Honduras: La Via Campesina Global Meeting on Migrant and Rural Workers’ Rights

This article was first published on La Via Campesina website on October 26, 2022. You can find it here.

 (October 26, 2022) From 25 to 28 October 2022, the city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, will host La Via Campesina’s global meeting on the rights of migrants and rural workers. Fifty peasant delegates from different parts of the world are participating in this hybrid (physical and virtual) event. La Via Campesina (LVC) Honduras is hosting the meeting in coordination with the Collective on Migration and Rural Workers of La Via Campesina.

The event is an effort by the movement to unify peasant voices in relation to the struggles of rural wage workers and the reality they face with migration, given that the majority of the world’s rural labour force is from migration. This was expressed by delegates from the Arab and North Africa (ARNA) region, Asia, Central America, South America, North America, the Caribbean and Europe, who, in addition to their concerns, shared a regional report of the work they are doing as part of the struggle agenda of each organisation that is part of La Via Campesina. This activity is of paramount importance because while the delegation recognised the global migration crisis, there is an urgent need to find real solutions to this crisis by prioritising the defence of human rights.

It is important to note that a delegation mainly from Africa and Asia is participating virtually due to the limitations of migratory mobility (linked to difficulty in obtaining travel documents because of lack of embassies to issue such documents in these continents) which did not allow them to participate physically. The plenary highlighted this limitation as evidence of the racist and colonial policies that are constantly being pursued at the borders.

The agenda of the activity included thematic discussions such as: the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in the Rural Workers (UNDROP) and its importance in defending the rights of waged workers and migrants; international labour regulations in the countryside and the situation of waged labour in Central America and the world, as well as LVC’s articulation work with the Global Solidarity Pact.

In the following days, the delegates will have exchanges with Honduran social movements and local authorities. All these highlights are oriented to contribute to the construction of an action plan for the working collective of La Via Campesina in its struggle to build processes that defend the rights of migrants and rural workers. We hope to strengthen the actions for the following year, in view of the VIII International Conference of La Via Campesina, as well as the crucial events of migrant struggles in different regions.

Why is Honduras hosting this world meeting?

We chose Honduras as the venue for our meeting because of its geographical position in the middle of the migratory routes to North America, from where the caravans of protest and resistance against colonialism, racism and border repression depart. It is also a territory where rural labour has historically been exploited in agricultural plantations, mainly in the hands of multinational capital. We come to defend the public policies promoted by the people in favour of food sovereignty, peasants’ rights and agrarian reform, as part of the new political process of the Honduran people.

For the respect of the fundamental rights of rural workers and migrants.

Peasants’ rights now!

#PeasantRightsNow #DignifiedAgriculturalWorkNow! #MigrationIsNotaCrime

Read the final Declaration of the Global Meeting of La Via Campesina on the Rights of Migrant and Rural Workers