At the heart of UNDROP’s implementation lies the struggles of peasants and other people working in rural areas. Realizing the rights enshrined in UNDROP demands relentless mobilization and advocacy at local, national, regional, and international levels. Peasants’ organizations, agricultural workers, rural communities, and their allies have developed various strategies, from advocating institutions and decision-makers to publishing open letters and organizing marches, to claim their rights and push for the effective implementation of UNDROP.
Defending Peasants’ Rights hereby republishes the press release issued by the Confédération paysanne and CETIM on 15 January 2026. Paris, Geneva, January 15, 2026 – The Confédération paysanne and CETIM filed today an official complaint with several Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council, following the arrest and detention of 52 peasants, members…
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…
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…
Defending Peasants’ Rights hereby republishes the press release issued by the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) on 04 December 2025. Yesterday evening, representatives from the three European institutions came to an agreement on the trilogue on the proposal to deregulate plant GMOs obtained by new genomic techniques (GMOs-NGTs). The European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), representing…
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…
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…
From 6 to 13 September 2025, over 700 delegates from more than 100 countries gathered in Kandy, Sri Lanka for the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum. Peasants, Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists, fishers, feminist movements, youth, workers, and activists united across continents to renew the global struggle for justice, dignity, and life – giving birth to the Kandy…
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…
Ahead of the upcoming UN negotiation session (20–24 October 2025) to elaborate a legally binding treaty on transnational corporations, the UN Working Group on Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas and the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food have issued a powerful joint statement calling for “binding accountability for agribusiness to safeguard…
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…
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.
Defending Peasants’ Rights conducted an exclusive interview with Carlos Duarte, current Chair of the UN Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. The conversation took place during his visit to Geneva, on the occasion of the presentation to the Human Rights Council of the newly released report on…
