Recovering the cycle of wisdom: Beacons of light toward the right to seeds
Guide for the Implementation of Peasants’ Rights
This guide was first published on Fian International website on May 4th, 2021. You can find it here.
This guide aims to provide practical guidance for food producers’ organizations, civil society organizations (CSOs) as well as governments and public institutions about how to implement peasants’ and Indigenous Peoples’ rights to seeds in national and regional policy frameworks.
Its objective is to provide a useful tool for actors who engage in seed-related policy processes (revision of laws, drafting of new laws etc.) at national and/or regional level and who are eager to ensure that these respect, protect and promote peasants’ and Indigenous Peoples’ rights and autonomy over seeds. The authors are aware that the struggle for conserving and further developing agricultural biodiversity is not limited to legal strategies, but starts with the concrete, daily work of peasants and Indigenous Peoples to conserve, select, save, multiply, store, exchange, sell and further develop their seeds.
However, peasants’ and Indigenous Peoples’ rights to seeds can only come into effect if they are recognized and enforceable through laws. Such laws must then be enforced by States through adequate institutional frameworks, while ensuring accountability and remedy for rights holders, i.e. peasants and Indigenous Peoples. Therefore, the struggle for human rights-based seed policies and laws is of crucial importance for the conservation of biodiversity and social justice.
