Democratic land control and human rights

• Democratic land control is inseparable from human rights.
• Respect/protect, promote, and/or restore democratic land control.
• Institutional instruments need to be carried out simultaneously at different levels.
• Linking ‘food sovereignty’ as the latter's ‘land pillar’ is strategically important.

In this article, we argue that democratic land control is inseparable from human rights. It is important to understand demands for democratic land control in the context of broadly distinct political conditions that in turn each requires distinct political intervention, namely, respect/protect, promote, and/or restore democratic land control. In addition, we also argue that broader institutional instruments carried out simultaneously at different levels, ranging from conventional land reforms to the recently passed UN Committee on Food Security (CFS) ‘Tenure Guidelines’ remain relevant or become necessary and urgent because the scope of democratic land control is far wider, and in the contemporary context land resources have become a wildly coveted by corporate and state elites worldwide. Finally, we argue that it is theoretically and politically important not to separate the question of democratic land control from the broader idea of an alternative (food) system, and so, linking it to the idea of ‘food sovereignty’ as the latter's ‘land pillar’ becomes strategically important.