52 peasants arrested in France: Confédération paysanne and CETIM appeal to UN Mechanisms

Defending Peasants’ Rights hereby republishes the press release issued by the Confédération paysanne and CETIM on 15 January 2026.

Paris, Geneva, January 15, 2026 – The Confédération paysanne and CETIM filed today an official complaint with several Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council, following the arrest and detention of 52 peasants, members of the Confédération paysanne, during a protest in Paris yesterday, January 14, 2026.

During this mobilization, approximately 150 peasants went to the Ministry of Agriculture in Paris. The action was peaceful: the demonstrators entered on foot the hall of the Directorate General for Economic and Environmental Performance of Enterprises (DGPE), displayed banners, and occupied the premises to make their demands heard.

The demonstration was organized to urge the authorities to address the management of the contagious nodular dermatitis (CND) crisis, the threats linked to the EU-Mercosur agreement, and, more broadly, to denounce agricultural policies that are structurally unfavorable to peasants and family farmers. Despite the absence of violence, law enforcement carried out a large-scale encirclement and arrests, targeting in particular national and international union leaders.

The report submitted to the United Nations documents serious violations of fundamental freedoms, in particular the freedoms of association and peaceful assembly, freedom of opinion and expression, trade union rights, as well as the specific rights of peasants as enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP).

Through this appeal, the Confédération paysanne and CETIM are calling on UN mechanisms to urgently intervene with the competent authorities to ensure that France respects its international obligations, ends the criminalization of peasants’ mobilizations, and guarantees the effective exercise of peasants’ rights.

Read also the press release from the Confédération paysanne:
https://www.confederationpaysanne.fr/actu.php?id=16339

Contacts :
Confédération paysanne – Emilie Deligny, Secretary general,+33 6 36 58 17 26, [email protected]

CETIM – Raffaele Morgantini, Representative of CETIM to the UN in Geneva+41 79 660 65 14, [email protected]