A day of destiny for small farmers in Norway’s Parliament
This is a debate post. The opinions in the text are the writers’ own.
Six years ago, Norway abstained when the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas was adopted by the UN General Assembly. Now the Parliament has the opportunity to turn this around and show that Norway stands in solidarity with small-scale farmers around the world.
On April 8th, the Norwegian Parliament considered the Red Party’s proposal to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). By supporting the declaration, the Storting [Norwegian parliament] can stand up for a solidarity-based agricultural policy with human rights at its core.
Rights under threat
Smallholder farmers’ rights are under pressure across the globe. War, occupation and genocide threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of farmers, and climate change is already having disastrous consequences for agriculture. At the same time, the food sovereignty of small-scale farmers is threatened by the control of powerful corporations over land, seeds and inputs such as environmentally harmful fertilizers.
In the face of these crises, UNDROP is an important tool for promoting the rights of small-scale farmers, fishers and rural communities to soil, seeds, land and water, and to life, equality and freedom of expression. This is not an introduction of new rights, but a recognition and protection of the rights that people who live of the land already have.
As a self-proclaimed champion of food security, all that is needed is for Norway to endorse the declaration.
Must ensure human rights
Norway’s endorsement of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas should be a natural contribution to the government’s food security strategy “Gathering Strength against Hunger”. Smallholder farmers account for 70 percent of food production in the global south, and are described by the government as the backbone of local food security. In order to solve the growing global hunger crisis, it is crucial that these producers are guaranteed good living and working conditions. The government itself states that Norway’s efforts to combat hunger are rooted in human rights.
By supporting Undrop, Norway can help to ensure that these rights are implemented. Without these rights, fewer and fewer people will choose agriculture as a career, and the degree of food insecurity will increase.
This would be a betrayal of the farmers the government claims to be fighting for.
Solidarity with Norwegian small-scale farmers
Small-scale farmers in Norway are also under increasing pressure. Norway’s self-sufficiency rate of around 40 percent is one of the lowest in the world, and on average one farm is closed down every single day. To reverse this trend, the government must support sustainable small-scale agriculture, with human rights at the center.
A Norwegian endorsement of UNDROP will be a declaration of solidarity with small farmers around the world, including in Norway. It is high time for Norway to get off the fence and put action behind fine words about small farmers’ rights.
You can find the original article in Norwegian here.
