Corporate impunity and seed sovereignty: An interview with the Rural Womens’ Assembly (RWA)
| | | |

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

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…

Peasants’ right to seed – Briefing paper by the Working Group on peasants and other people working in rural areas
| | |

Peasants’ right to seed – Briefing paper by the Working Group on peasants and other people working in rural areas

Article originally posted on: https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/tools-and-resources/peasants-right-seed-briefing-paper-working-group-peasants-and-other (26 November 2025) The Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas has issued a briefing paper on peasants’ right to seed, in connection with the Eleventh Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture…

Landmark victory for Kenyan peasants and seed sovereignty
| | | | |

Landmark victory for Kenyan peasants and seed sovereignty

Editor’s note: A new court ruling marks a historic milestone for peasants’ rights and the right to seeds in Kenya and internationally. In an unprecedented decision, the High Court has reaffirmed that rights protected by the Constitution must be interpreted in light of international frameworks such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of…

Bridging or Excluding? Peasant Participation in the Digitalization of Agroecology
|

Bridging or Excluding? Peasant Participation in the Digitalization of Agroecology

image: https://revolve.media/beyond/what-is-agroecology This article provides a summary of an academic paper written by Romberg de Sá Gondim (avaliable here) Introduction As digital tools tend to incorporate a top-down and corporate driven approach, these technologies have been easily assimilated by large-scale farms and in particular with the Green Revolution (Shelton et al., 2022). On another hand,…

Nyeleni Newsletter n°61 – Rooted in resistance: territories for climate justice
| | |

Nyeleni Newsletter n°61 – Rooted in resistance: territories for climate justice

Defending Peasants’ Rights is pleased to share the Nyeleni Newsletter No. 61, which explores how the realisation of rural peoples’ rights, as enshrined in the UNDROP, is deeply connected to the advancement of collective struggles for climate justice across the world. As social movements mobilize toward Climate COP 30 and the Second International Conference on…

UN Working Group on UNDROP Demands Urgent Action to Uphold Rights of Rural Women
| | | |

UN Working Group on UNDROP Demands Urgent Action to Uphold Rights of Rural Women

Image: https://www.rvasia.org/history/international-day-rural-women GENEVA – October 15, 2025 – On the International Day of Rural Women, the UN Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas issued an urgent call to action, demanding States and corporations end the systemic discrimination, violence, and economic exclusion faced by rural women worldwide. Despite…

Side event at the UN: Challenges and best practices in promoting the rights of peasants and rural workers in Latin America
| | | | | |

Side event at the UN: Challenges and best practices in promoting the rights of peasants and rural workers in Latin America

On 18 September 2025, on the occasion of the 60th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, a parallel conference brought together actors committed to the protection of the rights of rural communities at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Entitled “Advancing the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas through…

When Civil Society Plants the Seeds of Normative Change: the Role of Non-state Actors in the Adoption of UNDROP
| | |

When Civil Society Plants the Seeds of Normative Change: the Role of Non-state Actors in the Adoption of UNDROP

Image: La Via Campesina Article first published in July 2025 by the Padova University Press. In this academic article, Alexandre Mortelette examines how civil society actors, primarily La Vía Campesina, CETIM and FIAN International, contributed to the co-construction of UNDROP by translating grassroots demands into international legal standards through an inclusive, participatory, and iterative process.

Systemic Challenges and Good Practices in Rural Areas – The 2nd Report of the UN Working Group on UNDROP
| | |

Systemic Challenges and Good Practices in Rural Areas – The 2nd Report of the UN Working Group on UNDROP

This article was originally published on the website of La Via Campesina on 25 September 2025 (available here). Seven years after the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), the situation remains mixed: undeniable legal and political progress has been made, but violations…

Tierra Viva: UNDROP Training, Connection and Resistance in Peasant Territories of Latin America
|

Tierra Viva: UNDROP Training, Connection and Resistance in Peasant Territories of Latin America

For several years now, civil society‑led initiatives have sought to make alive and effective the rights recognised in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). While this historic text, adopted in 2018 thanks to a sustained international mobilisation, represents an important milestone in recognising collective…

3rd Nyéléni Global Forum: Sri Lanka hosts the largest gathering of social movements calling for ‘systemic transformation’
| | |

3rd Nyéléni Global Forum: Sri Lanka hosts the largest gathering of social movements calling for ‘systemic transformation’

Image: https://nyeleniglobalforum.org/ Sri Lanka is ready to host the world’s largest gathering of social movements, taking place from 6 to 13 September. The 3rd Nyéleni Forum comes at a crucial moment, as multiple overlapping crises intensify and plunge the world into more inequality, social injustice, and warfare. A historical cross-sectoral Forum Named after a legendary…

Synergies and Complementarity between Agroecology and the UNDROP: The Example of Brazil
|

Synergies and Complementarity between Agroecology and the UNDROP: The Example of Brazil

Photo: MST (Brazil) This article draws on the example of Brazil to illustrate the synergies and complementarities between agroecology and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). What do we actually mean by agroecology? In summary, one could say that agroecology is a life project:…