Newsletter n°9 | Seed Sovereignty: Advancements and Setbacks in the Right to Seeds
As 2025 draws to a close, Defending Peasants’ Rights has published key updates on recent global developments impacting the right to seeds
A milestone victory for Kenyan peasants!
In November, a milestone judicial victory for peasants took place in Kenya. As Karine Peschard explains in her article, the UNDROP provided an important legal leverage in a historic decision taken by the High Court of Kenya in favour of peasants’ right to save, use, share, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds. Three years after a group of Kenyan peasants filed the case, the High Court ruled Kenya’s Seeds and Plant Varieties Act unconstitutional, as the law not only criminalises the sale of uncertified seeds, but also curtails peasants’ control over harvests produced from protected varieties. Given its substantive legal and political outcome, 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.”
In a powerful statement praising the Kenyan ruling, the experts of the United Nations Working Group on UNDROP highlighted that “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 European Union stands in favour of corporations monopolising seeds patents
In Europe, the European Coordination of La Via Campesina (ECVC) has recently denounced a harmful provisional agreement on GMO-NGT (Genetically Modified Organisms-New Genomic Techniques) made by the President of the European Council alongside negotiators from the EU Parliament and Commission. The agreement, which still needs approval by EU parliamentarians and member states, would deregulate most new GMO crops, treating them as if they were conventional plants, while removing traceability, labelling, and detection requirements.
The relevance of an international legally binding instrument for regulating transnational corporations and protecting rural women’s right to seeds
On the occasion of the 11th session of negotiations for a UN legally binding treaty to regulate transnational corporations, held at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, in October 2025, Defending Peasants Rights interviewed a delegation from the Southern African movement Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA). They highlighted the impacts directly suffered by rural women and their communities from the activities of transnational corporations operating in their territories and countries. From seed monopoly to environmental pollution and human rights violations, transnational corporations have operated with impunity across Zambia, South Africa and Swaziland.
In this regard, also read the press release published by the United Nations Working Group on UNDROP in support of the binding treaty process.
The 7th Anniversary of UNDROP
The hard-fought UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) celebrates its 7th anniversary this month. Adopted on 17 December 2018, this declaration is a landmark victory for diverse grassroots rural movements that strongly advocated for an instrument capable of defining, protecting and advancing the rights of rural peoples worldwide. As a key legal and political instrument for the much-needed systemic transformation of global food systems, UNDROP provides leading international guidance for rural laws, policies and programmes that protect the rights of those who feed us, safeguard the environment, and advance food sovereignty.
The UN Working Group on UNDROP recently issued a statement commemorating the 7th anniversary of UNDROP, underscoring its central relevance in addressing the cross-sectoral and structural issues confronting rural peoples in today’s neoliberal and capitalist world. Check it out here!
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Defending Peasants’ Rights wishes you a prosperous 2026 in advancing rural peoples’ rights!
