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

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Yesterday evening, representatives from the three European institutions came to an agreement on the trilogue on the proposal to deregulate plant GMOs obtained by new genomic techniques (GMOs-NGTs). The European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), representing the voice of small-scale farmers in Europe, denounces a deal which completely ignores the concerns of farmers, especially on patents. The European Parliament had initially recognized in its position of February 2024 that patents were problematic, even calling for a limitation of the scope of patents to prevent its extension to traditional and peasant seeds. Yet, the Parliament’s negotiator, Mrs Polfjärd, has not taken it into account.

These important demands were completely suppressed during the trilogue, leaving in the final deal only optional measures, such as a non-binding code of conduct for licensing and voluntary transparency, leaving farmers, small seed companies, manufacturers and retailers without any means of protection against accidental contaminations. The trilogue agreement claims that patentable plants obtained by NGTs are equivalent to plants produced by traditional, non-patentable breeding methods. Removing the current requirement to publish the detection and identification methods of GMOs traits will allow the extension of the scope of NGT patents to seeds and agricultural products that naturally contain these same traits. These measures are useless to protect farmers and other agri-food operators from the risks related to patents, notably abusive pursuits for patent infringement. Such pursuits will inevitably happen if all traceability requirements are removed, and will lead to the privatisation of all cultivated plants by the patent model, including traditional and peasant seeds.

The agreement foresees to deregulate patented GMOs-NGTs without traceability, including without the mandatory of detection and identification methods[1], without mandatory coexistence measures, without labelling for final products and without the possibility for Member States to opt-out. This proposal does nothing to prevent contamination for the organic sector, although it is strictly prohibited by the organic regulation and rejected by consumers. Some requirements of the current GMO legislation will continue to apply to GMOs-NGTs “category 2”, but we already know that the vast majority of NGTs will fall in “category 1”, which will be completely deregulated. In short, this deal would completely remove the right of farmers and consumers to continue to grow and eat GMO-free, and will endanger the economic survival of the well-established GMO-free and organic agri-food sectors in Europe.

“This deal will only benefit to large patent-holding multinationals, such as Corteva, BASF or Bayer, which will be able to control all seeds and the whole food chain with their patents. For all the others, farmers, small and medium breeders and consumers, it will be a loss. The main motivation behind this deregulation is to impose the patent model in Europe, and to impose GMOs to those who do not want them,” said Alessandra Turco from ECVC’s Coordinating Committee. “Patents are a tool to lock in access to genetic resources with the aim restructure the seed market at the advantage of large firms. If this deal comes through, it will lead to a monopolistic concentration of the market, the disappearance of smaller seed companies, a widespread privatisation of genetic resources and irreversible reduction in agrobiodiversity, as well as an increase in the price of seeds.”

Fortunately, this is not over yet: this harmful trilogue deal is only the result of the negotiations between the Presidency of the Council and the negotiators from the Parliament and Commission. Now, it still needs to be approved by all Members of European Parliament (MEPs) and all Member States. ECVC calls on all MEPs and Member States to hear farmers’, agri-food chain operators’ and consumers’ legitimate concerns and to not approve this dangerous text.

ECVC speaks on behalf of the many European farmers who do not want and do not need to use patented GMOs-NGTs, and which are already adapting their crops to climatic changes and reducing chemical input with peasant breeding and the use of locally-adapted crops, without depending on expensive patented GMOs. ECVC therefore demands to all MEPs to upheld its strong commitment against patents and to not endorse a proposal that will seriously undermine Europe’s food sovereignty and farmers’ rights.

[1] Which would be absolutely necessary for post-marketing monitoring, to allow the removal of a GMO-NGT from the market in case of damages to health and to the environment.

La entrada Trilogue agreement on GMOs-NGTs: A betrayal of farmers’ legitimate concerns on patents, health, the environment, and consumers’ rights to information se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

La entrada Webinar – UNDROP implementation in the Europe and Central Asia region se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

“The present Declaration also applies to indigenous peoples and local communities working on the land, transhumant, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities, and the landless engaged in the above-mentioned activities.” Article 1 §3 UNDROP

On March 13th, 2025, WAMIP held a webinar on the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) 2026. The webinar was a complete presentation of WAMIP and of the lives of pastoralists around the globe, with presentation from representatives from : Jordan, India, Europe, Mongolia, Kenya, Uganda, Argentina, Morroco and Iran. They gave thorough analysis of the current context and crisis facing them, but also good exemples of advocacy and concrete programs on the field. You will find below all the recording of the webinar and all the materials shared by WAMIP after the webinar.

WAMIP IYRP 2026 Webinar: Recording, Insights & Additional Resources

We are pleased to share the webinar recording and presentation slides with you:
WAMIP IYRP 2026 Webinar – Watch here

Webinar Slides – Access here

Additionally, we would like to share two videos contributed by WAMIP members, highlighting the realities and experiences of pastoralist communities in different regions:
Latin America (Peru) – Watch here
South Asia (India) – Watch here

We are also grateful to Nyéléni Food Sovereignty Movement for publishing reflections from the webinar, with a special focus on pastoralist women’s leadership and resilience in honour of March as the month of Working Women’s Struggle. You can read their article here:
Voices of Pastoralist Women: Leadership and Resilience – Read here

As we move forward, we must continue to amplify Indigenous pastoralist voices in the governance of IYRP 2026. Let’s remember and renew our promise to leave no one behind through strengthening, recognising, and involving the pastoralist governance institutions to enable their participation in decision-making and policy-making processes linked to their destiny at all levels.

Here are the key calls to action raised during the webinar:

• Pastoralists as Right-holders, Not Just Stakeholders – Pastoralists must have a direct role in co-managing IYRP 2026, with pastoralist civil society organisations actively involved in its governance at all levels. We urge nation-states, with the support of FAO, to form smaller steering committees with key pastoralist right-holders and relevant stakeholders and launch a dedicated trust fund to implement actions. The governance of IYRP must acknowledge and integrate established pastoralist organisations, ensuring fair representation in decision-making, including the management of trust funds.
• Securing Land & Resource Rights – Immediate action is needed to halt land grabs, mining, and large-scale infrastructure projects that displace pastoralists. Governments must respect Indigenous land tenure, mobility rights, and access to water.
• Ensuring Connectivity & Mobility Rights – Animal trails, migration routes, seasonal pasture access, and customary governance systems (such as ICCAs) are crucial for sustainable rangeland management.
• Upholding Food Sovereignty & Trade Justice – The current global trade system prioritises profit over people. Alternative trade frameworks must safeguard small-scale food producers, ensuring fair markets and protection against agribusiness expansion.
• Empowering Women in Governance – Women pastoralists face exclusion from decision-making. Addressing structural barriers, securing land rights, and supporting their leadership in rangeland management are critical.
• Youth Engagement & Education – Young pastoralists need policies that protect their livelihoods, provide access to education, and integrate modern technology to sustain pastoralism as a viable way of life.
• A Broad Definition of Rangelands – Policies must recognise that rangelands include not just grasslands, but also forests, tundra, mountains, and post-harvest croplands.
• Global Solidarity & Coordinated Action – Pastoralists must unite with small-scale farmers and fisher movements to push for systemic change in governance, climate adaptation policies, and social protections.

We are committed to actively promoting IYRP through our networks and communications, ensuring Indigenous pastoralist communities remain at the center of global discussions on rangelands. We look forward to further collaboration with FAO, governments, and allied movements to advance these goals.

La entrada Webinar : Voices of Indigenous Pastoralists on 2026 – Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

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 stands in solidarity with small-scale farmers around the world.

On April 8th, the Norwegian Parliament considered the Red Party’s proposal to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). By supporting the declaration, the Storting [Norwegian parliament] can stand up for a solidarity-based agricultural policy with human rights at its core.

Rights under threat

Smallholder farmers’ rights are under pressure across the globe. War, occupation and genocide threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of farmers, and climate change is already having disastrous consequences for agriculture. At the same time, the food sovereignty of small-scale farmers is threatened by the control of powerful corporations over land, seeds and inputs such as environmentally harmful fertilizers.

In the face of these crises, UNDROP is an important tool for promoting the rights of small-scale farmers, fishers and rural communities to soil, seeds, land and water, and to life, equality and freedom of expression. This is not an introduction of new rights, but a recognition and protection of the rights that people who live of the land already have.

As a self-proclaimed champion of food security, all that is needed is for Norway to endorse the declaration.

Must ensure human rights

Norway’s endorsement of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas should be a natural contribution to the government’s food security strategy “Gathering Strength against Hunger”. Smallholder farmers account for 70 percent of food production in the global south, and are described by the government as the backbone of local food security. In order to solve the growing global hunger crisis, it is crucial that these producers are guaranteed good living and working conditions. The government itself states that Norway’s efforts to combat hunger are rooted in human rights.

By supporting Undrop, Norway can help to ensure that these rights are implemented. Without these rights, fewer and fewer people will choose agriculture as a career, and the degree of food insecurity will increase.

This would be a betrayal of the farmers the government claims to be fighting for.

Solidarity with Norwegian small-scale farmers

Small-scale farmers in Norway are also under increasing pressure. Norway’s self-sufficiency rate of around 40 percent is one of the lowest in the world, and on average one farm is closed down every single day. To reverse this trend, the government must support sustainable small-scale agriculture, with human rights at the center.

A Norwegian endorsement of UNDROP will be a declaration of solidarity with small farmers around the world, including in Norway. It is high time for Norway to get off the fence and put action behind fine words about small farmers’ rights.

You can find the original article in Norwegian here.

La entrada A day of destiny for small farmers in Norway’s Parliament se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

On September 16, the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) published a report on the implementation of UNDROP in Europe. You can find the launch press release here.

This new publication presents the Declaration: its origin, purpose, content and how it should be implemented. It lists policy recommendations for international and regional organizations, European decision-makers and national and local authorities.

The main requests are as follows:

• States and international and regional organizations must provide resources (including financial) to support the Working Group.
• The EU must ensure that all its legislation and policies on agriculture are in line with UNDROP. ECVC has already drawn up specific policy proposals on how to ensure this compliance concerning: seeds, a proposed directive on land, agricultural market policy and CAP social conditionality.
• When implementing international policies linked to food and agriculture, the EU must respect and ensure the coherence with UNDROP.
• In accordance with Article 10 of UNDROP, ECVC, as the only European peasant organization, must be systematically consulted by all EU institutions dealing with agriculture.
• The EC’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) should create a specific sub-unit responsible for peasants’ rights and human rights in agriculture.
• The EU should conduct an independent study to assess the level of coherence of EU legislation and policies with UNDROP.
• When implementing the EU directive on corporate due diligence, EU member states must include UNDROP.
• States must draw up national action plans and national committees for family farming, as called for under the UN Decade for Family Farming. These plans must put the implementation of UNDROP at the center, and promote a broader concept of family farming that goes beyond cis-heterocentric patriarchy, embracing chosen families, a diversity of people and ways of living and working, as well as all kinds of small-scale artisanal food producers.

La entrada How to implement the UNDROP at the European and national level to promote peasants’ rights – publication and video se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

Can you tell us about your organization, MAP, its main battlefronts, and the challenges facing peasants in Belgium?

Mouvement d’Action Paysanne (MAP) is a Belgian association of peasants and citizens. We created the ” Independent Peasant School “, based on a network of farm-schools to pass on peasant knowledge and know-how. With MAP, we defend sustainable peasant agriculture and food sovereignty based on autonomy and resilience. We’re talking here not just about technical autonomy, but also decision-making, operational and group autonomy, i.e. the ability to organize within a peasant network with its own mode of operation and interdependence. And we want a resilient agriculture to face the many current crises, be they social, energy, climatic or economic.

Since 2015, we have 5 priorities: to defend peasant rights through changes in the law, to produce and disseminate a strong peasant discourse, to organize peasants, to train (future) peasants so that they can be agents of change, and finally to cultivate and re-enchant the peasant movement.

We are also actively involved in the Participatory Guarantee System (SPG). Faced with organic labels that no longer mean much, and to bring consumers and producers closer together, we propose the SPG. It’s a self-monitoring tool, made up of a welcoming farm, a peasant from the same sector, a group of eaters and an ambassador. Based on trust, a network of concerned players and exchanges of knowledge, it enables us to define objectives together to move towards agroecology, to co-construct them and to evaluate progress regularly and jointly.

As far as the challenges are concerned, for us the central issue is peasant incomes. Various parameters make it difficult to obtain a fair income: high production costs versus imported products produced at very low cost, less arable land available due to overbuilding, non-food uses such as agri-voltaics, agrofuels and carbon-farming. As far as land is concerned, prices per hectare are on the rise, notably due to land grabs by large industrial groups or private investors who are going into industrial farming.

You have drafted and published a “Peasant Town Charter”. What is it and what are its objectives?

The United Nations has drawn up a Declaration on the Rights of Peasants, or UNDROP. Belgium is involved in a commission to implement this declaration in Europe, but we realize that few people, citizens or politicians, are familiar with it. Our aim is therefore to make the Declaration of Peasant Rights known to the various levels of government, starting with the one most accessible to citizens: the municipalities. And to motivate them to implement the UNDROP.

We have therefore drawn up the Peasant Town Charter, which sets out the rights enshrined in UNDROP, along with proposals for their practical implementation at local level. We are distributing it to all municipalities and to candidates in this autumn’s municipal elections, to inspire and motivate them to take a stand and make a commitment. With this charter, we’re aiming for UNDROP, from global to local!

“It is the local political bodies, the municipalities and their elected representatives, who have the power, duty and responsibility to involve all citizens in implementing concrete, local measures.“

Charte des Communes Paysannes, MAP, p7

For the 2018 communal elections, MAP had already chosen to challenge the local political authorities (the most accessible for citizens). We had drafted a charter based on our findings on peasant farming and giving levers for action at the communal level. We repeated the experience, this time highlighting the Declaration of peasants’ rights and using it as a basis for proposing actions.

How will you promote the charter among elected representatives?

Via ambassadors to relay the charter in their towns. There’s nothing like direct contact with motivated citizens to get the message across to local authorities. A video will be released shortly.

And let’s not forget the Charter meeting at the Little Fair. Every year, we organize the Little Fair of peasant agriculture, a showcase for peasant agroecology and an alternative to the Big Agricultural Fair of Libramont, a commercial, agro-industrial and ultra-subsidized fair that takes place on the same weekend in the same region. The Little Fair is therefore the ideal place to introduce UNDROP to as many visitors as possible. Too few people know about the Declaration.

Can you give us a few examples of the rights enshrined in UNDROP that you have used in your Charter, adapting them to the municipal context and mandate?

In the Charter, we take up 10 articles from UNDROP: article 2 obligations of States, article 9 freedom of association, article 10 right to participation, article 15 right to food and food sovereignty, article 16 right to a decent income and to the means of production, article 17 right to land, article 18 right to the environment, article 19 right to seeds, article 20 right to biodiversity and article 25 right to education and training.

The right for which we are making the most proposals is the right to food and food sovereignty. We start with broad proposals, such as informing citizens of their rights, and then move on to more concrete and specific ones. We for example propose that communes carry out assessments of their food and agricultural autonomy, of the needs of their residents and of the means at their disposal. The next step we put forward is the collective construction, with local residents, of food-related objectives for the commune. This can lead, for example, to the creation of a healthy, local food aid system, or local, peasant catering. For each stage, we provide details of the procedures involved, as well as examples of towns that have already put these proposals into practice.

We can also talk about the right to land: access to land is a central issue today. The pillars we propose to communes are to encourage peasant farms to be set up, and to protect food-producing land. I can give precise examples of actions that a municipality can take, such as making communal land available, allowing the installation of light housing, prohibiting overbuilding and seeking out vacant housing.

We have also chosen political rights to highlight: freedom of association and the right to participation. In both cases, the municipalities can implement a number of actions.

How do you see the strategy for promoting and implementing UNDROP at national level? In other words, how does this Charter – addressed specifically to local/communal authorities – fit in with the advocacy strategy at national authority level in Belgium?

Completing the circle: from local to global! We hope that the local authorities will pass on the Charter and UNDROP to the regional and national levels. Keeping track of all this is going to require a lot of hard work, and April 17, International Day of Peasant Struggles, will be the occasion for meetings on UNDROP, as well as a time to take stock of actions based on the Charter. But MAP needs support to make this happen.

We’re also working with partners such as the Fian Belgique organization, to spread UNDROP and the Charter to all the communes in Wallonia and Brussels.

We also think it would be a good idea to publicize UNDROP in the legal sector and at law schools and universities, among future jurists, lawyers, judges… the question is how!

What role do you see peasants and citizens playing in spreading UNDROP?

We have a MAP campaign called ‘Je suis paysan.ne’ (I am a peasant), which is essential for connecting peasants and citizens: we are all peasants! Why are we peasants? Because our grandparents were peasants, but above all because we all have to feed ourselves every day! The question of food, and therefore of peasantry, now crystallizes all the major issues facing our society: the transmission of knowledge and know-how, health, social justice, nature protection, climate and energy challenges, etc.

It is urgent to build our food sovereignty. All citizens have an important role to play in making our rights known. It’s our duty!

La entrada “UNDROP from local to global!” – Interview with Serge Peereboom from MAP Belgium se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

For the 2024 communal elections, the MAP has written a Peasant Towns Charter based on UNDROP. With this charter, the MAP aims to inspire local residents and future elected representatives to take UNDROP as a basis for developing public policies that implement peasants’ rights.

The charter takes up the rights contained in the Declaration and sets out how each can be transposed to the local level. For example, with regard to article 15 on the right to food and food sovereignty, the charter proposes to develop communal institutional catering supplied by local and peasant agriculture, and to promote the installation of peasant farms. The charter is therefore a collection of concrete examples, the implementation of which falls within the remit of local authorities. It also aims to increase citizen participation and collective management of the commons.

This charter is also a means of publicizing UNDROP and the rights of peasants and workers, so that everyone can embrace them at every level. The work carried out by the MAP can be reproduced at all levels of elected office and in all countries!

See the charter below (in French)

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The objective of this event was to discuss the impact of the neoliberal political and economic system, with its racist and (neo)colonial character, on the peasantry and rural communities, and how peasants’ organisations conceive the fight against this oppressive system. Six panelists, members of La Via Campesina from countries of the south (Niger, Colombia, Haiti, Palestine) and from the north (Switzerland and France) presented their visions and experiences.

“Capitalism and colonialism are two sides of the same coin,” recalled Raffaele Morgantini of CETIM, opening the discussion with a reminder of the impact of the current capitalist and neocolonial system on the people of the Global South, in particular peasants. Thus, “the anti-capitalist struggle necessarily involves the anti-colonial struggle, two struggles in which the rural world is on the front line.”

Colombia

Joana Pinzón representing the Asociación Nacional Campesina José Antonio Galán Zorro (ASONALCA) and the Coordinador Nacional Agrario, one of LVC’s member organisations in Colombia, began by discussing the international division of labor which relegates Colombia to the impoverishing role of producer of raw materials, in this case from the mining industry, which causes damage both to the environment and to peasant and indigenous populations.These populations are also entrenched in extremely hostile territories with the majority of
land monopolized by rich landowners. For this reason in particular, integral and popular agrarian reform is necessary but has never been implemented because it goes against the capitalist interests of the dominant elites. Control of land is the country’s central issue and it is because of this that the armed conflict emerged, the first victims of which are rural and indigenous communities. A dirty war is being waged against them by both private and public actors. Indeed, opposing land grabbing and destructive economic projects means putting one’s life
in danger; communities and social movements are persecuted, threatened with death, imprisoned, forcibly displaced, exiled, assassinated. “When people talk to me about “development”, what I hear is the word “death”. Because in the name of development, private companies have destroyed a lot. »

“Another world is possible” claimed Joana, emphasizing the importance of social mobilization and giving examples of community-run schools, public health projects, local businesses and other public services set up in the Northeast of the country (Regions of Santander and Casanare). “If we want change, we must make it ourselves,” she concluded.

Niger

The representative of the Plateforme paysanne du Niger, member of LVC, recalled the numerous abuses that the African continent has suffered and the fact that, despite the independence won 60 years ago, Africa remains in a situation of dependence. “We have been freed from our chains but we continue to be held differently. Today a wind of sovereignty is blowing in the minds of all Africans who have understood that we must fight for it, in particular for food sovereignty.” The obstacles to the development of Nigerien agriculture are many and complex: double standards do not allow small producers to compete with agribusiness. Chemical fertilizers manufactured in Europe impoverish the soil, making it dependent on those very products, and further weakening peasant organizations. The international division of labour also relegates Africa to the role of supplier of raw materials exported and transformed in the West to be resold at a higher price. “We are not given the means to access the processing of products and when in turn, we want to export processed products we come up against so-called European quality standards. This reinforces the poverty of our farms. Our producers sell at a low price the same product sold more expensively elsewhere,” stated the Nigerien representative. Furthermore, as there is no food sovereignty without economic sovereignty, “we spend a lot to access a little (…). This economy keeps us in poverty,” he stated. In addition, every state order for agricultural equipment, seeds and fertilizer has to go through the Bank of France.

Another problem is that of the next generation of farmers. “Young people are leaving family farms, taking boats and dying at sea for the European dream. They think that Europe is an El Dorado, that success comes down to higher education, an office, a tie. We must return to our African values. »

Insecurity due to armed groups like Boko Haram also harms Nigerien farmers confronted by their violence. “Ten years ago we were poor, but at least we were at peace.” Finally, following the coup d’état of July 26, 2023, Niger was the victim of unilateral coercive measures which seriously impacted the country. Its farmers saw their products blocked at the border, they had to sell them at a loss and had to draw on food stocks which were already insufficient.

Palestine

Yasmeen El-Hasan of the Union of Agricultural Work Committee (UAWC, Palestine), also member of LVC, testified via video. She made a horrifying assessment of the situation in Gaza, declaring that Palestinians who did not die from the bombs would die because of starvation, lack of water and healthcare. She denounced the use of famine as a weapon in the ongoing genocide. “Israel has engineered a starvation operation by destroying Palestinian food systems in Gaza and the West Bank. » However, national food sovereignty is intrinsic to the right to self-determination. “Our relationship with our land is not just symbolic but symbiotic. It is not just about what we get from it, but what we give to it. We are the natives of this land, we are its guardians” recalled Yasmeen. She considers that a return to the colonialist status quo is not possible and that we must work together to dismantle it to create a fair system for all.

For more information, see CETIM’s article “CETIM’s article “Palestine: no food sovereignty without national sovereignty”.

Haiti

Micherline Islanda Aduel, representing Tet Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen, an LVC member in Haiti, was due to join the peasants’ delegation in Geneva but was unable to leave the island because of the state of emergency declared following the violent criminal gangs’ takeover of the country’s social and institutional fabric. She therefore also spoke by video message. She denounced the current situation: “Local production is undermined by oligarchs who import North American products and protect transnational companies. Local gangs and collaborators have created chaos, the Haitian people live in a state of insecurity, targeted political assassinations, assumed government banditry and planned kidnapping. It is urgent to end the support that the United States, Canada and France offer to criminal governments that are not supported by the people. » The sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Haiti are undermined by the Core-Group, that is to say the intergovernmental group created by the United Nations Security Council in 2004 including in particular the United States, Canada, England, Germany and France. Supported by the so-called “Core Group”, the current provisional government, led by the Prime Minister, Mr. Ariel Henry, de facto governs Haiti against the will of its people.

In view of the above, combating the food crisis and reviving agricultural production by implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas is a priority for Haiti’s farmers.

For more information on the situation on the island, see the report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by CETIM and Haitian peasant organisations.

Switzerland

Alberto Silva, representative of UNITERRE, Swiss member of LVC, denounced the role of his country in imperialist and neocolonial mechanisms and structures although unlike France, Switzerland does not have a colonial past. “Geneva is a real hub for trading in raw materials. Everything is negotiated here, speculation is important and this has an impact on prices in Switzerland and elsewhere in the world. » The method is as follows: buy at the lowest price, store it and wait for prices to rise in order to sell at a high price, as high as possible even. In this way, many people are making profits from the war in Ukraine and the genocide in Palestine. Speculation takes place at the expense of vulnerable populations and causes agricultural markets to malfunction. Banks and transnational corporations are increasingly orienting themselves towards food production and are therefore monopolizing arable land in the countries of the South. This creates additional pressure on local populations practicing subsistence farming and increases dependence on imported foreign food. Switzerland therefore actively participates in neo-colonialism, in the oppression of the countries of the Global South via its banks, its companies, its traders… The current economic system of generalized competition of peasants in the world contributes to the disappearance of the peasantry at the local level and generates catastrophic social crises. The WTO Agreements contribute to this generalized deregulation. In the face of all this, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas is an extremely important instrument. “The development of our food sovereignty must not be to the detriment of that of other countries” concluded Alberto.

France

Pierre Maison representing La Confédération Paysanne, member of LVC in France, declared that French imperialism, France-Africa still exist. “France denounces coups d’état at the same time as it supports sham democracies and even authoritarian regimes. The objective is to keep control of the wealth of these countries ». African food systems are being undermined by Europe. A glaring example is that of powdered milk sold in Africa: “It is, in reality, a skimmed milk powder to which palm oil has been added because it is cheaper. We posed the question to the European Commission and demonstrated against speculation and the dumping of this stored milk. Our surpluses are destroying their agriculture,” he said.

Likewise, competition between different kinds of agriculture that do not have the same rules seriously harms African family farmers who are made to compete, in particular with their European counterparts who are subsidized by the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy). “The global market is based only on profit and enriches big companies which export without conditions and make so-called developing countries dependent. To protect themselves, these countries should have the freedom to impose customs duties. However, this is no longer the case with free trade agreements. In Europe we hear the proponents of productivism declare that Europe must feed the world. But why? And who? In addition, the seed industry is controlled by a few transnational companies which impose sterile seeds and GMOs in African countries to make them dependent because these seeds work with pesticides and fertilizers that must be repurchased every year. This whole system is imposed by force while African peasant seeds are perfectly adapted to their territory. In Europe, there are practically no more peasant seeds. And yet, it is these seeds that can adapt to territories and global warming. Another scourge is that of the carbon credit system: “Companies from Northern countries buy up arable land in Africa with the complicity of States, expel farmers to plant forests so that we can continue to pollute in Europe and so that companies can claim to be neutral, which is completely false. » concluded Pierre.

These testimonies were followed by a rich discussion with the audience, then a buffet of local farmers’ products.

La entrada Anticolonial struggles in the Global South: A peasant perspective se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

The indigenous nomadic peoples’ organization Wamip, which you will find throughout this newsletter, took an active part in the UNDROP negotiation process at the Human Rights Council alongside La Via Campesina. Wamip is calling for 2026 to be declared the International Year of Rangelands and Shepherds, and we relay its appeal here.

“Our way of life has existed since time immemorial, evolving together with the landscape. But today pastoralism is threatened as never before by the forced industrialization of livestock farming. We have to stop the loss of grazing land, “land grabbing” and the restrictions on mobility that make it impossible to maintain a viable pastoralist system. Currently we are defining a possible campaign on Pastoralists Rights.“

La entrada Nyeleni: Introducing the message of pastoralist communities – a voice from the land se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

These protests are the undeniable sign of a massive and widespread violation of peasants’ rights in Europe, caused by a liberal system that is out of breath and in perpetual crisis. Defending Peasants Rights joins peasants in calling for a profound change in the system, which is the only way to ensure fair prices and good working conditions. We also denounce any recuperation of these protests by the extreme right or by union leaders who no longer represent the interests of farmers, but only those of the agro-industry and large retailers.

Peasants’ Rights and Protests

Christophe Golay, Senior Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian and Human Rights and Visiting Professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute

Peasants and farmers protest in many parts of Europe*, claiming their right to live in dignity, with fair prices for their product and adequate remuneration for their work. They reject free trade agreements and call states and the European Union (UE) for more support.

In Europe, like in rest of the world, peasants are disproportionately affected by food insecurity and poverty. The rate of suicide in agriculture is much higher than in other professional activities. To support them, the main EU instrument is the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

CAP accounts for 31% of the EU budget, which means that 55 billion euros are spent every year to support agriculture. This is huge. However, the sum is unfairly distributed. Only 20% of food producers receive 80% of the CAP’s budget. The choice of calculating financial support based on the size of farms – instead of the number of people active in the farms – leads to increasing concentration of farm holding. Between 2005 et 2020, the number of farms in the EU declined by 37 %, with small farms experiencing the strongest decline. This also leads to less product diversity and greater biodiversity loss.

Affected by competition with product imported from other continents and sold in Europe at low prices, and pressured by various intermediaries, peasants often have to sell their products below the costs of production. They are also pushed to transition to organic farming – with the legitimate objective of 25% of agricultural land under organic farming in the EU by 2030 in the European Green Deal – without enough support to make that transition and benefit from it. This situation in part explains the current fight for peasants’ rights.

At the United Nations (UN), this fight for peasants’ rights started in 2008 in Geneva, when La Via Campesina proposed its Declaration on the Rights of Peasants – Women and Men to respond to the 2008 global food crisis. La Via Campesina is the largest transnational social movement, representing more than 250 million peasants in over 80 countries. Its call for a UN Declaration on peasants’ rights was supported by several states, human rights experts, NGOs, and Geneva Academy’s project on the rights of peasants. After six years of negotiation at the Human Rights Council, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) has been adopted by the UN General Assembly on 17 December 2018. In October 2023, a UN Working Group of five independent experts has been created by the Human Rights Council to promote and monitor UNDROP’s implementation.

UNDROP enshrines many rights that are crucial to respond to the current crisis, including the rights to food, food sovereignty, fair prices, sufficient salaries, social security, seeds, land, and other productive resources. It also includes many provisions through which states committed to support peasants in their transition towards agroecology and organic farming. UNDROP and the right to food provide a strong legal basis for a just transition towards sustainable food systems in Europe.

Other resources

• ECVC: Rejection of free trade agreements and the demand for a decent income are at the heart of farmers’ mobilisations in Europe, 25/02/24
• ECVC: ECVC demands from Place du Luxembourg, Brussels: End free trade agreements and ensure fair prices for farmers, 01/02/24
• CETIM: Peasant mobilisations in Europe, 01/02/24
• IUF : Europe: Amidst farmers’ protests, agricultural workers’ working conditions in the future CAP are critical, 08/02/24

*Germany, Hungary, France, Greece, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium

La entrada Peasant Protests in Europe se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

On October 26, 2023, ECVC organized a round table to call on the European Union to put agricultural land on its agenda and take into account its proposal for a directive as well as UNDROP, find HERE the press release from the event.

Below is ECVC’s introduction to its proposal for a directive, and the full text of the proposal is available for download.

We present our proposal for a European directive on the governance of agricultural land. To stop land concentration: more farmers in Europe!

We have long demanded the realisation of the right to land as defined in Article 17 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other Rural Workers. Today, this right is threatened: concentration and land grabbing lead to the disappearance of farms, the increase of land prices, the devitalization of rural areas and the industrialization of practices. Land use is at the crossroads of economic, social, ecological and climatic issues in European agriculture.

There is no European framework for land governance, but many European policies have an impact on the price of land, its condition or its distribution, starting with the CAP and the allocation of subsidies according to the number of hectares. This observation is shared by the European institutions themselves: the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice attests that land is not a commodity like any other, the Parliament recognises the threats it faces and calls for a land policy that is independent of market forces alone.

So, seized by urgency, we publish today a Proposal for a European Directive on Agricultural Land. We have analyzed the state of agricultural land and concrete measures to ensure the realisation of the right to land, and we put forward a comprehensive proposal for a directive.

It is imperative the agricultural population doubles by 2040, and this directive is essential to achieve this goal. It is also a tool to support land reforms at local and national level. It is necessary that the Commission takes up the issue and includes access to land in its work plan.

La entrada Proposal for an EU Directive on Agricultural Land se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.