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

BySophie Claeys, CETIM

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

ByAlexandre Mortelette

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.

Exclusive interview with Carlos Duarte, Chair of the UN Working Group on UNDROP.
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Exclusive interview with Carlos Duarte, Chair of the UN Working Group on UNDROP.

ByDefending Peasants' Rights

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…

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

ByDefending Peasants' Rights

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…

URGENT | Israeli Forces Attack UAWC’s Seed Bank Multiplication Unit in Hebron
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URGENT | Israeli Forces Attack UAWC’s Seed Bank Multiplication Unit in Hebron

ByUnion of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC-Palestine)

Defending Peasants Rights hereby republishes the statement issued by UAWC on 31/07/2025 Just moments ago, Israeli occupation forces launched a military assault on the Multiplication Unit of UAWC Seed Bank in the Hebron area, using bulldozers and heavy machinery to demolish storage facilities and infrastructure essential to the unit’s operations.The attack resulted in the destruction…

Video of our webinar: RURAL STRUGGLES IN ACTION! UNDROP’s rights holders fight for sustainable and just food systems
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Video of our webinar: RURAL STRUGGLES IN ACTION! UNDROP’s rights holders fight for sustainable and just food systems

ByDefending Peasants' Rights

Held on 25 June 2025, this webinar showcased and brought visibility to the wide diversity of UNDROP rights holders, highlighting their struggles for sustainable and just food systems. It also shed light on their efforts and views regarding the mobilisation of the UNDROP in rural peoples’ struggle for their rights. The webinar was honoured by…

Challenges facing the Brazilian Peasantry: The UNDROP as a Tool for Struggle
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Challenges facing the Brazilian Peasantry: The UNDROP as a Tool for Struggle

ByLa Via Campesina Brasil, Terra de Direitos, CETIM

Contribution from La Via Campesina Brazil to the UN Working Group on the UNDROP La Via Campesina Brazil has submitted a written contribution in response to the call from the UN Working Group on peasants’ rights, outlining the main challenges faced by the Brazilian peasantry. Drafted collectively following a training session on the UNDROP for…

Colombia: Constitutional Court Decision Protects Peasants Displaced by Natural Disasters
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Colombia: Constitutional Court Decision Protects Peasants Displaced by Natural Disasters

BySeynabou De Coster (CETIM)

In a groundbreaking decision issued on April 16, 2024 (Ruling No. T-123/24), the Colombian Constitutional Court granted protection to an elderly peasant couple forced to leave their land after repeated flooding. This ruling marks a turning point in how Colombian jurisprudence addresses internal displacement linked to natural disasters. To do so, the Court relied on…

Sri Lanka: MONLAR asks the governement to reform the Law to Align with UNDROP
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Sri Lanka: MONLAR asks the governement to reform the Law to Align with UNDROP

ByLa Via Campesina

This article was first published on La Via Campesina’s website on April 25th, 2025. You can find it here. The Movement for Land and Agriculture Reform (MONLAR), representing over 5,000 peasant workers in Sri Lanka, recently made a submission to the government listing out several instances of the violation of the UN Declaration on the…

When rural communities claim their rights! The rights-holders of the UNDROP
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When rural communities claim their rights! The rights-holders of the UNDROP

ByDefending Peasants' Rights

The process that led to the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) was, above all, an exemplary mobilization and convergence of rural movements. These movements came together in their advocacy efforts to secure this common instrument to fight for the transformation of…

Webinar : Voices of Indigenous Pastoralists on 2026 – Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists
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Webinar : Voices of Indigenous Pastoralists on 2026 – Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists

ByDefending Peasants' Rights

2026 has been declared by the United Nations Organization the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. WAMIP, the World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples, is preparing for this year, to make sure that the voice of pastoralists will be front and center and their rights upheld. Pastoralists are directily recognized as rights holders of UNDROP….

Colombia: Recognition of peasants in the Constitution – Interview with Martha Elena Huertas Moya
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Colombia: Recognition of peasants in the Constitution – Interview with Martha Elena Huertas Moya

ByDefending Peasants' Rights

On July 5, 2023, Colombia reformed its Political Constitution, in particular Article 64. Since 1991, Article 64 has laid down the State’s duty to help agricultural workers gain access to land ownership, as well as to a series of rights enabling them to enjoy a better standard of living. This duty remains in the new…