The Sri Lankan government’s move to establish solar power plants in Hambantota has triggered a major backlash from peasant unions and environmental groups. More than 1,000 acres of forest ( a critical elephant habitat and biodiversity zone) have been cleared to make way for the so-called green energy initiative led by 17 solar companies. Over 5,000 farming families in areas such as Mayurapura and Gonnooruwa now face a surge in human–elephant conflict, threatening their safety, crops, and food security.

We are reproducing an appeal from MONLAR asking its allies in the international community to write to the President of Sri Lanka denouncing the move and calling for an immediate halt to the ongoing clearing operations.

To the members of the International Civil Society and Activists Community,

We are writing to you as the Movement for Land and Agriculture Reform to bring to your immediate attention a critical human rights and environmental crisis unfolding in the Hambantota district of Sri Lanka, one that is being deliberately disguised as a “green” energy initiative.

The farming communities of Hambantota are no strangers to struggle. They spent months protesting and advocating to secure the gazettement of the elephant corridor, a landmark legal protection for the ancient movement routes of endangered Asian elephants and the livelihoods of the communities who share that land. It is in the wake of that very victory that 17 solar companies have now moved in, clearing the land those communities fought to protect. Their struggle is being erased.

This is not the first time Hambantota’s people have faced dispossession.

The region has already borne the weight of the Belt and Road Initiative, including the controversial Hambantota Port lease and aggressive urbanisation that communities strongly opposed, bringing forced displacement and development imposed without transparency or consent. The current solar expansion follows the same pattern: irregular development proceeding in defiance of law and community rights, with both people and animals bearing the consequences.

While presented as renewable energy, a massive solar expansion is ravaging over 1,000 acres of forest within the Hambantota Managed Elephant Reserve (MER), using heavy machinery and deliberate fire to clear critical wildlife corridors, effectively “green-grabbing” land that sustains both endangered elephants and local farming communities.

The Impact

• Human Elephant conflict: By blocking ancient movement corridors (such as Sanakku Gala and Kapapu Wewa) with electric fences, the project is driving elephants into villages.
• Livelihood Crisis: More than 5,000 farming families in areas like Mayurapura and Gonnooruwa are now facing a surge in Human-Elephant Conflict, threatening their safety, crops, and food security.
• Governance Failures: Reports indicate these projects have bypassed mandatory Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and ignored the protests of local communities and conservationists.
• Counter-Productive Climate Action: As noted by local experts, clearing and burning dry-zone forests releases stored carbon and disrupts local rainfall patterns, undermining the very emissions-reduction goals the solar project claims to serve.

A Just Transition must be inclusive, transparent, and ecologically sound. If renewable energy is built on the ruins of biodiversity and the displacement of the rural poor, it replicates the same extractive logic of the fossil fuel era that it hopes to eliminate.

APPEAL FOR INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

We are asking your organization to show solidarity with the affected communities of Hambantota by sending a formal letter to the President of Sri Lanka. Your international standing can provide the necessary pressure to:

1. An immediate halt to all clearing within the Managed Elephant Reserve.
2. Strict adherence to the law, ensuring comprehensive EIAs and Archaeological Impact Assessments are conducted and made public.
3. Prioritizing Rooftop Solar and Degraded Lands (such as abandoned mines) rather than primary forests and productive agricultural land, as recommended by local environmental advocates.

We would be honoured to have your voice join ours in demanding a transition that is truly just for both people and the planet.

In solidarity, MONLAR TEAM.

The email template to be sent by movements and organisations to the President of Sri Lanka can be found below. Please read the instructions for completing the template on page 2 of the document:

La entrada Sri Lanka: MONLAR Urges International Support over Hambantota Green Energy Expansion Violating Peasants and Environmental Rights se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

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 with the neo-colonial order and the beginning of a popular pan-African revolution; for others, it is yet another despotic show of force orchestrated by a military regime. This article seeks to provide an original perspective, in light of the balance of power at play, by giving a voice to Burkinabè social movements – peasants in particular.

Burkina Faso has for years faced a situation of war, mainly in the north, under jihadist threat, and since 2022 has been subjected to increased international pressure, manifested through sanctions regimes imposed by France, the World Bank, the European Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Heir to a long colonial past and illegitimate debt, the Traoré government seeks to restore national sovereignty and to position itself within a new pan-African dynamic.

Together with its partners in the Alliance of Sahel States – Mali and Niger – the country is challenging the CFA franc and considering an independent or common currency, while progressively disengaging from the IMF, the World Bank and the BCEAO (Central Bank of West African States). The refusal of new Western loans signals a desire to break free from financial dependency.

On the economic front, Burkina Faso has embarked on a process of nationalising strategic sectors. In 2023, the state regained control of major gold mines. A new mining code adopted in 2024 strengthens sovereignty over resources, increases the state’s share in mining companies, imposes local processing and creates a strategic gold reserve. In 2025, a mining residue treatment centre was inaugurated.

Economic reconquest also encompasses the agri-food sector, through nationalisations and the industrialisation of factories in sugar production, dairy processing and tomato production/processing, a key sector for the country. Despite a conflict-ridden regional context, these choices constitute essential levers for establishing real sovereignty and strengthening the state’s capacity to finance social policies.

Giving a voice to peasants

In Burkina Faso, 80% of the active population works in agriculture (around 32% of national GDP), and nearly 90% of farms are family holdings of less than five hectares, illustrating the predominance of subsistence agriculture. This shows how central small-scale food producers – peasants, nomads, herders and artisanal fishing communities – are to society.

It is in this light that the government launched its “Agropastoral and Fisheries Offensive 2023–2025”, with the objective of achieving self-sufficiency and food sovereignty. Within this framework, numerous investments have been made: agricultural equipment, local processing infrastructure, and support for cereal, rice and horticultural sectors. The results are tangible: tomato, rice and maize production increased considerably between 2022 and 2024, and since then rural exodus has declined¹.

Beyond the figures, it is the commitment of rural communities that stands out. Long marginalised, they now form the core of the new societal project, recognised as political agents of change. Two grassroots leaders, Mr Alassane Nakande (a key figure in the West African Convergence of Struggles for Land and Water² and executive director of the African Movement for Environmental Rights) and Ms Ouédraogo Ouandegma (president of the Burkinabè Coordination of Peasant Organisations, member of La Via Campesina and of the Agropastoral Workers’ Union) testify to the profound changes under way. These changes, particularly the progress achieved, help promote a peasant agenda consistent with the provisions and principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), which recognises fundamental rights such as the right to land and the right to seeds.

Strengthening local peasant production

For Ms Ouandegma, the initiative to protect and promote local production “is positive, in that it concretely supports peasant organisations in consolidating their means of production, supply chains, peasant cooperatives and local markets”. The peasant representative points to “government efforts” which have “enabled access to tools and materials for agricultural production and processing (rice processing units, tractors…)”. Thanks to this initiative, “it is small producers and local peasant cooperatives that directly supply their products to hospitals, municipalities, school canteens, prisons… This has made it possible to implement short supply chains, open markets to the smallest producers, and promote local products”.

Land policy and the right to land

Historically, Burkina Faso has faced large waves of land grabbing by private and financial operators who have benefited from a vague and permissive legal framework. In response, Mr Nakande notes that “thanks to the authorities’ willingness to tackle this phenomenon through the revision of pro-land-grabbing laws, a better redistribution of land is becoming possible”. The peasant leader adds that these legislative changes are “accompanied by support measures, notably in the form of installation kits for young peasants”. The process is part of “a broader logic of strengthening food security and sovereignty”, with other ongoing initiatives – action research, feasibility studies, concrete measures – aimed at “enhancing the role of agricultural producers and restoring their central place in public policies”.

For her part, Ms Ouandegma states that the authorities’ land policy “helps strengthen security and legal recognition of land tenure rights for women and men peasants”. She also welcomes the government’s commitment to allocate at least 30% of land titles to women producers.

Agroecological policies

In the field of agroecology – a key concept and set of practices promoted by the international peasant movement – Mr Nakande notes that “within the National Assembly and the Senate, a joint commission has been created to address the challenges surrounding the promotion of agroecology. In the same vein, a law has been adopted promoting the use of biological inputs”.

In its national strategy (SND-AE 2023–2027), the Burkinabè government supports the intensification of agroecological practices, in collaboration with peasant organisations, in order to sustainably ensure food and nutritional security in a context marked by climate crises – declining rainfall, soil and water resource degradation, loss of biodiversity, droughts, floods, etc.

Another major agroecological initiative concerns the demand, expressed by rural actors, for the gradual abandonment of chemical pesticides. To this end, new spaces for negotiation and advocacy have been opened. Ms Ouandegma notes a “shared willingness, both on the part of the rural movement and the authorities, to resolutely steer the country towards a tangible agroecological transition”.

Protection of peasant seeds

Regarding phytogenetic resources and the protection of peasant seeds, Mr Nakande observes positive developments. First, with the “creation of a Commission dedicated to phytogenetic resources, which provides a political framework enabling work in favour of peasant proposals”. Secondly, with the adoption of a new agropastoral law recognising the status of farmer/peasant and strengthening the protection of the right to seeds. “This law lays the foundations for a favourable framework for seed conservation, notably through the establishment of a dedicated database”. For the peasant representative, this represents a real qualitative leap: “From now on, each peasant will be able to actively participate in preserving the local food system and maintaining biodiversity”.

A dialectic at work

It is clear that the peasant world must constitute a political force at the heart of Burkina’s process of social, economic and political transformation. This transformation will either take place with their involvement, or it will not take place at all. But it should be recalled that any process of political transformation is inevitably accompanied by dialectical trajectories, marked by internal tensions and constant contradictions. All the more so in a country like Burkina Faso. Yet the vast majority of external analyses tend to ignore this complexity of power relations, in favour of Manichean and decontextualised judgements, often Eurocentric.

Any transformative political process that claims to be progressive requires democratic debate. Internal as well as external criticisms – if constructive and free from any imperialist logic – can and must help steer this process towards genuine popular emancipation, and correct its course where necessary. What is happening in Burkina Faso is an unprecedented attempt at pan-African renewal, centred on a self-reliant and self-determined development model – a turning point on a continent that continues to endure the neo-colonial yoke. In this context, the Traoré government enjoys considerable popular support, particularly from social movements in rural areas and from the youth, who reject neo-colonial fatalism and demand national and popular sovereignty.

This is not about idealising. But, in a world still structured by deep neo-colonial relations of domination, any attempt at national liberation deserves to be examined and supported, especially if it is driven by the popular classes and grassroots social movements. In such processes, the only meaningful safeguard against setbacks is a didactic dialogue between popular forces and the government. The ongoing challenge for CETIM is therefore to remain a platform for popular sovereignty, rooted in the support of the popular masses, and not isolated from them.

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La entrada Burkina Faso: The peasantry, a seed of change? se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

The Network of Rural Women of Ecuador has set out to analyze the realities affecting life in their territories in light of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). This declaration constitutes a substantive tool for rural women, as it guarantees fundamental rights that enable adequate conditions to sustain a dignified life in the territories where they care for and nurture life. Having this instrument is particularly essential in the current adverse context the country is facing.

The paid and unpaid work that rural women perform creates the necessary conditions for human life, nature, and organizational capacity to continue reproducing. Consequently, when they fully exercise the rights recognized in UNDROP and in the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador (CRE), and have the dignity conditions required, that dignity is also extended to the spaces in which they operate daily. Rural women are pathbreakers; through their work “plowing the land,” in multiple ways, they make it possible for life to persist and continue flourishing in their environments, even amid structural and situational adversities. For this reason, it is imperative that they be recognized as subjects of special protection: rural women must be fully recognized as rights holders.

This report was prepared by the Network of Rural Women of Ecuador through a collective and participatory process, with the aim of making visible and denouncing the violations they face. It is an exercise in naming, denouncing, and amplifying commonly silenced violences, as well as creating spaces for strengthening, reflection, and organizational unity. Based on their voices, knowledge, and experiences, rural women prioritized the analysis of four rights enshrined in UNDROP that are severely affected and compromise their capacity for subsistence: 1) land and territory; 2) adequate food and nutrition; 3) non-discrimination; and 4) environment and water.

The document is structured in four sections: first, a brief contextual analysis; second, an argument regarding the binding nature of UNDROP within the framework of the CRE; third, an examination of the four prioritized rights, including a contextualization of their situation and an analysis of the applicable legal framework in UNDROP and the CRE; and finally, a set of recommendations directed to the Ecuadorian State.

Organizations from the Network of Rural Women of Ecuador participated in the preparation of this report, with the support of FIAN Ecuador in facilitating and systematizing the process.

Full report (Spanish only):

La entrada Rural Women as Rights Holders: UNDROP from the Perspective of Those Who Safeguard Life se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

On June 5, 2025, the National Human Rights Council (CNDH), after being prompted by Brazilian peasant organizations from La Via Campesina, published the Recommendation No. 5/2025, which “Recommends the adoption of the necessary measures for the observance, publicization, and compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants by the Brazilian State.” This document constitutes an extremely important normative and political milestone for the realization of peasant rights in Brazil, insofar as it explicitly recognizes the centrality of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) as an indispensable parameter for the Brazilian State’s actions. This normative advance also constitutes a good practice in the promotion and implementation of UNDROP at the national level, which can—and should—inspire peasant organizations and public authorities in other countries.

To understand the relevance of this Recommendation, it is important to recall the context in which the Declaration was approved in 2018, when Brazil was under a far-right government and, due to its foreign and domestic policy, abstained from voting in favor of the text. The consequences of this stance resulted in the Declaration not being incorporated into Brazil’s domestic policies, hindering its implementation.

In this regard, the CNDH, as an autonomous institution with a legal duty to promote and defend human rights in Brazil, and through its permanent commission on “the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Quilombolas, Traditional Peoples and Communities, Populations Affected by Large-Scale Enterprises, and Rural Workers Involved in Land Conflicts,” recommended a series of measures to be taken by the Brazilian state, in its three branches of government, to fill this gap and implement policies to protect the rights of peasant communities and other rural workers, in accordance with the Declaration. Among these measures, it was recommended that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil convey to the United Nations Secretary-General Brazil’s support for UNDROP.

In issuing the recommendation, the CNDH anchored itself in the context of human rights policy in Brazil and in the consistent complaints received, which reveal a longstanding pattern of invisibilization and vulnerability of rural populations. In fact, the aforementioned Commission receives nearly half of all human rights violation complaints submitted to the entire Council, underscoring the importance of the Brazilian State adopting effective measures to promote and implement UNDROP and the human rights of rural peoples.

By affirming the need for observance, dissemination, and implementation of UNDROP, the CNDH seeks to contribute to bridging the gap between the international commitments assumed by Brazil in the field of human rights and their effective domestic implementation. This instrument underscores that peasants’ rights are not limited to sectoral or welfare policies but are an integral part of fundamental human rights, encompassing civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights.

Moreover, the Recommendation explicitly highlights the structural link between the denial of rights in rural areas and the persistence of violence in the countryside, land conflicts, slave labor, and the criminalization of human rights defenders. By acknowledging Brazil’s repeated convictions by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in cases involving rural violence, the document reinforces the State’s duty to prevent such violations, hold perpetrators accountable, and provide full reparations to victims and their families, including in situations where abuses are committed by private actors with the acquiescence or omission of public authorities.

Another central aspect is the recognition of the role of peasants in ensuring food sovereignty and security, preserving biodiversity, and addressing the climate crisis. The Recommendation recognizes that agroecological practices and the traditional knowledge of rural peoples are fundamental to the construction of socially and environmentally sustainable development models, breaking with the logic of intensive exploitation of land and natural resources that has historically produced inequalities and rights violations.

The CNDH Recommendation also has institutional relevance in proposing concrete measures for the implementation of UNDROP, such as the creation of an inter-institutional Working Group, coordination between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches, and the active participation of organized civil society. These guidelines reinforce the notion that the realization of peasant rights requires state policies, with mechanisms for monitoring, evaluation, and social participation, rather than isolated or discontinuous actions.

Finally, by providing guidance to justice system bodies, such as the National Council of Justice, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and Public Defender’s Offices, the Recommendation strengthens the incorporation of the human rights perspective of peasant men and women into judicial and administrative decisions, contributing to greater access to justice and the eradication of impunity for crimes committed in rural areas. In this regard, the document reaffirms that Brazilian democracy and social justice necessarily depend on recognizing the dignity, autonomy, and territorial rights of rural populations. It is also important to note that the CNDH has been receiving responses from institutions reporting the incorporation of the Declaration into their legal and guiding frameworks. Notable examples include publications by the Court of Justice of Sergipe, the Court of Justice of Paraná, the Federal Court of Bahia, and the Regional Federal Court of the 5th Region.

Recommendation No. 05/2025 of the CNDH represents a strategic instrument for the realization of the rights of rural peoples in Brazil, by aligning the legal system and national public policies with the highest international human rights standards, promoting social justice, combating violence in rural areas, and strengthening democracy, with the direct participation of rural social movements.

La entrada Brazil: National Council for Human Rights adopts key regulation to advance the implementation of UNDROP se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

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 of the Confédération paysanne, during a protest in Paris yesterday, January 14, 2026.

During this mobilization, approximately 150 peasants went to the Ministry of Agriculture in Paris. The action was peaceful: the demonstrators entered on foot the hall of the Directorate General for Economic and Environmental Performance of Enterprises (DGPE), displayed banners, and occupied the premises to make their demands heard.

The demonstration was organized to urge the authorities to address the management of the contagious nodular dermatitis (CND) crisis, the threats linked to the EU-Mercosur agreement, and, more broadly, to denounce agricultural policies that are structurally unfavorable to peasants and family farmers. Despite the absence of violence, law enforcement carried out a large-scale encirclement and arrests, targeting in particular national and international union leaders.

The report submitted to the United Nations documents serious violations of fundamental freedoms, in particular the freedoms of association and peaceful assembly, freedom of opinion and expression, trade union rights, as well as the specific rights of peasants as enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP).

Through this appeal, the Confédération paysanne and CETIM are calling on UN mechanisms to urgently intervene with the competent authorities to ensure that France respects its international obligations, ends the criminalization of peasants’ mobilizations, and guarantees the effective exercise of peasants’ rights.

Read also the press release from the Confédération paysanne:
https://www.confederationpaysanne.fr/actu.php?id=16339

Contacts :
Confédération paysanne – Emilie Deligny, Secretary general,+33 6 36 58 17 26, edeligny@confederationpaysanne.fr

CETIM – Raffaele Morgantini, Representative of CETIM to the UN in Geneva+41 79 660 65 14, raffaele@cetim.ch

La entrada 52 peasants arrested in France: Confédération paysanne and CETIM appeal to UN Mechanisms se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

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 Act that criminalised the saving, use, exchange and sale of Indigenous and farm-saved seeds.

“This judgment rightly recognises that seed sharing is not a crime, but a fundamental element of peasants’ identity, resilience and contribution to national food systems,” said the Working Group on Peasants and other people working in rural areas.

The High Court of Kenya found that the law, which granted exclusive marketing and property rights over seeds to breeders and seed companies and exposed farmers to potential imprisonment of up to two years for seed-saving and seed-sharing, violated farmers’ rights to life, livelihood and food. The Court stressed that centuries-old practices of seed-sharing form the backbone of Kenya’s food security and cultural heritage.

“This decision is a significant affirmation that the human rights of peasants and the imperatives of food security and biodiversity must prevail over overly restrictive intellectual property regimes,” the Working Group said.

The experts noted that similar restrictive provisions, often modelled on the 1991 Act of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), have been incorporated into national laws in many countries – criminalising age-old practices in Indigenous and peasant agriculture.

“The Kenyan ruling sends a clear and timely message that human rights obligations cannot be subordinated to commercial seed monopolies or narrow interpretations of plant breeders’ rights,” the Working Group said.

The decision is consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), in particular article 19, which recognises the right to seeds, including the right to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed or propagating material. The experts recalled their Briefing Paper on the Right to Seeds**, which clarifies that States must ensure that seed policies, certification schemes and intellectual property frameworks, are designed and applied in a manner that respects, protects and fulfils these rights, and that peasants-managed seed systems are legally recognised and actively supported.

“Courts play a critical role in ensuring that national laws comply with international human rights standards,” the Working Group said. “Where legislative frameworks have criminalised traditional seed systems or restricted peasants’ customary practices, judicial review offers an essential safeguard to restore the primacy of human rights and the right to food.”

The experts commended the courage and perseverance of Kenyan peasants, Indigenous Peoples and civil society actors who mobilised to secure seeds rights before the Court. “Their determination offers inspiration to peasant movements worldwide and shows that when courts uphold human rights, they defend not only the livelihoods of small-scale farmers and Indigenous Peoples but also the future of diverse, resilient and sovereign food systems,” they said.

“Kenya’s ruling should inspire similar human-rights-based interpretations of seed laws and plant variety protection regimes in other jurisdictions,” the Working Group said.

*The Working Group on Peasants and other people working in rural areas is comprised of five independent experts from all regions of the world. The Chair-Rapporteur is Carlos Duarte (Colombia), other members are Geneviève Savigny (France); Shalmali Guttal (India), Uche Ewelukwa Ofodile (Nigeria) and Davit Hakobyan (Armenia).

**Briefing paper on the right to seeds, issued by the Working Group in connection with the Eleventh Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), held from 24 to 29 November 2025 , details how States can integrate UNDROP obligations under the right to seeds to safeguarding peasants’ and Indigenous Peoples’ traditional practices and biodiversity.

Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.

Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/.

UN Human Rights, country page – Kenya

For inquiries and media requests, please contact: Jamshid GAZIYEV, Secretary of the Working Group on peasants and rural workers (jamshid.gaziyev@un.org).

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts, please contact Maya Derouaz (maya.derouaz@un.org) or Dharisha Indraguptha (dharisha.indraguptha@un.org)

Follow news related to the UN’s independent human rights experts on X: @UN_SPExperts.

La entrada Kenya’s seed sharing ruling a milestone for peasants’ rights and food security: UN experts se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

On November 27, 2025, the High Court of Kenya in Machakos delivered a much-awaited decision in a constitutional challenge to the Seeds and Plant Varieties Act mounted by smallholder farmers. The Court decided in favour of the petitioners on all counts, striking down various sections of the Act and Regulations.

As reported earlier on Defending Peasants’ Rights, the constitutional challenge to the Seeds and Plant VarietiesAct was filed in 2022 by a group of peasants of Seeds Savers Network against the government agency responsible for implementing the Act.

Revised in 2012, Kenya’s Seeds and Plant Varieties Act is a draconian law that prohibits peasants from saving, sharing, exchanging and selling seeds under penalty of criminal sanctions. In her decision, the judge declared that various provisions of the Act were contrary to the Constitution of Kenya, the FAO Plant Treaty and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). The judge ruled that the Constitution had to be read along with Article 9 of the Plant Treaty and article 19 of UNDROP, and that Kenya was bound by its obligations under international law in general and international human rights in particular.

More specifically, the judge struck down the section of the Act that gives inspectors who reasonably believe that a breach has been committed the power to seize and dispose of seeds. The judge ruled that this violates a peasant’s right to the privacy of their person, home and property, as enshrined in the Constitution. The Judge also noted that failure to define “reasonable belief” and to provide for an independent oversight mechanism could lead to arbitrariness and abuse.

Importantly, the judge declared that several provisions of the Act are unconstitutional because they infringe on peasants’ right to save, use, share, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds. These provisions criminalize the sale of seeds unless they are certified seeds sold by registered merchants, and limit peasants’ rights over their harvest grown from protected varieties.

The judge ruled that by restricting the right to save, share and exchange seeds, these provisions are contrary to the Constitution, which affirms that the State must recognize the role of science and Indigenous technologies, and recognize and protect the ownership of indigenous seeds and plant varieties, their diverse characteristics and their use by the communities of Kenya. Given the important contribution of smallholder farmers to food production, the Judge determined that these provisions also violate the right to food guaranteed by the Constitution, and Kenya’s obligation to take legislative, policy and other measures to achieve its progressive realization. Finally, the Judge also ruled that exorbitant registration fees, coupled with strict registration requirements, amount to indirect discrimination against smallholder farmers and peasants.

Regarding the right to participation, the Judge observed that many of the issues raised in the petition could have been avoided had the government ensured the right to adequate and meaningful participation by peasants, interested parties and the public in the process of developing the legislation. The Judge directed the government to ensure the right to participation in the process of amending the law to comply with the judgment.

It is not yet known if the Kenyan government will appeal the decision. In any case, this judgment is a game changer for millions of Kenyan peasants and sets a powerful precedent for peasants’ rights and the right to seeds globally.

***

Judgment of the High Court of Kenya, available here:
https://new.kenyalaw.org/akn/ke/judgment/kehc/2025/18166/eng@2025-11-27

Constitution of Kenya (in particular, arts. 11, 21(2) and 43(1):
https://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/TheConstitutionOfKenya.pdf

Kenya’s Seeds and Plant Varieties Act:
https://upovlex.upov.int/en/legislation/text/506145

La entrada Landmark victory for Kenyan peasants and seed sovereignty se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

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 of critical facilities used for storing agricultural materials and inputs, constituting a direct assault on Palestinian food sovereignty, efforts to preserve heirloom seeds, and a continued targeting of the Union itself. We call on all allies, friends, and international partners to urgently act to stop these violations and hold the Israeli occupation accountable for its crimes against land, people, and seeds.
We further urge increased solidarity and support for Palestinian farmers and their right to remain on their land.

31 July 2025

Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) a member organisation of La Via Campesina in Palestine.

The assault resulted in the following damages and losses:

• Complete destruction of the main caravan, which served as a storage facility for agricultural materials and tools used in seed multiplication, processing, and preservation.
• Destruction of the entire electricity network, leading to the total suspension of daily operations within the unit.
• Severe damage to the water infrastructure, causing a complete water cutoff. This has placed the entire 16-dunum cultivated area at risk, as the crops are now threatened with dehydration and death.
• Risk of losing the entire agricultural season, as the crops currently under cultivation represent approximately 80% of the seed stock intended for deposit in the main Seed Bank in Hebron, which was scheduled to be distributed to hundreds of farmers in the upcoming planting season.
• Destruction and loss of large quantities of essential agricultural inputs, including irrigation networks, organic fertilizers, and daily-use farming equipment and tools.
• The most immediate and critical threat is the total loss of the current season due to the water disruption, which could severely undermine national seed sovereignty efforts and impact food security for smallholder farmers.

A full damage assessment is underway, and a detailed report will be released in the coming days.

Images available thus far of the attacked site:

Image source: UAWC

—

Defending Peasants Rights strongly condemns this targeted attack on a civilian infrastructure dedicated to food sovereignty and the preservation of peasant seeds in Palestine.

The destruction of this facility is not an isolated act, but part of a deliberate strategy not only to eradicate the livelihoods of Palestinian peasants and the Palestinian population, but also to shatter Palestinian agricultural resources and fertile land. We express our absolute solidarity with members of the UAWC and call on States as well as all social, trade union and popular movements to mobilise to denounce these violations and defend the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people.

La entrada URGENT | Israeli Forces Attack UAWC’s Seed Bank Multiplication Unit in Hebron se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

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 Brazilian organisations of La Via Campesina (LVC), the text also presents a collective vision on the current state of peasants’ right to participation in Brazil.

La Via Campesina Brazil has submitted a written contribution in response to the call from the UN Working Group on the UNDROP, outlining the main challenges faced by the Brazilian peasantry. Drafted collectively following a training session on the UNDROP for Brazilian organisations of La Via Campesina (LVC), the text also presents a collective vision on the current state of peasants’ right to participation in Brazil.

During the months of January and March 2025, a training session on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) was held for member organisations of La Via Campesina Brazil, with support from the human rights organisation Terra de Direitos and CETIM. This was the first training focused on the UNDROP for social movements and grassroots rural organisations in Brazil, serving as a practical example of the implementation of La Via Campesina International’s strategy of conducting training on the Declaration for its bases in various countries.

The aim of the training was not only to make the UNDROP known among its rights-holders, but also to facilitate and encourage a popular appropriation of this Declaration by peasants and other rural peoples in their political and legal struggles at local, national, regional, and international levels. The training also had the central objective of drafting a strategic plan for advocacy vis-à-vis various governmental, legal, and political bodies, aiming for the implementation of the Declaration with the active participation of peasants and other rural peoples whose rights are enshrined in the UNDROP.

In the framework of this first training in Brazil, participants from the various social movements that make up La Via Campesina in the country studied the history of the process leading up to UNDROP’s adoption, as well as the content of the instrument – highlighting peasants’ rights to land, biodiversity, seeds, and food sovereignty. In a second stage, they discussed concrete cases of violations of the rights enshrined in the UNDROP that have occurred in their national territory, perpetrated mainly by transnational corporations and agents of the agribusiness sector.

Leveraging the political capital of the social movements present in the training, driving the implementation of the UNDROP from a popular perspective is crucial within the scope of the arduous and long-standing work for social justice, agrarian reform, and food sovereignty in rural Brazil. In this sense, the strategic plan collectively drafted during the training provided important clarity on the path to be taken towards promoting and implementing the UNDROP in Brazil and translating its provisions into both legal frameworks and public policies.

Among the various initiatives to be carried out is engagement and advocacy with the United Nations (UN), particularly with its newly established Working Group (WG) on the UNDROP. By participating in the WG’s debates and collaborating with its work, peasant and rural organisations around the world can use this international mechanism to advance the implementation of the UNDROP in their respective countries. After all, one of the WG’s functions is precisely to recommend, support, and monitor UN member states in implementing the Declaration, so that it can serve as a direct vector in the elaboration of public policies, programmes, and laws that truly address rural inequalities.

In March 2025, the WG issued a public call for peasant and rural organisations, as well as governments and other institutions, to contribute to its next two studies which will address the following themes: i. global trends in the challenges affecting peasants; ii. peasants’ right to equal participation. Thus, La Via Campesina Brazil, through the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), the Small Farmers’ Movement (MPA), the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST), together with Terra de Direitos and with technical support from CETIM, submitted a document to contribute to the WG’s studies based on the challenges faced by the Brazilian peasantry. The document, available here, presents a collective perspective on the current situation of rural peoples’ challenges in Brazil, summarised as follows:

Peasants, artisanal fishers, traditional peoples, and rural workers in Brazil face structural challenges that threaten their livelihoods and fundamental rights. Land concentration and agrarian conflicts are exacerbated by the lack of agrarian reform and the privatisation of common lands, leading to violence and impunity. Moreover, access to public policies is limited by bureaucracy, lack of technical assistance, and infrastructure, while the climate crisis and large-scale projects, such as dams, displace communities and degrade the environment. Peasant cultural identity is also threatened by the advance of agribusiness, which replaces sustainable practices with monocultures and intensifies the use of agrochemicals. The criminalisation of struggles for territorial rights and the lack of access to justice further perpetuate the vulnerability of these populations, particularly indigenous peoples, quilombolas (Afro-Brazilian communities), and extractive communities, who suffer violence and social exclusion.

The right to participation of peasants and rural workers in political decision-making still faces significant barriers in Brazil. The exclusion of these groups is evident in the lack of access to information, the difficulty of effective political representation, and the absence of free, prior, and informed consultations, especially in environmental licensing processes and public policy formulation. Traditional communities, such as indigenous and quilombola peoples, frequently have their rights violated, with no adequate channels to influence decisions that impact their territories and ways of life. Furthermore, political marginalisation is worsened by the dominance of agribusiness, which concentrates power and resources, limiting the voice of family farming and small producers in national and international decision-making spaces.

Despite these challenges, there are mechanisms and policies aimed at expanding rural participation, such as agricultural development councils (CONDRAF), discussion forums, and programmes to strengthen family farming. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP) and ILO Convention 169 provide legal bases to demand participatory consultations. However, the effectiveness of these instruments depends on social pressure, access to justice, and the State’s commitment to ensuring rural voices are heard. Social movements have played a crucial role in this struggle, promoting marches, land occupations, and political advocacy to ensure participatory rights are not merely formal but concrete and transformative.

Following the example of LVC Brazil, conducting training processes on the declaration at national and/or regional levels, developing a strategic plan by local movements for its promotion, and participating in the UN Working Group on UNDROP are essential steps to implement the declaration at national, regional and international levels. This is a fundamental path to breathe life into the declaration from the grassroots, through rights holders' appropriation of their rights and the integration of the UNDROP into their political and legal struggles for social justice and human rights for rural peoples.

La entrada Challenges facing the Brazilian Peasantry: The UNDROP as a Tool for Struggle se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

The Colombian Constitutional Court’s decision establishes a new legal precedent that advances the process of protecting peasants’ rights at the national level and consolidates UNDROP as a key reference instrument in this area.

The case behind this ruling concerns an elderly peasant couple from Saravena, in the department of Arauca, who lived on their farm called “El Paraíso.” After multiple floods caused by the overflowing of the Bojabá River, their home became uninhabitable. Since then, they have been living precariously with their son, without being recognized as internally displaced by the authorities or receiving any assistance from the Colombian state. The Court ruled that their right to a dignified life had been violated and that the state was obligated to provide them with appropriate protection.

In reaching its decision, the Court based its reasoning on Article 64 of the Constitution, as amended in 2023. This provision now recognizes peasants as rights-bearing subjects and requires the state to grant them special protection. It highlights the importance of peasant communities in territorial development, food sovereignty, and cultural diversity. On this basis, the Court affirmed that people displaced for environmental reasons, particularly peasants, must receive enhanced protection.

Although UNDROP is not explicitly mentioned in the ruling, its influence is evident. Indeed, the Declaration served as the reference for the reform of Article 64. UNDROP recognizes specific rights for peasants, such as the right to land, a healthy environment, and political participation. It also emphasizes the need for differentiated treatment for rural populations in vulnerable situations. Regarding forced displacement, UNDROP includes specific provisions to protect peasants from this practice:

Article 12.5 (Right to Justice): States shall provide peasants and other people working in rural areas with effective mechanisms for the prevention of and redress for any action that has the aim or effect of violating their human rights, arbitrarily dispossessing them of their land and natural resources or of depriving them of their means of subsistence and integrity, and for any form of forced sedentarization or population displacement.

Article 17.4 (Right to Land): Peasants and other people working in rural areas have the right to be protected against arbitrary and unlawful displacement from their land or place of habitual residence, or from other natural resources used in their activities and necessary for the enjoyment of adequate living conditions. States shall incorporate protections against displacement into domestic legislation that are consistent with international human rights and humanitarian law. States shall prohibit arbitrary and unlawful forced eviction, the destruction of agricultural areas and the confiscation or expropriation of land and other natural resources, including as a punitive measure or as a means or method of war.

Article 24.3 (Right to Housing): States shall not, arbitrarily or unlawfully, either temporarily or permanently, remove peasants or other people working in rural areas against their will from the homes or land that they occupy without providing or affording access to appropriate forms of legal or other protection. When eviction is unavoidable, the State must provide or ensure fair and just compensation for any material or other losses.

The Court’s decision thus demonstrates that UNDROP can produce concrete effects through domestic law. By inspiring the Colombian Constitution, it has helped establish a strong legal foundation on which the Court can now rely to protect peasants. Notably, it has expanded the concept of internal displacement beyond armed conflict to include the impacts of natural disasters.

In its ruling, the Court also calls on authorities to develop a specific public policy to address environmental displacement. It stresses the importance of considering the unique realities of rural areas and peasant populations, who often face multiple forms of vulnerability.

Ultimately, Ruling T-123/24 paves the way for broader application of peasants’ rights in Colombia. Thanks to UNDROP’s influence – which has been mobilised by the Colombian peasant movement vis-à-vis their national institutions – Colombian peasants now benefit from increased recognition of their rights, particularly in the face of climate change effects and inadequate institutional responses. This jurisprudence could set an important precedent for strengthening social and environmental justice in rural areas, serving as inspiration for judicial systems in other UN member states.

For more information on peasants’ rights in Colombia, you can read our article on the recognition of peasants in the Colombian Constitution.

La entrada Colombia: Constitutional Court Decision Protects Peasants Displaced by Natural Disasters se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

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 Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, to which Sri Lanka is a signatory. They also called upon the UN Working Group on the Declaration to initiate an assessment of how the conditions of the IMF, other IFIs, and global debt architecture violate the human rights of peasants and workers. The submission, an excerpt of which is reproduced below, also reveals how global financial institutions have enforced economic reforms that transferred the burden of economic stabilization to the poorer sections of society through austerity measures.

1.65 million peasants and small-scale food producers in Sri Lanka work on less than 2 hectares each, yet produce 80% of the country’s food. But debt-driven economic policies advocated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and Asian Development Bank (ADB) have wrecked peasants’ and fishers’ autonomy in food production and their ability to ensure food sovereignty.

Through various structural adjustment programs, the International Finance Institutions (IFIs) push Sri Lanka to prioritize cash crops for exports over food for domestic consumption. Export-oriented agricultural reforms that mainstreamed capital-intensive farming have favored agribusinesses and weakened peasants and small fishers by making them dependent on the market for inputs such as seeds, fertilizer, fishing nets, and boats. As a result of the increasing cost of food production, peasants and fishers are deeply in debt, dispossessed of their land, rendered agricultural laborers on their lands, and migrating to local industrial zones or abroad as indentured workers.

The current agriculture system’s failure to create dignified livelihoods for peasants and other workers in rural areas is evident in the extremely high levels of poverty concentration in rural and plantation areas, where more than 80% of Sri Lanka’s poor live.

Sri Lanka faced one of the worst economic crises in 2022 as it defaulted on its foreign debt payments in April 2022. The economic crisis had a devastating impact on rural communities, resulting in a doubling of poverty rates. The IMF, other IFIs, and private creditors have used the crisis and the debt default to push Sri Lanka into its 17th IMF program, a 48-month Extended Fund Facility worth around 3 billion dollars.

Violation of Article 2: State Responsibility
Two days before the September 2024 presidential election, Sri Lanka was forced to sign an agreement with international creditors to restructure its debt to private lenders. This agreement, which was neither disclosed nor discussed with the public or even in the Sri Lankan Parliament, forced the country to prioritize debt payment over the rights of people in Sri Lanka. It will severely impact the government’s ability to invest in food production, development of rural livelihoods, and social security of rural communities.

Violation of Article 4: No Discrimination Against Women
Despite their contribution being neither recognized nor reflected in national policy frameworks, the involvement of peasant women in Sri Lanka’s food production is critical. Peasant women face numerous barriers that inhibit them from reaching their full potential—the lack of access and control over natural resources, markets, financial services, technology, and care responsibilities. Yet, peasant women support food production as unpaid family members, agricultural workers, or through home gardens. However, they are neither acknowledged nor given any significance in government spending at the macro level. Hence, they are excluded at two levels—as women and as small-scale food producers.

Violation of Article 15: Right to Food and Food Sovereignty
Malnutrition and undernourishment have always been serious concerns in Sri Lanka, with 32.6% of women aged 15 to 49 years found to be anemic and 15.9% of infants handicapped by low weight at birth. The situation has been worse among agriculture worker families in the plantation sector. Despite being considered an ‘agricultural’ country, Sri Lanka depends heavily on food imports. Our food security’s vulnerability is evidenced during crises such as the pandemic, geopolitical conflicts like the Ukraine-Russia War, and scarce foreign exchange.

The economic crisis in 2022 has further worsened the situation. According to the World Food Program, by January 2023, 6.3 million people, or over 30 percent of Sri Lanka’s population, were “food insecure” and needed humanitarian assistance. Of these, around 5.3 million people were either reducing or skipping meals, and at least 65,600 people were severely food insecure. An increase in VAT also drove up food inflation.

Violation of Article 16: Right to Decent Income and Livelihoods and the Means of Production
The economic reforms enforced through the 17th IMF program have transferred the burden of economic stabilization to the poorer sections of society through austerity measures. Implementation of the IMF-recommended cost-recovery energy pricing has almost tripled fuel and electricity prices, having devastating effects on the livelihoods of peasant farmers and fisheries. Taxes on equipment, seeds, and chemical inputs have increased production costs, throwing peasant farmers into poverty and indebtedness.

Indebtedness among peasants and fishers is mainly linked to expansions in capital-intensive agriculture and the proliferation of pro-profit lending by banks and finance companies such as microfinance loans. With the withdrawal of the State from the provision of agrarian credit, indebtedness has become a permanent feature in the lives of peasants, peasant women, and fishers. Suicides among the peasant farmers in the 1990s and among the peasant women after 2015 illustrate the protracted nature of indebtedness in the agrarian sector. According to national statistics in 2019, indebtedness is more prevalent in the rural and estate sectors than in the urban sector. 60.9% and 64.4% of households in the rural and estate sectors, respectively, are in debt. Vavuniya and Polonnaruwa, predominantly agricultural areas, also located near the biggest rice mills owned by private individuals, recorded the highest incidences of indebtedness, with 76.1% and 70.3% of households in debt.

Violation of Article 17: Right to Land
IFIs like the IMF and World Bank have long advocated privatizing land markets in Sri Lanka. Freehold land titles are distributed to farmers by lifting restrictions for peasants to sell their land provided by the State to outsiders, which has been a long-standing demand from these IFIs. With the ongoing IMF program, this demand has returned to the fore, with the government introducing a new program to provide freehold land titles to peasants. With the ongoing economic crisis and indebtedness among peasants, MONLAR and many other organizations fear that this move will lead to large-scale dispossession of peasants’ land.

Currently, the State does not recognize the customary right to land; hence, many peasants have lost land they have been cultivating and living on for generations. Due to the absence of tenure recognition, many communities are displaced when large-scale projects and developments come to their villages.

Even though it has been 15 years since the end of the war, large portions of land in the North are still under the occupation of the military. Minoritized communities have used these lands for generations before and during the war and hold a key place in their livelihood and culture. Some of the residents of these lands are internally displaced, while some are still living in IDP camps.

Violation of Article 24: Right to Housing
Even after 200 years, the descendants of people brought to Sri Lanka from South India as indentured workers (Malaiyaga community) in tea and rubber plantations in Sri Lanka do not own their housing and land. They were forced to live on plantation land (owned by the State and privately owned companies) in extremely low-quality housing. They lack access to land for their food production and remain vulnerable to evictions by the landowners—the plantation companies.

Recommendations to the Government of Sri Lanka

1. Immediately exit the ongoing IMF and debt restructuring agreements, as they are unfavorable and harmful. The government should negotiate new agreements that ensure the country’s sustainable economic development and the socio-economic rights of peasants, workers, and other poor and vulnerable communities.
2. Introduce the necessary reforms to the local legal and policy framework to enforce the rights enshrined in the UNDROP. Some immediate actions can include:
   • Revise the current laws regarding land, seeds, water, biodiversity, and other natural resources to ensure the rights of peasants and other workers in rural areas.
   • Codification of a new Constitution that integrates the social, economic, and cultural rights of peasants, workers, and others as fundamental human rights.
3. Recognize food sovereignty and the rights of peasants and rural workers as key priorities in its agriculture, development, and economic policy formulation.
4. Conduct an agrarian debt audit and provide debt relief, including debt cancellation.
5. Recognize women as key actors in agriculture, food production, and the rural economy. Allocate resources through national and local budgets to ensure women have access to accessible and just financial resources. The government should support the collective actions of peasant women in food production, processing, marketing, and saving systems.
6. Release all the land occupied by the military in the North and East to their original owners, and support peasants and other food producers in restarting their livelihoods in those lands.
7. Recognize and fulfill the demand by the Malaiyaga community to allocate land for their housing and food production.

MONLAR also called upon the UN Working Group on the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas to initiate an assessment of how the conditions of the IMF, other IFIs, and global debt architecture violate the human rights of peasants and workers, and also initiate a cross-country study to examine the impact of microfinance on women and rural development.

La entrada Sri Lanka: MONLAR asks the governement to reform the Law to Align with UNDROP se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

The peasantry is a subject of rights and special protection, has a particular relationship with the land based on food production as a guarantee of food sovereignty, its forms of peasant territoriality, geographical, demographic, organizational and cultural conditions that distinguish it from other social groups.

Article 64 §2, Constitution of Colombia

This recognition is the culmination of a long struggle on the part of peasants and their representative organizations. To fully understand the importance of this change in the Constitution, how it was obtained, the role of UNDROP in this new achievement and the next steps to be taken, we interviewed Martha Elena Huertas Moya from the peasant organization FENACOA.

Can you introduce yourself and your organization ?

Thank you, I am Martha Elena Huertas Moya, a peasant born in rural Bogotá, with permanent ties to my community. I have been a member of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives, FENACOA, since its foundation 40 years ago, as an educator and in the last decade as a member of the Board of Administration.

FENACOA, a second level organization, groups cooperatives and associations of the social and community economy in some regions of the country, such as Guaviare, Meta, Cundinamarca, Tolima, Cauca and Caldas.

We are an organization still not recognized as a victim of socio-political (structural) violence and the social and armed conflict in Colombia. In the 90’s, 2 acting managers and other leaders from our member organizations were assassinated, another part of the leadership was imprisoned, leaders and associates were threatened and exiled.

We are also a member organization of CLOC LVC, from the beginning, and member of several platforms of struggle for the integral agrarian reform in Colombia.

The main objective as an agricultural cooperative sector, and particularly in the current situation of the Colombian government with its development plan “world power of life”, is to contribute to the economic reactivation of the country in the primary sector, to contribute to the agro-ecological and energy transitions and the social and political transformations necessary for the full exercise of the rights of the peasantry. In fact, the latter was recognized as a subject of special protection thanks to the global struggle led by the La Via Campesina.

Could you tell us about the situation of peasants’ rights in Colombia, particularly after the election of Gustavo Petro as President?

President Petro, and his government program represent for the Colombian peasantry the opportunity to

a) to be recognized in the national political constitution as political subjects of rights with special protection, in order to have access to the exercise of the rights contemplated in the UN Declaration on peasant rights.

b) to resume the implementation of the peace agreement, which contemplated among other things the implementation of the integral rural reform, through concrete goals such as the purchase of 3,000,000 hectares for adjudication, formalization, restitution and reparation to the peasantry.

c) to make the necessary social and political transformations required for the peasantry and rural workers to have a dignified life.

Have you seen any progress, in terms of agrarian reform for example?

The changes and progress observed since Gustavo Petro’s administration took office are clearly observable, not only in legal and constitutional measures (normative and regulatory frameworks, laws, decrees, resolutions, etc.), but also at the level of agrarian law reform proposals, which are obstructed and denied in the Congress of the Republic by the parliamentary majority, representative of latifundista interests. Despite these obstacles, important political actions are being implemented for the first time, such as massive land deliveries, financing of productive projects, recognition of peasant territorialities (peasant reserve zones, agri-food territories, among others). It should also be emphasized that these initiatives are taken through the prism of respect for the environment and the rights of nature, central elements required in the face of the current climate crises.

In addition, all peasants’ organizations have joined together to form the National Peasants’ Agenda. This group mobilized to put forward common objectives and proposals, which led to the signing of an agreement with the government. The agreement signed in July 2024 contemplates the implementation of agrarian reform, rural development, economic reactivation, productive projects, coca crop substitution and other issues.

These agreements signed on July 10, 2024, ratify the joint and articulated work between the government and the Colombian peasant movement in the implementation of the Agrarian Reform, rural development, economic reactivation, productive projects, substitution of coca crops and others.

The peasant organizations demand an “integral and popular agrarian reform”, what does it mean for you compared to the “classic” agrarian reform?

Agrarian reform is the broadest and most significant concept for the peasantry. It is about having access to land, to ownership of that land, in a country where the ownership and tenure of the land is held by large landowners, and by food producing associations under the scheme of agro-industry (monoculture, agro-toxics, etc.). Colombia is a country where the most effective (counter) agrarian reform was carried out by large landowners and drug traffickers through a strategy of expulsion of peasants from their lands, through dispossession and other practices of occupation of land and peasant territories, with the critical support of paramilitary gangs.

For the peasantry, agrarian reform is integral to the extent that it guarantees the material and immaterial conditions necessary for the development of their life projects, in accordance with their cultural and social characteristics. This objective is woven in the perspective of being able to produce, transform and commercialize food for self-consumption and food supply to the population as a whole.

The integral reform, therefore, refers to all these structural changes and transformations (economic model, agrarian production model, model of the welfare system of public policy) to return to the peasantry the autonomy and sovereignty to produce food from the postulates of organic, ecological agriculture. This also includes, of course, the management of their seeds and the production of all the necessary bio-inputs. In conclusion, the reform has to be comprehensive in the sense of being able to guarantee fundamental rights such as the right to life, education, health, social protection, etc., etc., etc.

Can you explain the importance of the inclusion of peasants as political subjects in the Constitution?

Article 64:

It is the duty of the State to promote progressive access to land ownership for peasants and agrarian workers, individually or in association.

The peasantry is a subject of rights and special protection, has a particular relationship with the land based on food production as a guarantee of food sovereignty, its forms of peasant territoriality, geographical, demographic, organizational and cultural conditions that distinguish it from other social groups.

The State recognizes the economic, social, cultural, political and environmental dimensions of the peasantry, as well as those that are recognized and will ensure the protection, respect and guarantee of their individual and collective rights, with the aim of achieving material equality from a gender, age and territorial approach, access to goods and rights such as quality education with relevance, housing, health, public utilities, tertiary roads, land, territory, a healthy environment, access to and exchange of seeds, natural resources and biological diversity, water, enhanced participation, digital connectivity: improvement of rural infrastructure, agricultural and business extension, technical and technological assistance to generate added value and means of marketing their products.

Peasants are free and equal to all other populations and have the right to be free from any kind of discrimination in the exercise of their rights, particularly those based on their economic, social, cultural and political situation.“

In 1991, Colombia’s political charter brought significant changes to guarantee its essence as a social state based on the rule of law (the main achievement for decades was to overcome the state of siege and achieve a democratic opening). From then on, the main democratic freedoms were finally possible, beginning a long process towards social justice in a country with the highest rates of social inequality, the highest concentration of land ownership, and alarming indicators of humanitarian crisis.

The 1991 Constitution recognized the native peoples and Afro-descendant, Roma and Palenquero peoples, and recognized the rights of ethnic minorities. However, the peasantry was unfortunately excluded. In the territories, this lack of recognition had a serious impact on the exercise of the cultural, social, economic and political rights of the peasantry, especially as a subordinate sector, exploited and marginalized by structural classism and racism. Being recognized also as subjects of special protection, positioned us in parity to be another minority with rights, and these adjustments are the ones that are being harmonized within public policy.

What were the keys to achieving this change and, more generally, to implementing peasants’ rights?

For FENACOA, the achievement of this recognition is due to several factors:

1) the incorporation of the unfulfilled agreements of the Havana agreement in the public agenda of the State (beyond the government);

2) being an active part of the social movement of the government of Change.

3) having maintained a position as the largest social sector with outstanding political debt, as well as being considered the main victim of the violence of the social and armed conflict, and also of socio-political violence.

4) to have made an impact in public, social and community spaces with the Declaration of peasants’ rights, and to have this necessary pending as part of the integral agrarian reform.

5) to have an accumulation of struggles for integral agrarian reform.

Now that you have had this change, what do you think are the next major steps to implement UNDROP at the national level?

Colombia’s political right wing has installed magistrates, congressmen and officials who, for decades, have prevented, and continue to prevent, changes in favor of the Colombian peasantry. At this juncture, these high officials are at the forefront of blocking significant advances in agrarian policy.

We have difficulties at the level of the high courts (judicial branch), and the Constitutional Court in particular, which is reviewing the articles on peasant rights, in an open and clear challenge against Petro’s government (executive branch) and under the mandate of the latifundista right-wingers who are part of Congress (legislative branch). The objective is to close the way to the full exercise of recognized rights. In the face of this, we have to make permanent social, communicative and political mobilization to prevent the reversal of these rights and to ensure that progress is made on the agenda of the Declaration.

A second scenario is the Supreme Court of Justice, where the large landowner representatives demand the revision of the agrarian jurisdiction by this court, so that there will be agrarian judges to settle conflicts directly. This again is a move by the latifundista right wing to prevent the peasants from directly resolving the various conflicts they may have over land, titles, easements, water disputes, boundary disputes, among others.

Some organizations of CLOC-LVC Colombia launched a broad social mobilization, as members of the National Peasant Agenda, within which an agreement was signed to advance in the implementation and execution of peasant rights.

The full enjoyment of the rights of peasants and rural workers requires structural changes, and this will continue to be the struggle of the peasantry and other social and popular organizations. We recall that neoliberal capitalism is delaying every day any democratic and social attempt in Latin America.

And what are the main challenges ahead for the promotion of peasant rights and food sovereignty?

On the part of the national government, in the short term, the main challenges are:

• First, implement a mixed commission, as a permanent consultation mechanism between the State and the Colombian peasantry, necessary to harmonize public policies and governmental administrative structures in order to attend to the implementation of the integral rural reform.
• Secondarily, execute the government program that addresses the needs, demands and expectations of the peasant sector, this goes through fulfilling the agreements, minutes, etc. of previous governments.

Medium term:

• To set in motion the entire inter-institutional system to attend to the transformations required by the implementation of the integral rural reform.
• Create the conditions to shield the current advances from other governments that may try to undermine all these changes and transformations.

It is also necessary to highlight the challenges facing the peasant movement. In particular, the necessary consolidation and dialogue between the different peasant organizations, and also at the level of management and execution of productive projects, transformation, commercialization, etc. of the peasant, social, solidarity and community economy.

This challenge of consolidation also involves strategies and alliance relations with other sectors, with social, community and consumer processes, ensuring a permanent articulation with all social sectors of the country, in order to contribute to the strengthening of the social base that contributes to the political changes and transformations required by the country.

La entrada Colombia: Recognition of peasants in the Constitution – Interview with Martha Elena Huertas Moya se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.