A/HRC/61/49/Add.1 B. Ensuring the free, prior and informed consent of local communities 1. Striving for true free, prior and informed consent: focusing on the necessary preconditions 72. A cultural rights-based approach to sustainable development requires full respect for and integration of the right to participation and the right to free, prior and informed consent of affected communities. This is a precondition to ensure that development processes are self-determined and community led, culturally sensitive and culturally appropriate, contextualized to specific cultural environments and fully aligned with the aspirations, customs, traditions, systems and world views of affected individuals and groups. 15 73. The Special Rapporteur appreciates the assurances from the authorities that national legal instruments recognize the rights of communities to be consulted and involved in decision-making processes. However, a completely different narrative is put forward by other interlocutors, who report that some development projects have been carried out without any consultation of affected communities, in particular relocated communities. Among the projects mentioned were the consolidation of villages to concentrate public services; the construction of dams; the construction of the high-speed railway linking the country to China; and special economic zones. 74. The Special Rapporteur understands, from the responses of officials and other interlocutors, that the Government has adopted a narrow definition of participation, which is reduced to affected communities being notified of the relevant plans, including in the case of resettlement. People are informed about the importance of the project, with positive impacts emphasized and little to no information provided about negative impacts, and are made to agree to it. People are not given opportunities to participate at every phase, from the inception of the project. Consultations are conducted with heads of villages, who are Party members. There has been no occasion, to the knowledge of government officials, where local people have actually disagreed with the plan. There have been no court cases to challenge plans. Families who first resisted relocation were convinced to relocate, through better explanations of the advantages of the plan for them. The Special Rapporteur was told that all those living in the country understood the policy of the Government and agreed with it. 75. The Special Rapporteur finds such a picture unrealistic, even more so when information from other sources points to the contrary. Rather, the Special Rapporteur sees clear failures in the procedure for obtaining the free, prior and informed consent that village residents have supposedly given. For example, article 46 of the Law on Resettlement and Vocation guarantees only a right to receive information, to make a written proposal for solving an issue related to the development project and to provide feedback on the resettlement plan, remedy and livelihood rehabilitation, falling short of standards on free, prior and informed consent. Moreover, under article 50, people are prohibited from: disseminating information against policy directives; engaging in manipulation, incitement, threats and acts of withholding; creating obstacles to or obstructing the implementation of the relocation or resettlement plan and the operation of the project by the project owner or developer. While noting the comment by the Government that the aim of this provision is to ensure that resettlement and development activities, including participation and compensation, proceed without unlawful interference or the dissemination of false information, the Special Rapporteur fears that it may jeopardize people’s freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. 76. This is at odds with many of the rights recognized in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, contributes to land-grabbing and has important human rights consequences. There are many cases where difficulties encountered by residents in modern villages could have been addressed had a true participation process been put in place. People are sometimes relocated far from their cemeteries or their farming lands; for example, the Special Rapporteur met women who had to cross a river, which can become dangerous depending on weather conditions, to access agricultural fields. New houses are reportedly unsuitable in some cases. People are not asked what development means to them and what 15 14 See A/77/290. GE.26-01463