This article draws on the example of Brazil to illustrate the synergies and complementarities between agroecology and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP).

What do we actually mean by agroecology? In summary, one could say that agroecology is a life project: living in greater harmony with nature. However, this concept has also undergone many reinterpretations. Agroecology seems to have become fashionable worldwide, especially after Brazilian José Graziano da Silva, as Director-General of the FAO, opened ‘a window in the cathedral of the Green Revolution’ through it. What is the problem with a term being fashionable? That people try to use it for almost anything. If, for example, we start from a concept of agroecology that is reduced to science, then there is a danger of neglecting it as an agricultural practice and a social movement! We could then imagine it as something that arises more from academic activity. It thus becomes reduced to an agricultural science subject, and could also be called something else. 

For us, however, agroecology is first and foremost a farming practice. And if agroecology can be a path to food sovereignty, then we must clearly ask whether this is with or without peasants. After all, agroecology emerged in Latin America as a peasant response to the negative effects of the so-called Green Revolution. Peasants should therefore have a central role in agroecology.

The UNDROP clearly affirms the obligation of States to promote agroecological production (Article 16.4), to adopt appropriate measures for the conservation and sustainable use of land and natural resources through agroecology (Article 17.7), and to protect and promote the traditional knowledge of rural communities, particularly agroecological practices essential for conserving and sustainably using biodiversity (Article 20.2). It also upholds the right of peasants and other rural peoples to receive adequate training tailored to their specific agroecological, sociocultural, and economic contexts (Article 25.1). 

Food sovereignty – enshrined as a rural peoples’ right in Article 15.4 of UNDROP – is about food production. And agroecology is about peasants. In other words, it is about agriculture. However, agriculture should not be reduced to economics. Agriculture is also culture, i.e. agri-culture. And culture is knowledge. It is nourishment. It is history. And it is life! And this is where the problem of agricultural science comes into play. Because peasants and indigenous peoples still see the world as a whole. When a peasant grows all kinds of plants, it is also because he/she can feed himself or herself from them! It is important to realize that peasants have existed for 10,000 years and that many of them have managed to be self-sufficient!

So, if everything else goes wrong, peasants still have their own food! It is the only profession that can claim this. Or will a shoemaker eat shoes, for example? Or will a tailor eat clothes? No. Only peasants have this autonomy. But what does that mean? It should mean deciding what is produced, who produces it, who it is produced for, how it is produced (some people think that agroecology is only about the ‘how’) and why something is produced.

If we hold the answers to these five questions (i.e., what, who, for whom, how and why), then we have food sovereignty. It is local power. It is self-determination. Can agroecology help to strengthen the right of peasants and food sovereignty? Yes, it can!

I will present ten reasons why peasants and small-scale food producers should practice agroecology in Brazil and in other countries, and make links with the rights outlined in the UNDROP.

1. Agroecology reduces production costs in agriculture. We have already seen operating costs reduced by up to 40 percent in organic farming. This directly contributes to an increase in the final income of peasants, in line with their right to a decent income recognized in UNDROP’s Article 16.

2. Agroecology increases conservation of natural resources. In 1713, Hans Carl von Carlowitz wrote a book entitled ‘Sylvicultura Oeconomica’. Carlowitz believed that sustainability meant not taking more wood from a forest than it could grow back. This idea that foresters should not take more from a forest than it can regrow is the same as that of fishermen who know that they should not catch more fish than nature can replenish. This corresponds to the sustainability philosophy of most indigenous peoples!

Why is this example relevant to agroecology? Because the idea of agroforestry allows us to go beyond agroecology. I think the model that comes closest to nature is the forest. But please, not monocultures of pine or eucalyptus! Forests are diverse. And industrial agriculture cannot use natural resources sustainably. According to this model, everything should be produced as quickly and as much as possible. Nature is thus overburdened and destroyed. And what follows? Investments simply shift elsewhere. Preserving natural resources means considering water, soil and the life in the soil as essential for agriculture, which are also peasants’ rights as outlined in UNDROP’s Articles 17 (right to land), 18 (right to environment) and 21 (right to water). Every farming family wants their son, grandson and great-grandson to continue farming. So, they will not necessarily think that they are planting a tree to use it right away. In 100 years, it may be their grandchild who uses it. That is the idea behind preserving natural resources. An agriculture that is suitable for grandchildren!

3. Agroecology is able to better reward the work of people in rural areas. But how can this be achieved? First of all, the use of labour-saving agricultural technology increases the amount of non-working time, because the dependence on nature means that production time in agriculture is separate from the necessary working time. If less work is required for production but the waiting time until harvest remains the same, this creates either free time or more time for other activities. And how will farming families use this time? At the very least, production will have to be diversified. With agroecology, it is impossible to practice monoculture. The success of agroecology is therefore closely linked to the concept of multifunctionality in agriculture, which means that more can be paid for labour. Better remuneration for labour means that peasants ultimately receive more for their work. Normally they don’t even factor these costs in. But isn’t it precisely labour that creates the value of goods? And if you preserve nature, shouldn’t you be paid more for it? Yes! There are already places in the world where peasants are rewarded for this. They are remunerated by society because, for example, nature-friendly agriculture means lower costs for public health. Every community can do this. If we use fewer pesticides, if we avoid GMOs, we will have fewer health problems and lower public spending. So, yes: it is possible to better remunerate those who work with agroecology, in accordance with UNDROP’s Article 16, which protects peasants’ right to decent income and an adequate standard of living. But that requires more knowledge, and that is another challenge. The time freed up by agroecology can also be devoted to developing knowledge.

4. Agroecology is a way to optimise agricultural ecosystems. It is possible to reduce external inputs in agriculture through agroecology. With agroecology, production is increasingly local and in closed cycles with less energy waste, reducing reliance on long transport routes. This reduces the negative impact on the environment, in line with UNDROP’s Article 18. With agroecology, it is possible to reduce erosion, soil leaching and desertification.

5. Agroecology allows for increased production, which is important to realise UNDROP’s Articles 16 and 15. For example, through mixed cropping, which thrives particularly well in tropical climates. In Brazil, for example, growing corn and beans in the same field ultimately yields more than just corn. Mixed cropping produces higher yields on the same amount of land. Ecological intensification is a solution, especially in countries with limited arable land. This solution is already practiced in many places, as recognized by the FAO. That gives us an advantage. But we should be a little careful, because productivity can decline in the first few years. The balance must first be restored. It is necessary to build up humus in the soil and prioritise plants with diverse roots that allow water, air and organic matter to circulate. Then the soil will regenerate. In these first few years, governments should help peasants. Because in the short term, agroecology may lead to low productivity. But in the medium and long terms, it can actually produce more than the industrial model. There are plenty of reports from peasants in Brazil who have already proven this.

6. Young people and women are protagonists in the agroecological process. And that is very important when it comes to the rights of people in rural areas and their future. So, when we talk about peasants, we must also talk about young peasants – and especially female young peasants, in accordance with UNDROP’s Article 4 on the rights of rural women. 

7. There is another aspect of small-scale farming that is consistent with the concept of agroecology: it is the special relationship that farming families have with knowledge. Farming families exchange their discoveries, they share their knowledge, they pass it on. Instead of keeping it to themselves, peasants spread their knowledge within a community, and by doing so they realize UNDROP’s Article 26 on the right to culture and traditional knowledge. 

8. There are various ways to make the transition to agroecology, and States should take appropriate measures to ensure that their programmes and policies contribute effectively to the transition to sustainable agricultural models, as stipulated in UNDROP’s Article 16.4. Agroecology can serve as an umbrella under which various forms of agriculture are promoted – many of which we do not yet know because we have not yet made contact with many indigenous peoples who practice agriculture. This type of agriculture can be pointed out as part of what we usually call ‘agroecological’. It is a type that could be described as traditional, but it is not only that. It is also innovative. And it will help us to achieve these 10 goals that we present here, and to realize food sovereignty.

9. One important innovation we need to implement is ensuring market access (enshrined in UNDROP’s Articles 2.6e, 16.3) – along with market education (Article 25) and information (Article 11). In the past, peasants were unable to achieve this innovation on their own. But we have good examples of this in Brazil with government programmes. For example, with the school meals programme and public procurement, through which food is bought directly from local and regional peasant organizations. These initiatives led Brazil to be removed from the UN’s hunger map in 2014. However, after six years of conservative-led governments that dismantled these policies, hunger returned in alarming numbers by 2022, with over 15% of the population suffering from acute hunger – most of them in rural areas! More recently, thanks to renewed efforts by the current government, Brazil was once again removed from the hunger map in 2025.

These institutional markets support the agroecological transition. The organization between peasants and consumers also enables organic food to reach people’s tables, which is an element of food sovereignty. So, it is not just about food security, because food security can mean that someone else feeds you. Of course, if someone is starving, they should be provided with food. But that is an emergency. No one should be made dependent on it. It would be even worse to make farming families dependent on it. If we can produce, process and market food as close as possible to where it is produced, farming families will also be better nourished. And that already increases food sovereignty. When they produce for the region, it also increases the availability of local food. That is what agroecology can achieve. Food security means the availability of food in terms of quantity, quality and regularity throughout the year. But that’s not all! We must also know who will produce this food? Which types of food will be produced? With which technology? With the use of pesticides and genetic engineering, or not? Agriculture without people is not agroecology either. Agroecology is agriculture with people and for people in harmony with nature.

10. But to do this, we must use the latest scientific findings. But be careful: there are interests behind modern science. It is not value-neutral! When it comes to science that serves agroecology, we must remember that without the modern science we have had so far, the industrialisation of agriculture would not have been possible. So, it is not innocent. The science that is to serve agroecology must be different. It must be context-dependent and transdisciplinary, bringing together traditional and scientific knowledge.

This science must not be oppressive or prejudiced, and above all, it must not displace people from their land and home. We must avoid this, as well as pandemics, famines, climate crises – all of that. The real answer to this is connected to our food, the right food and food sovereignty.

Agroecology is about real food produced by peasants, organic agriculture and traditional peoples. UNDROP reinforces the multiple principles of agroecology and food sovereignty. It confirms the primacy of the rights of peasants and other rural communities, and reminds States of their obligation to respect, protect and fulfil these rights. Why is it important? Because we want humanity to continue to exist after us.

La entrada Synergies and Complementarity between Agroecology and the UNDROP: The Example of Brazil se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

The Movement for Land and Agriculture Reform (MONLAR), representing over 5,000 peasant workers in Sri Lanka, recently made a submission to the government listing out several instances of the violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, to which Sri Lanka is a signatory. They also called upon the UN Working Group on the Declaration to initiate an assessment of how the conditions of the IMF, other IFIs, and global debt architecture violate the human rights of peasants and workers. The submission, an excerpt of which is reproduced below, also reveals how global financial institutions have enforced economic reforms that transferred the burden of economic stabilization to the poorer sections of society through austerity measures.

1.65 million peasants and small-scale food producers in Sri Lanka work on less than 2 hectares each, yet produce 80% of the country’s food. But debt-driven economic policies advocated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and Asian Development Bank (ADB) have wrecked peasants’ and fishers’ autonomy in food production and their ability to ensure food sovereignty.

Through various structural adjustment programs, the International Finance Institutions (IFIs) push Sri Lanka to prioritize cash crops for exports over food for domestic consumption. Export-oriented agricultural reforms that mainstreamed capital-intensive farming have favored agribusinesses and weakened peasants and small fishers by making them dependent on the market for inputs such as seeds, fertilizer, fishing nets, and boats. As a result of the increasing cost of food production, peasants and fishers are deeply in debt, dispossessed of their land, rendered agricultural laborers on their lands, and migrating to local industrial zones or abroad as indentured workers.

The current agriculture system’s failure to create dignified livelihoods for peasants and other workers in rural areas is evident in the extremely high levels of poverty concentration in rural and plantation areas, where more than 80% of Sri Lanka’s poor live.

Sri Lanka faced one of the worst economic crises in 2022 as it defaulted on its foreign debt payments in April 2022. The economic crisis had a devastating impact on rural communities, resulting in a doubling of poverty rates. The IMF, other IFIs, and private creditors have used the crisis and the debt default to push Sri Lanka into its 17th IMF program, a 48-month Extended Fund Facility worth around 3 billion dollars.

Violation of Article 2: State Responsibility
Two days before the September 2024 presidential election, Sri Lanka was forced to sign an agreement with international creditors to restructure its debt to private lenders. This agreement, which was neither disclosed nor discussed with the public or even in the Sri Lankan Parliament, forced the country to prioritize debt payment over the rights of people in Sri Lanka. It will severely impact the government’s ability to invest in food production, development of rural livelihoods, and social security of rural communities.

Violation of Article 4: No Discrimination Against Women
Despite their contribution being neither recognized nor reflected in national policy frameworks, the involvement of peasant women in Sri Lanka’s food production is critical. Peasant women face numerous barriers that inhibit them from reaching their full potential—the lack of access and control over natural resources, markets, financial services, technology, and care responsibilities. Yet, peasant women support food production as unpaid family members, agricultural workers, or through home gardens. However, they are neither acknowledged nor given any significance in government spending at the macro level. Hence, they are excluded at two levels—as women and as small-scale food producers.

Violation of Article 15: Right to Food and Food Sovereignty
Malnutrition and undernourishment have always been serious concerns in Sri Lanka, with 32.6% of women aged 15 to 49 years found to be anemic and 15.9% of infants handicapped by low weight at birth. The situation has been worse among agriculture worker families in the plantation sector. Despite being considered an ‘agricultural’ country, Sri Lanka depends heavily on food imports. Our food security’s vulnerability is evidenced during crises such as the pandemic, geopolitical conflicts like the Ukraine-Russia War, and scarce foreign exchange.

The economic crisis in 2022 has further worsened the situation. According to the World Food Program, by January 2023, 6.3 million people, or over 30 percent of Sri Lanka’s population, were “food insecure” and needed humanitarian assistance. Of these, around 5.3 million people were either reducing or skipping meals, and at least 65,600 people were severely food insecure. An increase in VAT also drove up food inflation.

Violation of Article 16: Right to Decent Income and Livelihoods and the Means of Production
The economic reforms enforced through the 17th IMF program have transferred the burden of economic stabilization to the poorer sections of society through austerity measures. Implementation of the IMF-recommended cost-recovery energy pricing has almost tripled fuel and electricity prices, having devastating effects on the livelihoods of peasant farmers and fisheries. Taxes on equipment, seeds, and chemical inputs have increased production costs, throwing peasant farmers into poverty and indebtedness.

Indebtedness among peasants and fishers is mainly linked to expansions in capital-intensive agriculture and the proliferation of pro-profit lending by banks and finance companies such as microfinance loans. With the withdrawal of the State from the provision of agrarian credit, indebtedness has become a permanent feature in the lives of peasants, peasant women, and fishers. Suicides among the peasant farmers in the 1990s and among the peasant women after 2015 illustrate the protracted nature of indebtedness in the agrarian sector. According to national statistics in 2019, indebtedness is more prevalent in the rural and estate sectors than in the urban sector. 60.9% and 64.4% of households in the rural and estate sectors, respectively, are in debt. Vavuniya and Polonnaruwa, predominantly agricultural areas, also located near the biggest rice mills owned by private individuals, recorded the highest incidences of indebtedness, with 76.1% and 70.3% of households in debt.

Violation of Article 17: Right to Land
IFIs like the IMF and World Bank have long advocated privatizing land markets in Sri Lanka. Freehold land titles are distributed to farmers by lifting restrictions for peasants to sell their land provided by the State to outsiders, which has been a long-standing demand from these IFIs. With the ongoing IMF program, this demand has returned to the fore, with the government introducing a new program to provide freehold land titles to peasants. With the ongoing economic crisis and indebtedness among peasants, MONLAR and many other organizations fear that this move will lead to large-scale dispossession of peasants’ land.

Currently, the State does not recognize the customary right to land; hence, many peasants have lost land they have been cultivating and living on for generations. Due to the absence of tenure recognition, many communities are displaced when large-scale projects and developments come to their villages.

Even though it has been 15 years since the end of the war, large portions of land in the North are still under the occupation of the military. Minoritized communities have used these lands for generations before and during the war and hold a key place in their livelihood and culture. Some of the residents of these lands are internally displaced, while some are still living in IDP camps.

Violation of Article 24: Right to Housing
Even after 200 years, the descendants of people brought to Sri Lanka from South India as indentured workers (Malaiyaga community) in tea and rubber plantations in Sri Lanka do not own their housing and land. They were forced to live on plantation land (owned by the State and privately owned companies) in extremely low-quality housing. They lack access to land for their food production and remain vulnerable to evictions by the landowners—the plantation companies.

Recommendations to the Government of Sri Lanka

1. Immediately exit the ongoing IMF and debt restructuring agreements, as they are unfavorable and harmful. The government should negotiate new agreements that ensure the country’s sustainable economic development and the socio-economic rights of peasants, workers, and other poor and vulnerable communities.
2. Introduce the necessary reforms to the local legal and policy framework to enforce the rights enshrined in the UNDROP. Some immediate actions can include:
   • Revise the current laws regarding land, seeds, water, biodiversity, and other natural resources to ensure the rights of peasants and other workers in rural areas.
   • Codification of a new Constitution that integrates the social, economic, and cultural rights of peasants, workers, and others as fundamental human rights.
3. Recognize food sovereignty and the rights of peasants and rural workers as key priorities in its agriculture, development, and economic policy formulation.
4. Conduct an agrarian debt audit and provide debt relief, including debt cancellation.
5. Recognize women as key actors in agriculture, food production, and the rural economy. Allocate resources through national and local budgets to ensure women have access to accessible and just financial resources. The government should support the collective actions of peasant women in food production, processing, marketing, and saving systems.
6. Release all the land occupied by the military in the North and East to their original owners, and support peasants and other food producers in restarting their livelihoods in those lands.
7. Recognize and fulfill the demand by the Malaiyaga community to allocate land for their housing and food production.

MONLAR also called upon the UN Working Group on the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas to initiate an assessment of how the conditions of the IMF, other IFIs, and global debt architecture violate the human rights of peasants and workers, and also initiate a cross-country study to examine the impact of microfinance on women and rural development.

La entrada Sri Lanka: MONLAR asks the governement to reform the Law to Align with UNDROP se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

La Via Campesina and CETIM have organized a training course for La Via Campesina members in August 2023, and are now making training materials available to all. This material is also available in PDF version here.

Session 2 of the UNDROP training seminar aims to provide a general overview and analysis of the key rights of the UNDROP, those that form the backbone of the instrument. This does not mean that other rights are less important, but we have identified these “key rights” as being the most buoyant and, in a way, the most claimed: right to land and natural resources; right to food and food sovereignty; right of rural women; right to social security; right to seeds; right to the environment, water and biodiversity; right to participation; right to an adequate standard of living and means of production; economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights in the context of peasant activities.

Objective of Session 2 “Key rights”: To gain a practical understanding of the core content of the UNDROP and what these articles mean in practice for peasants in the field.

Methodology: Participants will follow a series of video training sessions on key UNDROP rights. They will also be asked to read some key documents relating to each right.

RIGHT TO FOOD SOVEREIGNTY (art.15)

• Read the definition established at the Nyeléni Forum in 2007
• Read article 15 of the UNDROP
• See video training on food sovereignty, by Elizabeth Mpofu (ZIMSOFF, Zimbabwe)

• See the video of La Via Campesina “What is food sovereignty”?

Compulsory training sheets to read:

• La Via Campesina’s Thematic Booklet “Peasants’ rights and food production”
• CETIM’s training sheet “The right to food and food sovereignty”

Complementary materials for further reading:

• FIAN International’s briefing “Right to Adequate Food and Nutrition, and to Food Sovereignty”
• Research brief from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights “The rights to food and to food sovereignty
• Report from Friends of the Earth International “The UN Declaration on the rights of peasants as a tool for promoting collective rights“

RIGHT TO LAND (art.17)

• Read article 17 of the UNDROP
• See video training on right to land, by Paola Gioia (ABL, Germany)

Compulsory training sheets to read:

• La Via Campesina’s Thematic Booklet “Access to resources and means of production” (see in particular pages 4-5-6)
• CETIM’s training sheet “The right to land and natural resources”

Complementary materials for further reading:

• FIAN International briefing “The right to land and other natural resources”
• Research brief on the right to land by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights “The right to land and other natural resources”
• CETIM’s book “Right to land”
• International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPCFS) “People’s Manual on the Guidelines on Governance of Land, Fisheries and Forests“

RIGHT TO AN ADEQUATE STANDARD OF LIVING, A DECENT LIVELIHOOD AND THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION (art.16)

• Read article 16 of the UNDROP
• See video training on this right, by Diego Monton (MNCI Somos Tierra – UTRST, Argentina)

Compulsory training sheets to read:

• La Via Campesina’s Thematic Booklets “Access to resources and means of production” (see in particular pages 9-10) and “Peasants’ Dignified Lives and Livelihoods“
• CETIM’s training sheet “The right to an adequate standard of living, a decent livelihood and the means of production”

Complementary materials for further reading:

RIGHT TO SEEDS (art.19)

• Read article 19 of the UNDROP
• See video training on right to seeds, by Christophe Golay from the Geneva Academy (Switzerland)

Compulsory training sheets to read:

• La Via Campesina’s Thematic Booklet “Access to resources and means of production” (see in particular page 8)
• CETIM’s training sheet “The right to seeds”

Complementary materials for further reading:

• FIAN International briefing “The rights to seeds and biodiversity”
• Research brief on the right to land by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights “Right to seeds and intellectual property rights”
• Research brief on the right to land by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights “The right to seeds in Africa”
• Research brief on the right to land by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights “The right to seeds in Europe”

RIGHT TO PARTICIPATION (art.10)

• Read article 10 of the UNDROP
• See video training on right to participation, by Michelle Zufferey (UNITERRE, Switzerland)

Compulsory training sheets to read:Training sheets to read:

• La Via Campesina’s Thematic Booklet “Access to resources and means of production” (see in particular page 10)
• CETIM’s training sheet “The right to participation”

RIGHTS TO THE ENVIRONEMENT, BIODIVERSITY AND WATER (art. 18, 20 and 21)

• Read articles 18, 20 and 21 of the UNDROP
• See video training on right to participation, by Morgan Ody (Confédération paysanne, France)

Compulsory training sheets to read:

• La Via Campesina’s Thematic Booklet “Access to resources and means of production” (see in particular page 8)
• CETIM’s training sheet “The right to the environement”

Complementary materials for further reading:

• FIAN International briefing “Environmental and Climat Justice”
• FIAN International briefing “Rights to water and sanitation”

RIGHTS OF RURAL WOMEN (art. 4)

• Read article 4 of the UNDROP
• See video training on right to participation, by Chengeto Zumira (ZIMSOFF, Zimbabwe)

Compulsory training sheets to read:

• La Via Campesina’s Thematic Booklets “Peasants as political subjects” and “Peasants’ Dignified Lives and Livelihoods” (see in particular pages 6-7)
• CETIM’s training sheet “Non-discrimination against rural women“

Complementary materials for further reading:

• FIAN International’s briefing “Rural Women’s Rights“

RIGHT TO SOCIAL SECURITY (art. 22)

• Read article 22 of the UNDROP
• See video training on right to participation, by Pramesh Pokharel (All Nepal Peasants Federation, Nepal)

Compulsory training sheets to read:

• La Via Campesina’s Thematic Booklet “Peasants’ Dignified Lives and Livelihoods” (see in particular pages 2-3-4)
• CETIM’s training sheet “Right to social security“

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS (art. 5, 13, 14, 21, 23, 24, 25 and 26)

• Read articles 5, 13, 14, 21, 23, 24, 25 and 26 of the UNDROP
• See video training on economic, social and cultural rights, by Melik Özden (CETIM)

Compulsory training sheets to read:

• CETIM’s training sheet “Economic, social and cultural rights“

CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (art. 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12)

• Read articles 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 of the UNDROP
• See video training on civil and political rights, by Melik Özden (CETIM) see above

Compulsory training sheets to read:

• La Via Campesina’s Thematic Booklet “Peasants as political subjects“
• CETIM’s training sheet “Civil and political rights“

La entrada TRAINING ON THE UNDROP – SESSION 2 “KEY RIGHTS OF THE UNDROP” se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

This is the third of four thematic booklets—part of the popular education materials to be used as a crucial step in reconnecting those who inspired and created United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in the Rural Areas (UNDROP). The booklet focus on how are dignified lives and livelihoods protected by UNDROP, and what are the obligations of our states, and gives examples of selected experiences by peasants from different countries. It therefore outlines the UNDROP articles that most closely relate to the peasant struggle against discrimination and towards dignified lives and livelihoods in the context of food sovereignty. These include the right to development, the right to adequate living conditions, the right to water, the right to social security, and the right to physical and mental health, among others.

The ongoing struggle against capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism threatens the dignity of peasants and other people working in rural areas. In today’s globalized world, we fight together against corrupt, right-wing governments, capitalist agribusiness and the corporate food system, and all heteropatriarchal systems of oppression.

To live a dignified life means to be valued, respected, and treated ethically no matter your age, ethnicity, gender, physical and/ or mental ability, or socioeconomic status. To protect dignity and life is a key organizing principle of food sovereignty, and was a key reason for developing the UNDROP. UNDROP elaborates on all the rights peasants require in order to live with dignity.

La entrada Thematic Booklet No. 3: “Peasants’ Dignified Lives and Livelihoods” se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

After adopting the Declaration, we are now in a new phase: implementation. It is absolutely vital to bring the Declaration to life so that peasants and other people working in rural areas can make the content their own, to use it in their daily advocacy work. For this reason, CETIM, alongside La Via Campesina, organizes seminars aimed at peasant leaders. These courses allow them to consolidate their practices, advocacy strategies and other projects linked to the Declaration. Through this type of training, we are striving for a multiplier effect. Once the leaders have been trained, they disseminate their knowledge to their members, to other peasants and allies. The aim in the long term is for everyone to have access to this crucial knowledge.

Training sheets

The twelve fact sheets have been produced in a spirit of popularisation of the content and scope of the rights contained in the Declaration. Produced in several languages in an A5 format, the sheets explain in an accessible way one or a series of rights of the Declaration grouped by theme:

1. Introduction of the UNDROP
2. Right to land
3. Right to seeds
4. Right to food and food sovereignty
5. Right to an adequate standard of living, a decent livelihood and to means of production
6. Non-discrimination against rural women
7. Right to participation
8. Right to the environment
9. Right to social security
10. Economic, social and cultural rights
11. Civil and political rights
12. Strategies for implementation

La entrada Training sheets on peasants’ rights se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.