Burkina Faso: The peasantry, a seed of change?
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Burkina Faso: The peasantry, a seed of change?

Article by Raffaele Morgantini, representative of CETIM at the UN, published in French in Le Courrier, Monday 15 December 2025. Since taking power through a coup d’état in September 2022, Captain Ibrahim Traoré has assumed the presidency of Burkina Faso, leaving no one indifferent: for some, he embodies a historic turning point marking a break…

From Colombia to the World: A Podcast Bringing Peasant Rights Research to Wider Audiences
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From Colombia to the World: A Podcast Bringing Peasant Rights Research to Wider Audiences

Illustration: Juan David Botero A new communication initiative has recently been launched in Colombia with the aim of bringing academic knowledge closer to the general public. It is a podcast series led by the Institute of Intercultural Studies and the Specialisation in Agrarian Jurisdiction at Universidad Javeriana in Cali, in partnership with the Observatory of…

The outcomes of the ICARRD+20 from the perspective of rural and indigenous movements
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The outcomes of the ICARRD+20 from the perspective of rural and indigenous movements

Following the conclusion of the ICARRD+20 conference, held in Cartagena (Colombia) from 24 to 28 February, social movements have expressed their rejection of the conference’s final declaration, while praising their unity in the common struggle for rural and Indigenous people’s rights. This publication contains a press release originally published by La Via Campesina on 28…

Video of our Webinar | Nothing About Us Without Us – Realising the Right to Participation of Rural Peoples and Workers through UNDROP
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Video of our Webinar | Nothing About Us Without Us – Realising the Right to Participation of Rural Peoples and Workers through UNDROP

This webinar brought together rural movements, civil society organisations, and the Chair of the UN Working Group on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) for an international dialogue on one of the Declaration’s most fundamental principles: the right to participation. Held in the context…

ICARRD+20 must move beyond technocratic fixes to implement real, integral agrarian reform: Global Social Movements in Cartagena
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ICARRD+20 must move beyond technocratic fixes to implement real, integral agrarian reform: Global Social Movements in Cartagena

This article was originally published by La Via Campesina on 24 February 2026 (available here). (Cartagena: February 23, 2026) On the eve of a historic intergovernmental conference on agrarian reform and rural development, nearly 300 delegates from worldwide representing peasants, Indigenous Peoples, artisanal fishers, pastoralists, and rural workers – organized through the International Planning Committee…

Rural Women and Unpaid Care Work: Gaps and Opportunities within International Law
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Rural Women and Unpaid Care Work: Gaps and Opportunities within International Law

Introduction Human beings depend on care; societies and economies depend upon unpaid and paid care work to function.1 Unpaid care work is mostly provided within households or families and contributes an estimated US$11 trillion to the global economy each year. More than three quarters of this unpaid care work is performed by women and girls2,…

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

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)

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…

Landmark victory for Kenyan peasants and seed sovereignty
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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…

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

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