China's South-North Water Transfer Project

Image result for danjiangkou dam


China has been at the forefront of recent concerns of internal displacement due to development. Their previous project, the Three Gorges Dam, set a record for the amount of people displaced due to a single development (1.2 million). Although it is the world's largest hydropower dam, it did not come without consequences. Those who were relocated were often done so against their will and had no say in the planning of locations they would be moved to. It was seen as a clear violation of human rights.

Despite these problems, many private Chinese companies have looked to the Three Gorges Dam as a breakthrough and have started new projects along the same lines. One of these projects is China's South-North Water Transfer Project. This project is set to forcibly displace another 330,000 citizens. Attached here is a report by International Rivers detailing what the government is doing better, after having learned from their experiences with the Three Gorges Dam, and what the government still could improve upon. It is an important case study as these projects are likely to become widespread, not just in China but globally. With these projects, it is necessary to discover how to balance development and human rights going forward.

While reading this report pay close attention to sections 3-6 (pages 5-13). Keep in mind these important questions:

1) In what areas has the South-North Project been better at resettlement than the Three Gorges Dam? In what areas is the project still lacking in regards to the human rights of the displaced?

2) Should there be an international framework to ensure rights are given to those displaced by development? If so, what should it include? If not, how else can the international community be sure the human rights violations that occurred at the Three Gorges Dam do not occur again?

3) Keeping in mind the report's Section 6 ("Recommendations for Future Action"), what specific, implementable solutions in regards to resettlement can be put into place?

Comments

  1. People's Republic of ChinaFebruary 23, 2019 at 1:42 PM

    Greetings Delegates,

    The People’s Republic of China strongly believes that the overall well-being of China will be improved through the various projects that China promotes. Although there are large amounts of people displaced, the delegation of China does this with the hopes of eventually improving the state of millions in their borders with a more stable and self sufficient economy. Many of times, this comes with the sacrifice of others.

    With that said, China has made many efforts towards creating a resettlement framework that aligns better with what the international community desires. In the Three Gorges Dam a large number of Chinese citizens were forced to leave their homes and the People’s Republic of China is not proud of this. Later on in the Middle Route Project, a special notice was taken to ensure that it produces less IDPs and helps those who were forced to leave their homes to find places to live or help them build it. Although the People’s Republic of China has made mistakes in the past, in the present, China is striving towards improving their policies to limit the number of IDPs created through development.

    There should be an international framework to ensure rights to those who are displaced due to development, but it should be on a strict suggestion only basis. Development is an imperative part of many countries push towards national economic improvement. The stability of the nation should be taken into high importance as eventually, the citizen’s will reap the benefits of a more stable nation. Creating an international framework would impede on national sovereignty. To make sure that rights are given to those who are displaced, annual assessments of the country and their treatment of those displaced due to development. Then a report can be published with a comprehensive list of ways that the country can improve.

    However, The People’s Republic of China is open towards a list of guidelines that all countries should follow in regards to IDPs. In terms of development, there should not be an international framework. But, in the grand scheme of things, there should be international binding laws dealing with the situation of IDPs. This would increase public participation. Through China’s proposed solution of the implementation of a committee called AIDPS or Aid to IDPs. This committee will mostly work on improving resettlement camps through international investment. The government will invest in large companies if they provide aid and jobs for IDPs. This would improve the economic stability of the country as well. It will also create a set of rights for IDPs, analyze the major sources of income for citizens within a region and work towards creating more jobs in that industry to provide jobs for IDPs, making sure that IDPs get medical care and housing, and improving infrastructure to help the IDPs in their resettlement.

    If you have any questions or want clarification please comment down below! The People’s Republic of China looks forward to a productive and beneficial discussion.

    Thank you,

    The People’s Republic of China

    http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/china-population/
    https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/military-chief-discusses-idps-peace-myitsone-dam-kachin-religious-leaders

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownFebruary 25, 2019 at 6:18 PM

    To the Delegates of UNHRC,

    The South-North Project has improved in comparison to the Three Gorges Dam by providing 80 million USD to counter the threat that this industrialization poses in the East of Jiangsu Province. This includes Jiangdu, Huai’an, Suqian and Xuzhou, all of which have not had resettlement assistance in The Gorges Dam Project. Similar to the Three Gorges Dam Project, the South-North Project disregards the human rights of these displaced persons caused by their industrialization in areas such as the Shandong Province and the northern part of Jiangsu.

    In order to prevent a recurrence of the violations at the Three Gorges Dam, an international framework should be developed to set official guidelines for the rights of displaced persons through development projects. This framework is to include post-resettlement policies to protect displaced persons land-use rights. These policies will thoroughly check upon ecological capacity of resettlement areas prior to industrialization efforts preventing a “second resettlement” along with the dissipation of already limited funding and resources. This policy would also prevent environmental damage to reservoir banks as seen before in the Three Gorges Dam Project where displaced persons resettled from five to six times with notice as short as one week.

    One way to improve the participation of affected locals is through creating local committees in towns or villages with elected representatives to voice the opinions of the locals. The representatives would allow the resettlers to play a crucial role in the resettlement decision making process as well as the construction of new homes when implementing policies, validating compensations, and resolving conflicts. Venezuela also suggests utilizing post-resettlement occupational and financial assistance for those who have been forcibly displaced through government mandate. This can be strengthened through the provision of free job trainings, pension assistance, and the allotment of land that can be used to grow crops. Since many of the resettlers have pre-existing skills that can no longer be used in the area of where they are relocated to, Venezuela proposes allowing the locals to be able to play a role in the decision making process of choosing their new home. This will allow the resettlers to be more economically and socially adaptable and suitable.

    Thank You,

    Venezuela

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Are NGOs the only way to support IDPs?

As noted in the background guide, there are many factors that can cause people to become internally displaced. The cluster groups of NGOs and other aid organizations work together to provide the IDPs with their basic needs. The Water Project has been a part of these cluster groups to provide immediate assistance to clusters before. In addition, they also work to mitigate water scarcity driven displacement through the building of " wells, dams and other water catchment systems." While the current cluster approach helps IDPs access basic needs, it doesn't address the larger systemic failures of governments to provide for their people who are displaced nor function as a lasting fix to the systems that cause displacement (war, development, etc).  How can governments better provide for internally displaced people? What are the political implications of NGOs providing basic resources for IDPs instead of governments themselves? Does the current cluster approach effectively a
Read more

Boko Haram's Anti-Western Strategy and the 'Western' Aid Worker

Image
Boko Haram has notoriously grown into one of the most well-known fundamentalist groups active in the northeastern region of Nigeria. They have frequently taken hostages and responsibility for attacks on Nigerian cities, that involve terrorist tactics and force. While the group remains at large and is highly controversial, they have also been utilizing aid workers as part of their campaign against Westernization as the group's title suggests since it translates to "Western Education is Forbidden/Sinful." Keeping this context in mind, it is essential when discussing the topic of the protection of aid workers in conflict zones, to understand the cultural implications of humanitarian work that is often facilitated by Western-aid organizations or NGOs based in the US and Europe. While that's not to say that Boko Haram would not be opposed to aid, that did not arrive from a Western organization, it is an important claim to understand that aid from organizations that appear
Read more

Assessing the Psychological Situation of Internally Displaced Peoples

Image
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are not only one of the most marginalized groups, but also one of the most under-researched groups according to a study conducted by the University of Zurich (link to the full article is attached below). The psychological impacts of trauma witnessed, displacement, and detachment from home and familiarity all render high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety cases in populations of internally displaced persons. However, one of the most significant challenges to assessing the psychological situation of this population, is the restricted access to transparent information about these persons. The lack of transparency is in part caused by a lack of focus on internally displaced persons, as studies often emphasize refugees and post traumatic stress disorder over IDPS and mental health complications such as anxiety and depression. Another major cause of the lack of data on the psychological conditions of the internally di
Read more