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.
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…
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…
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….
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…
Article written by Fuad Abu Saif, Palestinian grassroots activist and researcher in the struggle for land and dignity, affiliated with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and member of the international coordination of La Via Campesina. This article was written for Defending Peasants’ Rights, as part of the International Day of Peasant’s Struggles on…
April 17, 2025 Today, we join hands with peasants, landless rural workers, small-scale food producers, Indigenous Peoples, and other peoples working in rural areas around the world to mark the International Day of Peasant Struggles. Land grabbing continues to intensify, driven by agribusiness, mining, energy projects, and so-called “development” plans. Forests and ancestral lands are…
This is a debate post. The opinions in the text are the writers’ own. Six years ago, Norway abstained when the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas was adopted by the UN General Assembly. Now the Parliament has the opportunity to turn this around and show that Norway…
We publish here the Nyeleni Bulletin n°59 of March 2025. The bulletin is entirely devoted to the struggles of fishermen and fisherwomen around the world. After an introduction setting out the global context of the monopolization of oceans, seas and rivers and the destruction of artisanal fishing, the bulletin takes us to the struggles in…
In May 2023, the International Labour Organization (ILO) held its Meeting of Experts on Decent Work in the Agro-Food Industry: an essential component of sustainable food systems. The Meeting of Experts adopted the Policy guidelines for the promotion of decent work in the agri-food sector, which are the subject of this article. The ILO, created…
Update – Recording available! Public event “How to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) at the European and national level to promote sustainable and resilient food systems”, 19 February 2025. The event aimed to discuss with key representatives of the European Union how…
In 2022, fifteen farmers from different regions of Kenya filled a lawsuit against the Seeds and Plant Varieties Act. This law prohibits and even criminalizes the sale and exchange of peasants seeds by the farmers that have developed them. The claim of the fifteen farmers is based on the Constitution of Kenya. As you will…
Serge Peereboom describes himself as a “city child who moved to the countryside to become a peasant market gardener. A peasant resisting in a world that moves too fast and forgets the true values of life”. He is a member of the Mouvement d’Action Paysanne (MAP) in Belgium, and played an active role in drafting…
