The seed is the first link in every food chain. However, what for millennia was a common good safeguarded by farming communities is today at the centre of a global dispute between human rights, food sovereignty and intellectual property.

A new report presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council argues that the international governance of seeds is increasingly shifting towards commodification, corporate concentration and the criminalisation of ancestral practices such as saving, exchanging or selling farmers’ seeds.

The document, entitled The Right to Seeds: Custodianship, Enclosure and Resistance, was prepared by the Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas. It was presented by Shamlali Guttal, Chair of the Working Group, who also presented the report on the official visit to Ghana carried out from 5 to 14 May 2026.

The diagnosis is unequivocal: seeds are progressively being transformed from biocultural heritage into commodities subject to intellectual property regimes, commercial certification and corporate control.

From common good to private property

The report identifies two opposing models. The first views seeds as common goods that underpin food sovereignty, biodiversity and the collective rights of rural peoples. The second regards them as economic assets subject to patents, plant breeders’ rights and global trade rules.

According to the Working Group, the balance between the two visions has clearly shifted in favour of the latter.

During the presentation of the report, Shamlali Guttal recalled that seeds are not simply commodities for peasants and Indigenous peoples.

“Seeds are the beginning of every meal, the memory of every harvest and the hope of future life. They are a living heritage, developed over generations through selection, exchange and adaptation to different soils, ecosystems and climates”.

Guttal also stressed that Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants recognises the right of peasants to save, use, control, protect and develop their own seeds. Consequently, States have an obligation to respect, protect and fulfil that right.

International rules on intellectual property, trade agreements and certification systems have imposed growing restrictions on those who save, exchange or sell seeds outside commercial circuits. What for centuries constituted an ordinary farming practice is beginning to be treated as a legal infringement in numerous countries.

The concentration of the global market

The privatisation of seeds is advancing alongside an unprecedented concentration of the industry. The report states that four companies — Bayer, Corteva, Syngenta and BASF — control more than half of the global commercial seed market.

This concentration does not only affect prices. It also directs genetic research, shapes agricultural policies and favours homogeneous varieties designed for intensive agricultural systems dependent on fertilisers and pesticides.

This erodes agricultural diversity and increases farmers’ dependence on large companies supplying seeds and inputs.

In response to this trend, the report highlights the importance of seed systems managed by farmers themselves. In some regions of Africa and Asia, these systems provide up to 90% of the seeds used for food crops.

During her intervention, Guttal explained that these traditional systems are the main reservoir of agricultural genetic diversity and constitute a fundamental basis for food sovereignty and resilience in the face of climate change.

The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture recognises farmers’ rights and establishes a multilateral system for access and benefit-sharing. However, the Working Group warned that these commitments are implemented unevenly and that resources allocated to the benefit-sharing fund remain insufficient.

When saving seeds becomes a crime

One of the most alarming aspects of the report is its description of a growing process of criminalisation of traditional seed-related practices.

In different countries, farmers have faced legal proceedings for exchanging, reusing or selling planting material saved on their farms. The report documents cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe, with sanctions including heavy fines and even prison sentences.

Plant variety protection regimes, particularly those inspired by the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention, expand breeders’ exclusive rights over reproductive material. In some countries, restrictions may extend to practices as commonplace as saving seeds from one harvest for use in the next.

The document also warns of the growing use of surveillance technologies, genetic markers, drones and satellite imagery to detect alleged infringements involving protected seeds.

For the Working Group, there is an obvious paradox: while peasant systems continue to provide between 70% and 90% of the seeds used in numerous countries, it is precisely these systems that face the greatest legal restrictions.

Guttal also warned about the expansion of patents on genetic sequences and the use of information obtained from digital databases.

“Genetic sequences can be registered or patented without the physical seed having been used. This practice may allow genetic resources to be used without respecting benefit-sharing obligations”.

The invisible custodians

The report pays particular attention to the role of rural women. It identifies them as the main custodians of genetic diversity and as responsible for the selection, conservation and transmission of knowledge about seeds in much of the world.

However, agricultural policies and regulatory frameworks often render this contribution invisible. The privatisation of seeds and the imposition of certification systems disproportionately affect women, as they restrict practices that are fundamental to their economic and food autonomy.

The erosion of traditional systems does not only entail the loss of biodiversity. It also reduces the scope for action of those who have historically sustained food security at local level.

For this reason, the Working Group calls on States to guarantee equality for rural women in seed governance through secure land tenure, effective representation in decision-making bodies and recognition of their traditional knowledge and their role as the principal custodians of seeds.

Biodiversity under threat

For the UN, the dispute over seeds is inseparable from the global ecological crisis. The accelerating loss of plant genetic diversity is emerging as one of the most concerning signs of contemporary industrial agriculture.

The report states that approximately three quarters of crop genetic diversity was lost during the 20th century, as local varieties, adapted to their territories, were replaced by an increasingly limited number of commercial varieties.

The expansion of genetically modified organisms and new gene-editing technologies also increases the risks of genetic contamination and private appropriation of resources historically developed by farming and Indigenous communities.

The document records cases of contamination of native maize and cotton varieties with unauthorised genetically modified material in Latin America. It also reports lawsuits against farmers who had not knowingly planted patented seeds, but whose fields contained plants originating from such material.

The report also warns of new forms of biopiracy associated with the digitisation of genetic sequences. Thanks to these technologies, companies and institutions can register and patent biological characteristics derived from traditional varieties without physically accessing the original seeds.

This practice weakens benefit-sharing mechanisms and may facilitate the appropriation of knowledge developed by farming and Indigenous communities.

For this reason, Guttal called for new genomic techniques to be subjected to independent risk assessments and traceability and labelling requirements before any deregulation process.

Seeds, territory and conflicts

The defence of seeds cannot be separated from the defence of land. The report stresses that traditional systems depend on living territories where communities can cultivate, exchange and pass on knowledge between generations.

For this reason, forced displacement, land grabs, large-scale agribusiness projects, armed conflicts and environmental degradation constitute direct threats to the right to seeds.

The loss of territories also means the loss of knowledge, locally adapted varieties and community exchange networks that underpin the resilience of food systems.

In this regard, the Working Group recommended that, in situations of armed conflict, occupation or other crises, farmers’ seeds and related infrastructure be recognised as civilian assets essential to the survival of the population.

Peasant resistance and judicial victories

In response to these trends, the document records numerous experiences of resistance. Cooperatives, community seed banks, seed-exchange fairs and participatory plant-breeding programmes continue to sustain an essential part of global agricultural biodiversity.

Guttal stressed that these initiatives should not be treated as marginal activities, but as public goods deserving the same support as formal seed-breeding programmes.

The Working Group also highlights several legal and policy experiences. Among them is the African Model Legislation for the Protection of the Rights of Local Communities, Farmers and Breeders, developed through the ARIPO Arusha Protocol, which offers a human-rights-compatible alternative to the 1991 UPOV model.

Indian legislation expressly protects farmers’ right to save, use, exchange and sell seeds saved on their farms, alongside breeders’ rights.

In Brazil, the Food Acquisition Programme directs public procurement towards traditional and agroecological seeds.

The report also records several judicial victories. In 2021, the Supreme Court of Honduras declared the national plant variety protection law unconstitutional, invoking Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants.

In Kenya, both the Supreme Court and the High Court have recognised the constitutional protection of customary farming practices involving the exchange of seeds. In November 2025, the High Court held that “sharing seeds is not a crime”, a decision whose significance, according to the Working Group, extends beyond the country’s borders.

These experiences show that another form of seed governance is possible, based on human rights, food sovereignty and the conservation of biodiversity.

A dispute over the future of food

Beyond the agricultural question, the report raises a fundamental political question: who controls the resources that make food production possible?

The Working Group’s conclusion is unequivocal. Seeds cannot be reduced to simple commodities. They constitute the material basis of fundamental rights such as food, health, culture and a healthy environment.

Treating them exclusively as objects of private property not only threatens biodiversity and food sovereignty, but also deepens the economic dependence of millions of farmers around the world.

For this reason, the Working Group urges States to recognise and protect peasant seed systems, strengthen agroecology and guarantee the right of rural communities to save, exchange, develop and sell their own seeds.

In the words of Shamlali Guttal, protecting seeds also means protecting the communities that have cared for them for generations: their rights, their territories, their knowledge and their ability to cope with climate change and other crises.

In other words, returning seeds to their original status: the living heritage of peoples rather than a commodity of the markets.

La entrada Seeds Under Lock and Key: UN Experts Denounce the Privatisation of Peasant Life se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

(Geneva, 16 September 2026) — La Via Campesina, supported by CETIM and FIAN International, is in Geneva from 12 to 19 September to participate in the 63rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC), which is taking place from 7 September to 7 October 2026.

This 63rd session is particularly important for us, as peasants, because UN Member States will consider the renewal of the mandate of the Working Group of Experts on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. The Working Group’s three-year mandate, established in 2023, is coming to an end in October.

It is therefore crucial that the Member States of the Human Rights Council support and vote in favour of renewing the mandate.

Why is UNDROP important to us?

UNDROP is very important to us because we fought for its adoption to protect the rights and role of peasants and other people working in rural areas. They are the people who feed populations, preserve biodiversity, protect ecosystems, and sustain local economies and cultures.

UNDROP provides an internationally recognised human rights framework that supports measures such as comprehensive agrarian reform, the protection and strengthening of traditional seed systems, and the promotion of local food production. It strengthens the legitimacy of States in adopting policies that protect peasants and support food sovereignty.

The Declaration is also an important voice for countries and communities whose economies remain largely rural.

As Elizabeth Mpofu, a peasant farmer from Zimbabwe, explains:

“Rural communities and peasants produce more than 80% of the food we consume. Not only that, we, particularly women, are the backbone of local food markets, supplying a diversity of foods that does not come from supermarkets or stores. This frees our governments to focus on other urgent social, physical and economic development needs. Through our peasant seed systems, we have created vibrant rural economies, generated employment for millions of people, and educated our children.

My story is the story of billions of rural women who play an important role in the social reproduction of labour and in fighting hunger, malnutrition, unemployment and poverty around the world.”

Our mission in Geneva

Our mission here is to keep up the advocacy work we began almost thirty years ago when we launched this process of recognizing the rights of peasants at the international level.

The LVC delegation will meet with and engage the missions of UN HRC Member States, advocating for the renewal of the mandate of the Working Group of Experts on UNDROP.

The Working Group is essential to ensuring continuity in international efforts to advance the implementation of UNDROP. It supports dialogue, cooperation and capacity-building among States, independent experts and UNDROP rights holders.

The Working Group also ensures that the realities and struggles of peasants and other people working in rural areas continue to be represented within the UN system. Its work strengthens the struggle for peoples’ food sovereignty.

Defending the Right to Seeds

While in Geneva, LVC delegates will participate in and contribute to a Side Event and a Public Conference on the Right to Seeds. These events will take place following the presentation of the UNDROP Working Group’s report on the Right to Seeds to the UN Human Rights Council today.

The Right to Seed report can be accessed here

The Right to Seeds is central to the struggle for peasant rights, food sovereignty and agroecology. Peasant seed systems, built through generations of knowledge, exchange and collective stewardship, are essential for protecting biodiversity, sustaining local food systems and strengthening the autonomy of rural communities.

For La Via Campesina, renewing the mandate of the Working Group is not simply about maintaining a UN mechanism. It is about ensuring that the voices, rights and struggles of peasants remain visible and recognised within the international human rights system.

Globalise the Struggle! Globalise Hope!

La entrada LVC Calls on the UN Human Rights Council to Renew the Mandate of the Working Group of Experts on UNDROP se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

Purpose:To inform the Working Group on the rights of peasants for their visit to Paraguay

Deadline: 14 September 2026

Background

The Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas, established pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 54/9, will conduct a country visit to Paraguay from 16 to 27 November 2026, at the invitation of the Government of Paraguay.

The visit will make an independent, impartial and objective assessment of the progress made in the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas (UNDROP) in Paraguay. The Working Group will issue a detailed end of mission statement on 27 November 2026 and present a final report the UN Human Rights Council in 2027.

The Working Group invites individuals and organizations, including peasants, small-scale fishers, rural workers, civil society organizations, activists, and academics, to share information on the issues below to help prepare for the visit.

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

All submissions are welcome. The questions below are a guide, not an exhaustive list. Please answer only those most relevant to your life, work or experience.

1. What progress has Paraguay made in protecting the rights of peasants, rural communities and rural workers? Please share good practices, laws, or policies.
2. What are the main challenges to implementing UNDROP and protecting the rights of peasants and rural workers in Paraguay? What lessons learned can you share?
3. What legislative, judicial, administrative, or policy measures has Paraguay adopted, or failed to adopt, to realize the rights of peasants and rural workers as laid out in UNDROP? Are there any measures you consider progressive or regressive?
4. What are social, economic, political and environmental challenges that affect peasant communities, Indigenous peoples, and rural workers?
5. What are the main trends and actors that have influence over the livelihoods of peasants and rural workers, as well as over their access to land, water, and natural and productive resources?
6. What issues specifically affect rural women and girls?
7. What challenges do workers engaged in agriculture, aquaculture, forestry and artisanal fishers face in Paraguay?
8. Which locations, organizations, or communities should the Working Group visit to see these issues first-hand?
9. Please share any relevant reports, research, or other documents.

How inputs will be used?

The Working Group greatly appreciates the effort that goes into making such contributions and looks forward to reviewing all submissions.

Please feel free to circulate this call for inputs widely in your networks.

Confidentiality of inputs

All submissions received will be published on our website unless requested otherwise, and will inform the preparation of the country visit and the consequent report.

La entrada Call for input – Working Group on UNDROP visits Paraguay se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

La entrada The Growing Centrality of UNDROP in the International Governance of the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

Engaging UNDROP’s rights holders in the next thematic report of the Working Group

Defending Peasants’ Rights continues to collaborate closely with the experts from the UN Working Group on UNDROP. In March 2026, we organised an online dialogue with the former chair of the Working Group, Carlos Duarte, gathering UNDROP’s rights holders from all over the world to provide direct input to the Working Group’s upcoming thematic report on Rural Territories on Land and Sea.

This report, due to be presented to the UN General Assembly in New York in the second term of 2026, will examine how violations related to land, water, and forests impact the dignity, stability, and livelihoods of peasants and rural workers worldwide. Inputs from rights holders and their representative movements and organisations were key to ground the report on the lived realities and struggles of peoples working in rural and water territories, who face multiple forms violations and threats as green- and blue-grabbing practices advance in a world increasingly controlled by private capital and transnational corporations.This discussion took place following the official Call for inputs released by the WG, which gathered many contributions. See them here.

The UN Working Group on UNDROP concludes its official visit to Ghana

The Working Group conducted its first official country visit since the start of its mandate, undertaking a ten-day mission to Ghana. During the visit, the experts met with a wide range of UNDROP’s rights holders, including smallholder farmers, artisanal fishers and pastoralists, as well as public authorities and varied civil society representatives. While noting important legislative and policy advances, they highlighted ongoing challenges related to land access, poverty, exclusion, environmental degradation and limited access to finance and markets.

The Working Group stressed the need for stronger implementation of existing laws and policies to ensure that Ghana’s agricultural transformation benefits rural communities and fully reflects the rights recognised in UNDROP.

Read the end of the mission statement with preliminary findings here.

Two new subcategories have been added to the website. Check them out!  

New category on UNDROP’s Rights Holders

UNDROP recognises a wide range of rural constituencies as its rights holders, which allows diverse rural groups that often face marginalisation and multiple human rights violations to use UNDROP as a legal and political tool to protect their fundamental rights at the national, regional, and international levels. This new subcategory aims not only to highlight the plurality of UNDROP’s rights holders, but also to provide guidance on the interpretation of the definition of “peasants and other people working in rural areas” contained in Article 1 of the Declaration. It includes insightful contributions from Shalmali Guttal, Chairperson of the UN Working Group on UNDROP, as well as from rights holders themselves, who participated in an online roundtable held during our 2025 public webinar.

Click here to access the new Rights Holders subcategory on Defending Peasants’ Rights

National Laws and Policies

The appropriation and mobilisation of UNDROP by rural movements and organisations have increasingly yielded important victories at the legislative and policy levels across different countries, especially in South America. This new subcategory serves to gather the main legislative and policy advancements obtained as a result of political advocacy led by rural constituencies and allies, aimed at creating or amending national legal frameworks that protect the rights of peasants, fisher peoples, nomads, and pastoralists, as well as other rights holders, in light of UNDROP’s provisions.

In recent years, we have witnessed a growing influence of UNDROP in shaping laws and policies at national level, thanks to the mobilisation of rural movements that give life to this legal instrument in their struggles. These victories not only help safeguard the rights of rural peoples, but also contribute to emerging practices that can guide future legislative and policy developments in favour of the rights of those who live and work in rural areas.

Click here to access the new National Laws and Policies subcategory on Defending Peasants’ Rights

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La entrada Defending Peasants’ Rights – Newsletter n°10 se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

Cuba’s experience demonstrates that the principles and provisions enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) can be translated into concrete public policies, legal frameworks, and initiatives aimed at guaranteeing and promoting the rights of peasant communities. This report highlights the progress achieved and the main initiatives developed in this regard, underscoring the commitment of the State and of rights holders themselves to the promotion and protection of peasant rights.

This experience also constitutes a valuable reference for other countries and contexts. It demonstrates that, even under conditions of vulnerability resulting from an ongoing imperialist offensive, and in the face of enormous challenges caused by external economic warfare, it is possible to advance the implementation of the rights recognized in the UNDROP when there is political will, a supportive institutional framework, and the active participation and mobilization of grassroots organizations and communities.

Beyond its national particularities, the Cuban case offers lessons and inspiration for other countries seeking to strengthen their public policies and legal frameworks in support of the rights of people living and working in rural areas.

See the full report below:

La entrada Report on the Promotion and Implementation of the UNDROP in Cuba se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

In wake of the recently approved “Law For The Strengthening And Protection Of The Agro-Industrial Sector, Energy Projects, Tourism, Livestock, And Small Agricultural Producers Of Honduras” promoting and protecting agribusiness, 1000 eviction orders of peasant communities have been ordered. This law compounds on existing violence, criminalization and intimidation of many peasant groups who have been fighting for their historic right to land and food and food sovereignty including for example the massacre that occurred on 21 May, 2026 in the community of Rigores, Colon that resulted in the deaths of 20 peasants.

Defending Peasants Rights extends its solidarity with the peoples and communities of Honduras, especially the peasant, Indigenous and Afrodescendant organizations that are currently facing evictions and other attacks. We also uphold these organization’s demands for access to justice at the local, national and international levels, and we call for the rights enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas to be protected and respected.

We invite you to read the statements prepared by La Via Campesina Honduras about these recent events:

Honduras: Peasant Organizations Denounce 1,000 Eviction Orders: https://viacampesina.org/en/2026/07/honduras-peasant-organizations-denounce-1000-eviction-orders/

La Vía Campesina Honduras denounces the massacre of peasants in the community of Colón: https://viacampesina.org/en/2026/05/la-via-campesina-honduras-denounces-the-massacre-of-peasants-in-the-community-of-colon/

La entrada Peasant, Indigenous and Afrodescendant communities under attack in Honduras se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

Please join us on 17 September at 1:00 pm in Room XI at Palais des Nations (Geneva) for a rich and engaging discussion bringing together perspectives from different regions on:

“Our seeds, our rights, our future : Resisting the criminalization of peasant seeds and putting peasant seed systems at the heart of food system transformation”

We warmly encourage you to share this invitation with your networks and contacts.

Looking forward to seeing you there and to a fruitful exchange!

La entrada Our seeds, our rights, our future: Resisting the Criminalization of Peasant Seeds se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

La entrada The Future of the Fisheries: a press forum for journalists and storytellers se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

*Image: El mundo campesino. Elena Rusca

By Elena Rusca, June 25th, 2026

Interview with Geneviève Savigny, a member of the UN Working Group on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP)

Geneva, June 25th, 2026 — Elena Rusca

As food, climate, and geopolitical crises intensify, small-scale farmers—who feed the majority of humanity—remain among those most vulnerable to poverty, dispossession, and violence. Since 2018, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP) has provided an unprecedented framework for protecting their collective rights, their seeds, their lands, and their knowledge. But its implementation remains fragile. Geneviève Savigny, a member of the Working Group on the UNDROP, analyzes the agricultural, seed-related, and political challenges facing the world’s rural areas today—from West Africa to Latin America.

UNDROP: A Historic Text Born of Peasants’ Struggles

Adopted in 2018 by the United Nations General Assembly, the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas is one of the most ambitious instruments of the international system. The result of nearly twenty years of mobilization led by La Vía Campesina, it seeks to protect those who produce most of the world’s food but who remain the most vulnerable to poverty, expropriation, violence, and political marginalization.

UNDROP recognizes rights that are rarely explicitly stated in other international texts:

• the right to land,
• the right to seeds,
• the right to water,
• protection against evictions,
• participation in decision-making,
• collective and customary rights,
• and the recognition of peasant knowledge.

To ensure its implementation, the Human Rights Council established a Working Group in 2023 composed of five independent experts. Geneviève Savigny, a farmer and former member of the Peasants’ Confederation and La Vía Campesina, is a member of the group.

An international working group to defend the rights of peasants

— How was your working group formed?

G. Savigny: “The working group was formed by the Human Rights Council after a resolution was adopted in the fall of 2023. We were selected during the winter, and there are five of us. Personally, I am a farmer and a former member of the Peasants’ Confederation and La Vía Campesina. The others are Carlos, an anthropologist and professor in Colombia; David, a law professor in Armenia; Shalmalee, former director of the NGO Focus on Global South; and Uche, a Nigerian law professor working in the United States.”

— How do you work, specifically?

G. Savigny: “Our group holds two annual five-day in-person sessions, usually one in Geneva and another in New York. This year, we decided to replace the second session with country visits. We just completed a visit to Ghana, and another is scheduled for November in Paraguay. Each time, two members of the group go, along with our staff.”

— What do you do during these visits?

G. Savigny: “We meet with representatives from various ministries related to agriculture and food, and then with representatives of farmers, fishermen, herders, and rural women. In Ghana, the meetings had to be arranged through the government or local authorities so we could meet with village chiefs. The goal is to understand how farmers’ rights are being implemented, what the strengths are, and what can be improved. We then draft a report that will be presented in the fall.”

Participation: An Essential Right, Yet Difficult to Exercise

— You published a report on the right to participation. What were your conclusions?

G. Savigny: “Participation is truly indispensable for ensuring that the situation of rural men and women is taken into account and addressed appropriately. But there is still much to be done, including for practical reasons: translation, distance, and the difficulties of traveling to centers of power.

As for women, there is a particular challenge in freeing themselves from domestic chores and daily work in order to participate in decisions that affect them. This adds an extra layer of difficulty in a rural world where work is very demanding and often isolating.”

Seeds: A Crucial Challenge in the Face of Multinationals

— This year you are working on the right to seeds. Why is this so important?

G. Savigny: “Article 19 of the UNDROP specifies that farmers must have the right to maintain farmer-based seed systems: to save, reproduce, exchange, and sell seeds. The state must also support the existence of this system. This is not always the case, as there is a very dynamic, even aggressive commercial system in place, depending on how you look at it.”

— Do GMOs play a role in this issue?

G. Savigny: “Yes, of course. With technological advances, we now have much easier and faster ways to create GMOs. To facilitate their distribution and commercialization, seed companies no longer want them to be called GMOs, but rather NGT—New Genomic Techniques. They want it to be recognized that these traits could occur naturally, so there would be no need to label them.

But there are patents filed on them! And there is a fear that patented traits—which are not labeled—might appear naturally in farmers’ plants that they have been selecting for years.”

— What does this mean for farmers?

G. Savigny: “The patent on the CRISPR-Cas system, for example, belongs to a single company. There is an ever-increasing concentration of rights that determine whether or not seeds can be multiplied. In response to this, many seed laws impose strict rules for the certification and commercialization of seeds, which contradicts farmers’ right to seeds.

Farmers must assert this right, and governments must realize that—even for the sake of biodiversity and plant resilience—the small-scale breeding carried out by local farmers must not be halted. There is an entire system that must be preserved if we want to maintain significant biodiversity and crop diversity.”

Land and Territory: Collective Rights Yet to Be Recognized

— They are also working on the issue of land. What is the main challenge?

G. Savigny: “We’re working on Article 17 of the declaration, which addresses the rights to land and territory. Interestingly, UNDROP highlights the importance of collective and customary rights. This is important because that’s where the problem lies in many places: since there are no clear property titles, the situation becomes informal.”

— And in Switzerland, how do you view access to land?

G. Savigny: “I believe the right to land serves to illuminate new paths. Secure access to land is needed, not necessarily ownership. I hope that in Switzerland we can develop leasing arrangements or forms of collective ownership that provide security for those who cultivate the land.

There’s a major problem: an entire generation is reaching the end of their working lives with meager pensions and few resources. Sometimes they don’t want to pass the land on to younger people. It’s a widespread social problem. If we want high-quality food production, we must also solve the problem of access to land.

Buying land is prohibitively expensive. And we have to be careful because in some countries, even in Europe, it’s corporations that are buying up the land.”

Latin America: A “Peasantization” Under Attack but Essential

— For our Chilean readers, what is your perspective on “peasantization” in Latin America?

G. Savigny: “In Latin America, I believe ‘peasantization’ is essential. Together with indigenous peoples, they form the core of an agricultural sector that is, at the same time, under intense attack from the rise of highly intensive industrial agriculture.

This is reinforced by free trade agreements aimed at increasing exports of products and raw materials. What the farmers there say is that this does not serve to protect them.

It’s a region I don’t know perfectly well, but it seems so rich and diverse. From a cultural standpoint, it is rural and indigenous. In Latin America, artisanal production methods remain very important. Food quality also comes from being able to eat fresh vegetables everywhere.”

— Is it also a struggle against transnational corporations?

G. Savigny: “Of course. Small farmers must be supported; transnational corporations must be held in check, because they have a natural tendency—I think it’s even their business model—to expand, consolidate, and maximize profits. But there must be limits, because otherwise, it’s destructive both environmentally and socially.”

The UN’s “special procedures”: explaining the mandate

— Can you explain what the special procedures are?

G. Savigny: “Working groups are part of the special procedures, as are special rapporteurs. They focus on a particular aspect of human rights, such as the right to food or the right to water. We are a working group: instead of a single special rapporteur, there are five of us, which reflects the diversity and breadth of the issue.

Our role is to implement the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, the UNDROP. It is a text adopted in 2018 by the UN General Assembly that comprises twenty-eight articles summarizing the rights necessary for peasant activities.

It defines what constitutes a peasant, the obligations of States, non-discrimination, women’s rights, the right to resources, the right to participation, to information, to education, and so on—all detailed in a manner tailored to the rural context.”

The Working Group will present its reports on land and seeds this coming September in Geneva. These documents, which will be submitted to the UN General Assembly, should shed crucial light on the issue.

La entrada Without land, without seeds, there is no future for farmers se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

More than a commemorative gathering, the webinar provided a space for exchange between peasant and rural organisations as well as social movements working in diverse contexts across Asia and Africa. It focused on sharing lived experiences of struggle and resistance, while also examining how ongoing geopolitical and geoeconomic shifts are affecting rural communities. Contributors included members of La Via Campesina and partner organisations such as SPI (Indonesia), CBOP (Burkina Faso), MONLAR (Sri Lanka), CAJF (Sudan), and PKRC (Pakistan). The event also featured the participation of Shalmali Guttal, expert member of the UN Working Group on UNDROP for the Asian region.

Watch the full webinar below (conducted in a multilingual format, with participants speaking in English, Bahasa Indonesia, or French) :

La entrada International webinar – Reinvigorating the Bandung Spirit to Strengthen Global South Solidarity se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

Ghana: Rural transformation risks leaving peasants behind, political will needed to move forward, say UN experts

ACCRA – Ghana stands on the cusp of an agricultural transformation, but there is an urgent need to ensure small-holder farmers, artisanal fishers, and pastoralists are not left behind through the country’s implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), the Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas said in a statement today.

“Ghana has a robust human rights framework and has demonstrated genuine willingness to engage with its commitments through the Fisheries and Aquaculture Act 2025, the Social Protection Act 2025, the Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Act 2024, and the ratification of ILO Work in Fishing Convention (No. 188),” the Working Group said in a statement at the conclusion of their official visit to the country.

“However, there is a persistent gap between the law and policy and their meaningful implementation on the ground. Small-holder farmers, artisanal fishers and pastoralists, who constitute the actual backbone of food production, continue to suffer from poverty and exclusion,” they said.

The experts warned that the government’s drive toward mechanised, export-oriented agriculture risks entrenching a dual food system. This model heavily serves large-scale, input-intensive commercial agriculture, while the family-based agrarian sector is left increasingly marginalised.

Land tenure insecurity is an ongoing challenge, as the country’s dual tenure system exposes subsistence farmers to sudden dispossession with limited legal recourse.

“Women, youth and elderly farmers face compounded disadvantages within both statutory and customary systems. Despite their critical roles throughout farming and fishing, and despite strong legal protections, women remain excluded from land ownership and decision-making due to deeply entrenched social norms,” they added.

Ghana is simultaneously confronting a severe environmental emergency fuelled by illegal gold mining, or “galamsey”.

“Galamsey is the most acute, rapidly expanding and politically charged environmental emergency facing the country. The contamination of rivers, destruction of farmland and the spread of heavy-metal contamination reach far beyond mining sites,” the experts said. Sustained by powerful interests, it has become a national security, food and nutrition security, and public health emergency intertwined with elite capture.

The experts also highlighted the deep, multi-dimensional exclusion of pastoralists.

“Their nomadic way of life renders them structurally invisible to governance systems designed around settled tenure. Many in Fulbe communities face barriers to citizenship documentation, effectively placing them outside the reach of any legal protection framework.”

The erosion of grazing pastures, worsened by climate pressure and agricultural expansion, is generating an escalating cycle of conflict between pastoralists and settled farmers.

Economic barriers such as intermediary dominance, poor rural road infrastructure, and an absence of cold-chain facilities lead to catastrophic post-harvest losses, which are compounded by climate change shocks. Smallholder farmers and artisanal fishers are additionally excluded from finance by their inability to provide conventional collateral.

“The policy and legislative framework that Ghana has assembled constitutes a strong foundation that commands respect for human rights. Yet implementing laws to address all these issues demands genuine political courage that challenges entrenched interests, and a commitment to deeper social norm change without which legal frameworks remain aspirational,” the experts said. UNDROP calls for nothing less, on behalf of peasant farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists and other rural workers.

The Working Group will present a report on the visit including findings and recommendations to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2026.

See the End of Mission Statement on the country visit to Ghana below:

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).

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 – Ghana

For inquiries and media requests, please contact: Cynthia Prah (prah@un.org) Public Information Officer in Accra, or Stee Asbjornsen (stee.asbjornsen@un.org) in Geneva.

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

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