ABSTRACT
Sri Lanka’s current laws do not address the need to rebuild, socially and economically, the lives of people in the way of development projects. Sri Lanka adopted a landmark National Involuntary Resettlement Policy (NIRP) in 2001, which aimed to address this issue in a gender-equitable manner and achieve productive and self-sustaining lives for the people affected by such cases – but it has not improved safeguard outcomes for project affected people. Subsequent drafting of legislation was not enacted. Due to weak political commitment, land acquisition laws have not been amended and institutional arrangements for ensuring safeguards are not in place. Many people are at risk as government infrastructure projects continue to acquire land under emergency clauses in the Land Acquisition Act, depriving them of their rights. Sri Lanka’s experience suggests that the current approach to improving social safeguards should be reviewed. It cannot be assumed that national policy will lead to improved legislation and institutional capacity-building, supported by regulations, guidelines, training and social protection for project affected people. The author canvasses the possibility of other options – for example, negotiated purchase of land for priority development projects. The question would then be what safeguard protections, checks and balances would be required, and how would they be ensured?
