political instability. There is an urgent need for the establishment of a credible legal framework to prevent dispossession, and protect the human and land rights of rural populations. Through this report, KHRG hopes to project the voices of villagers impacted by land confi scations to influence decision makers, private companies and other stakeholders to take a step towards inclusive development.