Interview of Jessie MacInnis, small-scale farmer in Canada and Peasants’ rights activist
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Interview of Jessie MacInnis, small-scale farmer in Canada and Peasants’ rights activist

Jessie MacInnis is a small-scale farmer from Canada. She farms in Nova Scotia (also known as Mi’kma’ki, the unceded land of the Mi’kmaq) with her sister where they grow vegetables and flowers. She is Youth President of the National Farmers Union, which is a member organisation of La Via Campesina. Jessie is a member of…

The legal fight of the Kenyan Peasants League against the lifting of the ban on GMO in Kenya
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The legal fight of the Kenyan Peasants League against the lifting of the ban on GMO in Kenya

Summary On October 3rd, 2022, the Kenyan Government lifted the ban on importation and cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMO) that had been in place for ten years. The Kenyan Peasants League (KPL) reacted immediately and filled a lawsuit against that decision. They also asked the High Court for conservatory measures, which were granted on…

Inter-American Court of Human Rights: first case law on the links between the Declarations on the Rights of Peasants and Indigenous Peoples
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Inter-American Court of Human Rights: first case law on the links between the Declarations on the Rights of Peasants and Indigenous Peoples

The case of Indigenous communities members of the Lhaka Honhat (Our Land) association v. Argentina In February 2020, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) handed down a ruling recognizing the rights of both indigenous peoples and peasants. It orders that indigenous peoples’ right to land be restored, and that their territory be returned to…

Honduras: Supreme Court uses UNDROP article 19 on the right to seeds to declare unconstitutional the Monsanto Law
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Honduras: Supreme Court uses UNDROP article 19 on the right to seeds to declare unconstitutional the Monsanto Law

In November 2021, the Supreme Court of Honduras unanimously declared the Plant Variety Protection Law (Decree Nº 21-2012) unconstitutional, on the grounds that it violated the Constitution, various international treaties ratified by Honduras, as well as international standards related to the protection of the right to adequate nutrition. This judgment is one of the first to…

UN Human Rights Committee protects the right to land in Paraguay using the UNDROP
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UN Human Rights Committee protects the right to land in Paraguay using the UNDROP

At the global level, in 2019 the Human Rights Committee – which is responsible to monitor the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in the more than 170 States Parties to the ICCPR – became the first UN Treaty Body to refer to the UNDROP, in its decision in Portillo…