Issues of displacement decision-making seem to provoke even stronger disagreement and deadlock than issues of compensating losses, restoring livelihoods and living standards, and equitable sharing of project benefits. Broadly, there are two such issues. In the same way that justice entering into war (jus ad bellum) is distinguished from justice in the conduct of war (jus in bello), we can distinguish between the ethics of entering into displacement and the ethics of conducting it. The first question interrogates the ethics of compelling displacement for development. Is forced displacement ever permissible, or must all displacement for development be voluntary? The other interrogates power in the conduct of development and displacement: what influence, recourse and decision-making powers must stakeholders have – especially oustees?

Once again we inquire how far we can be guided by the values of development ethics in answering these questions, and in what policy directions that guidance leads. It will transpire that all seven values of development ethics have some role to play, especially in answering the question of entering into displacement, but the paramount value is free participation and empowerment. It is useful to recall the assertion within the Declaration on the Right to Development, that the development to which one has a right ‘is a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process, which aims at the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in development and in the fair distribution of the benefits resulting therefrom’ (United Nations General Assembly, 1986).