Newsletter n°9 | Seed Sovereignty: Advancements and Setbacks in the Right to Seeds

Newsletter n°9 | Seed Sovereignty: Advancements and Setbacks in the Right to Seeds

ByDefending Peasants' Rights

As 2025 draws to a close, Defending Peasants’ Rights has published key updates on recent global developments impacting the right to seeds A milestone victory for Kenyan peasants! In November, a milestone judicial victory for peasants took place in Kenya. As Karine Peschard explains in her article, the UNDROP provided an important legal leverage in…

Corporate impunity and seed sovereignty: Interview with the Rural Womens’ Assembly (RWA)
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Corporate impunity and seed sovereignty: Interview with the Rural Womens’ Assembly (RWA)

ByDefending Peasants' Rights

Interview conducted by Defending Peasants’ Rights in October 2025, on the occasion of the 11th session of negotiations for a UN legally binding treaty to regulate transnational corporations, held at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Interviewees: Lungisa Huna – RWA South Africa; Grace Tepula and Precious Shonga – RWA Zambia; Zakithi Sibandze – RWA…

Kenya’s seed sharing ruling a milestone for peasants’ rights and food security: UN experts
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Kenya’s seed sharing ruling a milestone for peasants’ rights and food security: UN experts

ByDefending Peasants' Rights

Image: https://static2.pelahatchienews.com/data/articles/xl-why-seed-sovereignty-is-vital-for-indigenous-peoples-1694443833.jpg Defending Peasants’ Rights hereby republishes the press release issued by the UN Working Group on Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas on 11 December 2025 (available here) GENEVA – UN experts* today welcomed a landmark ruling of the High Court of Kenya declaring unconstitutional provisions of the Seed and Plant Varieties…

Declaration of the Peoples’ Summit – COP 30 Belém
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Declaration of the Peoples’ Summit – COP 30 Belém

ByDefending Peasants' Rights

Defending Peasants’ Rights hereby republishes the Declaration of the Peoples’ Summit (COP 30) available here. We, the Peoples’ Summit, gathered in Belém do Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon, from 12 to 16 November 2025, declare to the peoples of the world what we have accumulated in struggles, debates, studies, exchanges of experiences, cultural activities and…

Ecuador postpones visit by UN Working Group on peasants’ rights
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Ecuador postpones visit by UN Working Group on peasants’ rights

ByDefending Peasants' Rights

Defending Peasants’ Rights hereby republishes the statement released on the website of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (available here). Editor’s note: The experts’ visit, initially planned for November 4–14, 2025, was postponed despite its critical timing, following recent protests in Ecuador that were met with a state of emergency and…

Handbook on Rural Peoples’ Right to Participation
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Handbook on Rural Peoples’ Right to Participation

ByDefending Peasants' Rights

In October 2025, the UN Working Group on UNDROP released a comprehensive report on rural peoples’ right to participation. Far beyond being a mere procedural formality, the right to participation enshrined in the UNDROP declaration represents a fundamental pillar of democratic governance and human dignity. It enables the diverse social and ethnic constituencies of rural…