Side-event: Implementing the Right to Food Guidelines and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants in Africa and Europe: A Civil Society Perspective

The Voluntary Guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to food in the context of national food security (Right to Food Guidelines) were adopted 20 years ago, and the CFS52 in October 2024 will take stock of their implementation. This side-event of the United Nations Committee on World Food Security in Rome will bring civil society voices from Africa and Europe to discuss the implementation of the Right to Food Guidelines and of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). The realization of the right to food is closely linked to the rights to land, seeds, food sovereignty and participation enshrined in UNDROP. We will discuss struggles and successes of peasants, pastoralists, Indigenous Peoples and civil society organizations in promoting these rights in Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Switzerland and the European Union.

Programme

Keynote by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri

Panel with local experts (30min), introduced by Christa Suter, Fastenaktion and RAISE

• Julliet Ogubi, Cemiride, on the rights of indigenous peoples and pastoralists in Kenya
• Tunsume Mwaibasa, Welthungerhilfe, on the right to food in Malawi
• Lungisa Huna, Rural Women Assembly, on peasant women’s rights in South Africa
• Paula Gioia, European Coordination Via Campesina, on peasants’ rights in Europe
• Christophe Golay, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, on the right to food and UNDROP in Switzerland and on the European citizen initiative on the right to food

Discussion with the public (30min) led by Jody Harris, co-drafter of the HLPEreport#18 on reducing inequalities for food security and nutrition

Conclusion by the Chair of the UN Working Group on UNDROP, Geneviève Savigny (online)

Organizers: Governements of Switzerland and Germany; Fastenaktion and RAISE; People-Centred Food Systems project at Columbia University; UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food; Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights; FAO Right to Food Team; FIAN International; European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC); The Rural Women’s Assembly; Centre for minority rights (CEMIRIDE); VSF-Suisse; Welthungerhilfe; Mater Fondazione.

You can participate in this event online, or in-person if you attend the CFS 52. In both cases, please register here.