In October 2025, the UN Working Group on UNDROP released a comprehensive report on rural peoples’ right to participation. Far beyond being a mere procedural formality, the right to participation enshrined in the UNDROP declaration represents a fundamental pillar of democratic governance and human dignity. It enables the diverse social and ethnic constituencies of rural…
On 16 October 2025, the Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas presented its third thematic report (A/80/180) to the UN General Assembly in New York. The report delves into the right to participation of rural peoples and highlights the entrenched barriers suffered by them when it comes…
Defending Peasants’ Rights is pleased to share the Nyeleni Newsletter No. 61, which explores how the realisation of rural peoples’ rights, as enshrined in the UNDROP, is deeply connected to the advancement of collective struggles for climate justice across the world. As social movements mobilize toward Climate COP 30 and the Second International Conference on…
Ahead of the upcoming UN negotiation session (20–24 October 2025) to elaborate a legally binding treaty on transnational corporations, the UN Working Group on Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas and the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food have issued a powerful joint statement calling for “binding accountability for agribusiness to safeguard…
Image: https://www.rvasia.org/history/international-day-rural-women GENEVA – October 15, 2025 – On the International Day of Rural Women, the UN Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas issued an urgent call to action, demanding States and corporations end the systemic discrimination, violence, and economic exclusion faced by rural women worldwide. Despite…
On 18 September 2025, on the occasion of the 60th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, a parallel conference brought together actors committed to the protection of the rights of rural communities at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Entitled “Advancing the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas through…
Image: La Via Campesina Article first published in July 2025 by the Padova University Press. In this academic article, Alexandre Mortelette examines how civil society actors, primarily La Vía Campesina, CETIM and FIAN International, contributed to the co-construction of UNDROP by translating grassroots demands into international legal standards through an inclusive, participatory, and iterative process.
Defending Peasants’ Rights conducted an exclusive interview with Carlos Duarte, current Chair of the UN Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. The conversation took place during his visit to Geneva, on the occasion of the presentation to the Human Rights Council of the newly released report on…
This article was originally published on the website of La Via Campesina on 25 September 2025 (available here). Seven years after the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), the situation remains mixed: undeniable legal and political progress has been made, but violations…
For several years now, civil society‑led initiatives have sought to make alive and effective the rights recognised in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). While this historic text, adopted in 2018 thanks to a sustained international mobilisation, represents an important milestone in recognising collective…
Image: https://nyeleniglobalforum.org/ Sri Lanka is ready to host the world’s largest gathering of social movements, taking place from 6 to 13 September. The 3rd Nyéleni Forum comes at a crucial moment, as multiple overlapping crises intensify and plunge the world into more inequality, social injustice, and warfare. A historical cross-sectoral Forum Named after a legendary…
Photo: MST (Brazil) 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:…
