La Via Campesina releases its position document on wars around the world, in the framework of the 30th anniversary of the International Day of Peasant Struggles.

Bagnolet, April 17, 2026 | Today marks 30 years since the Eldorado dos Carajás massacre, a tragic event that became a milestone within La Vía Campesina, where landless peasants in Brazil were killed by federal police for defending their right to agrarian reform. Kilometers away and 30 years after what happened, the world continues to bleed innocent peoples and families in an increasingly critical scenario marked by the pressure of imperial power and geopolitical tensions.

Commemorating the International Day of Peasant Struggles, our movement presents the position document: Food Sovereignty in the Face of War, Imperialism, and the Hunger of Peoples Around the World, a document that addresses key elements to understand the impact of wars and imperial power on the food sovereignty of peoples. The document has considered important figures provided by reports from the FAO Committee on Fisheries through its report on The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI), the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), among others, regarding global conflicts and their impacts on food systems in affected countries.

“We are living in an era of unprecedented convergence of crises. Never in recent history have so many armed conflicts erupted simultaneously across so many continents. The wars in Gaza, Lebanon, Mali, Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, Myanmar, the Sahel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Syria are not isolated tragedies. They are symptomatic eruptions of a single structurally ill global system, built on the logic of endless capital accumulation, structural racism, escalating geopolitical power tensions, resource extraction, and imperial neo-colonialist domination.”

La Via Campesina, as a movement where peasant organizations converge at the global level, has reflected on this and has constantly denounced the use of hunger as a weapon of war and the business behind it. With destruction and military occupation, the economies of the United States, Israel, and many countries of the Global North benefit; promoting ongoing genocides and carrying out an incalculable number of human rights violations and crimes against humanity, at risk of going unpunished, where women and children are the most vulnerable.

We invite our member organizations and allied organizations to study and share the document as a popular educational tool and as a contribution from the global peasantry in its own voice.

United against imperialism, neocolonialism, the criminalization of our struggles, and the dispossession of our territories!

La entrada Food Sovereignty in the Face of War, Imperialism, and the Hunger of Peoples Around the World se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

Peasants, fisherpeople, pastoralists, herders, Indigenous peoples, rural workers and rural peoples are central actors in transforming food systems and building pathways toward global food sovereignty. Safeguarding their rights is therefore key for the future of humanity and a sustainable planet.

A fundamental tool to protect their rights is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas – UNDROP. It provides a robust framework to guide public policies, laws, and programmes that uphold rural peoples’ dignity, livelihoods, and futures.

The Defending Peasants’ Rights is a global platform for rural organisations and constituencies to share knowledge, amplify struggles, and build collective power for the implementation of their rights worldwide.

La entrada International Day of Peasant Struggles! – 17 April se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

Since taking power through a coup d’état in September 2022, Captain Ibrahim Traoré has assumed the presidency of Burkina Faso, leaving no one indifferent: for some, he embodies a historic turning point marking a break with the neo-colonial order and the beginning of a popular pan-African revolution; for others, it is yet another despotic show of force orchestrated by a military regime. This article seeks to provide an original perspective, in light of the balance of power at play, by giving a voice to Burkinabè social movements – peasants in particular.

Burkina Faso has for years faced a situation of war, mainly in the north, under jihadist threat, and since 2022 has been subjected to increased international pressure, manifested through sanctions regimes imposed by France, the World Bank, the European Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Heir to a long colonial past and illegitimate debt, the Traoré government seeks to restore national sovereignty and to position itself within a new pan-African dynamic.

Together with its partners in the Alliance of Sahel States – Mali and Niger – the country is challenging the CFA franc and considering an independent or common currency, while progressively disengaging from the IMF, the World Bank and the BCEAO (Central Bank of West African States). The refusal of new Western loans signals a desire to break free from financial dependency.

On the economic front, Burkina Faso has embarked on a process of nationalising strategic sectors. In 2023, the state regained control of major gold mines. A new mining code adopted in 2024 strengthens sovereignty over resources, increases the state’s share in mining companies, imposes local processing and creates a strategic gold reserve. In 2025, a mining residue treatment centre was inaugurated.

Economic reconquest also encompasses the agri-food sector, through nationalisations and the industrialisation of factories in sugar production, dairy processing and tomato production/processing, a key sector for the country. Despite a conflict-ridden regional context, these choices constitute essential levers for establishing real sovereignty and strengthening the state’s capacity to finance social policies.

Giving a voice to peasants

In Burkina Faso, 80% of the active population works in agriculture (around 32% of national GDP), and nearly 90% of farms are family holdings of less than five hectares, illustrating the predominance of subsistence agriculture. This shows how central small-scale food producers – peasants, nomads, herders and artisanal fishing communities – are to society.

It is in this light that the government launched its “Agropastoral and Fisheries Offensive 2023–2025”, with the objective of achieving self-sufficiency and food sovereignty. Within this framework, numerous investments have been made: agricultural equipment, local processing infrastructure, and support for cereal, rice and horticultural sectors. The results are tangible: tomato, rice and maize production increased considerably between 2022 and 2024, and since then rural exodus has declined¹.

Beyond the figures, it is the commitment of rural communities that stands out. Long marginalised, they now form the core of the new societal project, recognised as political agents of change. Two grassroots leaders, Mr Alassane Nakande (a key figure in the West African Convergence of Struggles for Land and Water² and executive director of the African Movement for Environmental Rights) and Ms Ouédraogo Ouandegma (president of the Burkinabè Coordination of Peasant Organisations, member of La Via Campesina and of the Agropastoral Workers’ Union) testify to the profound changes under way. These changes, particularly the progress achieved, help promote a peasant agenda consistent with the provisions and principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), which recognises fundamental rights such as the right to land and the right to seeds.

Strengthening local peasant production

For Ms Ouandegma, the initiative to protect and promote local production “is positive, in that it concretely supports peasant organisations in consolidating their means of production, supply chains, peasant cooperatives and local markets”. The peasant representative points to “government efforts” which have “enabled access to tools and materials for agricultural production and processing (rice processing units, tractors…)”. Thanks to this initiative, “it is small producers and local peasant cooperatives that directly supply their products to hospitals, municipalities, school canteens, prisons… This has made it possible to implement short supply chains, open markets to the smallest producers, and promote local products”.

Land policy and the right to land

Historically, Burkina Faso has faced large waves of land grabbing by private and financial operators who have benefited from a vague and permissive legal framework. In response, Mr Nakande notes that “thanks to the authorities’ willingness to tackle this phenomenon through the revision of pro-land-grabbing laws, a better redistribution of land is becoming possible”. The peasant leader adds that these legislative changes are “accompanied by support measures, notably in the form of installation kits for young peasants”. The process is part of “a broader logic of strengthening food security and sovereignty”, with other ongoing initiatives – action research, feasibility studies, concrete measures – aimed at “enhancing the role of agricultural producers and restoring their central place in public policies”.

For her part, Ms Ouandegma states that the authorities’ land policy “helps strengthen security and legal recognition of land tenure rights for women and men peasants”. She also welcomes the government’s commitment to allocate at least 30% of land titles to women producers.

Agroecological policies

In the field of agroecology – a key concept and set of practices promoted by the international peasant movement – Mr Nakande notes that “within the National Assembly and the Senate, a joint commission has been created to address the challenges surrounding the promotion of agroecology. In the same vein, a law has been adopted promoting the use of biological inputs”.

In its national strategy (SND-AE 2023–2027), the Burkinabè government supports the intensification of agroecological practices, in collaboration with peasant organisations, in order to sustainably ensure food and nutritional security in a context marked by climate crises – declining rainfall, soil and water resource degradation, loss of biodiversity, droughts, floods, etc.

Another major agroecological initiative concerns the demand, expressed by rural actors, for the gradual abandonment of chemical pesticides. To this end, new spaces for negotiation and advocacy have been opened. Ms Ouandegma notes a “shared willingness, both on the part of the rural movement and the authorities, to resolutely steer the country towards a tangible agroecological transition”.

Protection of peasant seeds

Regarding phytogenetic resources and the protection of peasant seeds, Mr Nakande observes positive developments. First, with the “creation of a Commission dedicated to phytogenetic resources, which provides a political framework enabling work in favour of peasant proposals”. Secondly, with the adoption of a new agropastoral law recognising the status of farmer/peasant and strengthening the protection of the right to seeds. “This law lays the foundations for a favourable framework for seed conservation, notably through the establishment of a dedicated database”. For the peasant representative, this represents a real qualitative leap: “From now on, each peasant will be able to actively participate in preserving the local food system and maintaining biodiversity”.

A dialectic at work

It is clear that the peasant world must constitute a political force at the heart of Burkina’s process of social, economic and political transformation. This transformation will either take place with their involvement, or it will not take place at all. But it should be recalled that any process of political transformation is inevitably accompanied by dialectical trajectories, marked by internal tensions and constant contradictions. All the more so in a country like Burkina Faso. Yet the vast majority of external analyses tend to ignore this complexity of power relations, in favour of Manichean and decontextualised judgements, often Eurocentric.

Any transformative political process that claims to be progressive requires democratic debate. Internal as well as external criticisms – if constructive and free from any imperialist logic – can and must help steer this process towards genuine popular emancipation, and correct its course where necessary. What is happening in Burkina Faso is an unprecedented attempt at pan-African renewal, centred on a self-reliant and self-determined development model – a turning point on a continent that continues to endure the neo-colonial yoke. In this context, the Traoré government enjoys considerable popular support, particularly from social movements in rural areas and from the youth, who reject neo-colonial fatalism and demand national and popular sovereignty.

This is not about idealising. But, in a world still structured by deep neo-colonial relations of domination, any attempt at national liberation deserves to be examined and supported, especially if it is driven by the popular classes and grassroots social movements. In such processes, the only meaningful safeguard against setbacks is a didactic dialogue between popular forces and the government. The ongoing challenge for CETIM is therefore to remain a platform for popular sovereignty, rooted in the support of the popular masses, and not isolated from them.

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La entrada Burkina Faso: The peasantry, a seed of change? se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

(Cartagena: February 23, 2026) On the eve of a historic intergovernmental conference on agrarian reform and rural development, nearly 300 delegates from worldwide representing peasants, Indigenous Peoples, artisanal fishers, pastoralists, and rural workers – organized through the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) – have arrived in Cartagena for the ‘Forum of Peoples and Social Movements: United for Land, Water, Territories and Dignity, being held from 22-23 February at Hotel Almirante, Cartagena de Indias.

This autonomous space serves as a critical staging ground for our global social movements to unify our voice before the second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD+20) begins on February 24, where all the IPC members will be actively participating in the official plenaries and panels.

Two decades after the first International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD), the crises surrounding land, water, forests, and oceans are intensifying as resources are increasingly concentrated, commodified, and degraded.

The first ICARRD, held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2006 with the participation of states from all continents, underscored the importance of redistributive agrarian reforms. It was also a milestone in the history of the United Nations as it set in motion a democratic process that allowed for strong and self-organized participation of organizations representing peasants, landless people, Indigenous Peoples, artisanal fishers and fish workers, pastoralists, workers, and other rural communities.

Twenty years later, ICARRD+20 offers a historic opportunity to reaffirm the importance of agrarian reform and rural development, to take stock of transformative examples of agrarian reform, to update the meaning of agrarian reform, and to forge a shared vision for popular, feminist, decolonial, and eco-social transformation. We demand from states and international institutions not another round of voluntary pledges but real commitments and concrete, binding, and measurable actions for structural change.

Since 2006, we have successfully campaigned for significant global normative frameworks, including the Tenure Guidelines (2012), the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP, 2007), and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP, 2018).

These international human rights instruments affirm that states have the duty to ensure equitable access to and control over land, fisheries, forests, and water as part of the realization of their rights to food, water, housing, work, health, and an adequate standard of living.

Yet, the implementation of policies, programs, and mechanisms that assure the rights of rural peoples and strengthen rural development remains profoundly inadequate.

States, UN institutions, and peoples’ organizations must collectively assess what has and has not been done. Renew political will to apply these existing instruments and confront the systemic barriers that block their realization. Translate the obligations and commitments of states, as well as human rights principles, into redistributive public policies that place territories under the control of those who feed, protect, and care for the world.

At the center of our movements’ demands is a holistic understanding of territories.

Unlike the narrow, technocratic view of land as a “factor of production,” the IPC views territories as living spaces that embody the spiritual, cultural, and material basis of a people’s sovereignty. To defend territory is to defend the cycles of care and renewal that sustain the planet.

Our collective vision for an “Integral and Feminist Agrarian Reform” is rooted in the 4Rs framework:

• Recognition: Respecting and protecting collective and customary tenure systems, particularly for Indigenous Peoples and marginalized communities.
• Redistribution: Ensuring the equitable transfer of land, power, and wealth to landless peasants, women, and youth, while placing caps on corporate land ownership.
• Restitution and Reparation: Restoring control to those dispossessed by colonization, conflict, and forced evictions, including the settlement of historical debts to Indigenous nations.
• Regulation: Implementing strict public interest regulations to limit the influence of market forces and financial speculation on natural resources.

In this regard, our core demands and proposals toward ICARRD+20 are the following:

• Acknowledge Root Causes: States must conduct an honest assessment of the structural drivers of the current crisis, including the failures of market-based reforms and the impact of militarization and occupation.
• Commit to Structural Transformation: Reject the commodification of nature and move toward public policies that shift power from corporations to people – with special attention towards women, youth and gender-diverse and sexually-diverse peoples.
• National Policy Implementation: Develop comprehensive, gender-sensitive agrarian reform plans that prioritize the rights of women, youth, and landless workers – especially from historically oppressed castes and groups.
• Corporate Accountability and Financial Justice: End corporate resource grabs and “definancialize” land and water, removing them from the logic of speculative markets.
• Strong Monitoring Mechanisms: Strengthen the role of the CFS in monitoring the implementation of the Tenure Guidelines and the outcomes and commitments of ICARRD+20. Outcomes of ICARRD+20 should be reported to all relevant UN institutions, including the UN Human Rights System, the Rio Conventions (CBD, UNFCCC and UNCCD), UNCTAD, IFAD, UNDP etc. Establish international, national and regional observatories to monitor progress and reform the FAO’s Global Land Observatory into a participatory platform for community-led data.

Our position paper captures these demands in its full nuance and detail. (English, Spanish, French)

The struggle for agrarian reform today is inseparable from the struggle against ecological collapse and imperialist expansion. In Cartagena, the world’s social movements are standing firm:

Peoples’ control over land, water, and territories, NOW! Popular Agrarian Reform, Now!

Below is the Forum’s Declaration

La entrada ICARRD+20 must move beyond technocratic fixes to implement real, integral agrarian reform: Global Social Movements in Cartagena se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

We, the Peoples’ Summit, gathered in Belém do Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon, from 12 to 16 November 2025, declare to the peoples of the world what we have accumulated in struggles, debates, studies, exchanges of experiences, cultural activities and testimonies, over several months of preparation and during these days gathered here.

Our process brought together more than 70,000 people who make up local, national, and international movements of indigenous and traditional peoples, peasants, Indigenous Peoples, quilombolas, fisherfolk, traditional peoples who live from sustainable forest extraction, shellfish gatherers, urban workers, trade unionists, homeless people, babassu coconut breakers, terreiro peoples, women, the LGBTQIAPN+ community, young people, Afro-descendants, the elderly, and peoples from the forest, the countryside, the peripheries, the seas, rivers, lakes, and mangroves. We have taken on the task of building a just and democratic world, with buen vivir/ bem viver/ good living for all.

We are unity in diversity.

The advance of the extreme right, fascism and wars around the world exacerbates the climate crisis and the exploitation of nature and of peoples. The countries of the Global North, transnational corporations (TNCs), and the ruling classes bear the main responsibility for these crises.

We salute the resistance and stand in solidarity with all peoples who are being cruelly attacked and threatened by the forces of the US empire, Israel and their allies in Europe. For more than 80 years, the Palestinian people have been victims of genocide perpetrated by the Zionist state of Israel, which has bombed the Gaza Strip, forcibly displaced millions of people and killed tens of thousands of innocent people, mostly children, women and the elderly. We totally repudiate the genocide perpetrated against Palestine. We offer our support and solidarity to the people who bravely resist, and to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

At the same time, in the Caribbean Sea, the United States is intensifying its imperial presence. It is doing so by expanding joint operations, agreements and military bases, in collusion with the extreme right, under the pretext of combating drug trafficking and terrorism, as with the recently announced “Southern Spear” operation. Imperialism continues to threaten the sovereignty of peoples, criminalising social movements and legitimising interventions that have historically served private interests in the region. We stand in solidarity with the resistance of peoples under imperialist or resource-grabbing attacks in Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Ecuador, Panama, El Salvador, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sudan, and with the emancipatory popular projects of the peoples of the Sahel, Nepal and around the world.

There is no life without nature. There is no life without the ethics and the work of care. That is why feminism is central to our political project. We place the work of reproducing life at the centre, which is what radically differentiates us from those who want to preserve the logic and dynamics of an economic system that prioritises profit and the private accumulation of wealth.

Our worldview is guided by popular internationalism, with exchanges of knowledge and wisdom that build bonds of solidarity, struggle and cooperation among our peoples. True solutions are strengthened by this exchange of experiences, developed in our territories and by many hands. We are committed to stimulating, convening and strengthening these processes. Therefore, we welcome the announcement of the construction of the International Movement of People Affected by Dams, Socio-Environmental Crimes and the Climate Crisis.

We began our People’s Summit by navigating the rivers of the Amazon, which, with their waters, nourish the entire body.

Like blood, they sustain life and feed a sea of encounters and hopes. We also recognise the presence of enchanted beings and other fundamental beings in the worldview of indigenous and traditional peoples, whose spiritual strength guides paths, protects territories and inspires struggles for life, memory and a world of good living.

After more than two years of collective construction and holding the People’s Summit, we affirm:

1. The capitalist mode of production is the main cause of the growing climate crisis. The main environmental problems of our time are a consequence of the relations of production, circulation, and disposal of goods, under the logic and domination of financial capital and large capitalist corporations.
2. Peripheral communities are the most affected by extreme weather events and environmental racism. On the one hand, they face a lack of infrastructure and adaptation policies. On the other hand, they face a lack of justice and reparations, especially for women, young people, impoverished people, and people of colour.
3. Transnational corporations, in collusion with governments in the Global North, are at the centre of power in the capitalist, racist and patriarchal system, being the actors that most cause and benefit from the multiple crises we face. The mining, energy, arms, agribusiness and Big Tech industries are primarily responsible for the climate catastrophe we are experiencing.
4. We oppose any false solutions to the climate crisis, including in climate finance, that perpetuate harmful practices, create unpredictable risks, and divert attention from transformative solutions based on climate justice and the justice of peoples in all biomes and ecosystems. We warn that the TFFF, being a financialised programme, is not an adequate response. All financial projects must be subject to criteria of transparency, democratic access, participation and real benefit for affected populations.
5. The failure of the current model of multilateralism is evident. Environmental crimes and extreme weather events that cause death and destruction are becoming increasingly common. This demonstrates the failure of countless global conferences and meetings that promised to solve these problems but never addressed their structural causes.
6. The energy transition is being implemented under capitalist logic. Despite the expansion of renewable sources, there has been no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The expansion of energy production sources has also become a new space for capital accumulation.
7. Finally, we affirm that the privatisation, commodification and financialisation of commons and public services are directly contrary to the interests of the people. In this context, laws, state institutions and the vast majority of governments have been captured, shaped and subordinated to the pursuit of maximum profit by financial capital and transnational corporations. Public policies are needed to advance the recovery of states and tackle privatisation.

In the face of these challenges, we propose:

1. Confronting false market solutions. Air, forests, water, land, minerals, and energy sources cannot remain private property or be appropriated, because they are common goods of the people.
2. We demand the participation and leadership of peoples in the construction of climate solutions, recognising ancestral knowledge. The multidiversity of cultures and worldviews carries ancestral wisdom and knowledge that states must recognise as references for solutions to the multiple crises afflicting humanity and Mother Nature.
3. We demand the demarcation and protection of the lands and territories of indigenous peoples and other local peoples and communities, as they are the ones who guarantee the survival of the forest. We demand that governments implement zero deforestation, end criminal burning, and adopt state policies for ecological restoration and recovery of areas degraded and affected by the climate crisis.
4. We demand the implementation of popular agrarian reform and the promotion of agroecology to guarantee food sovereignty and combat land concentration. Peoples produce healthy food to feed the people, in order to eliminate hunger in the world, based on cooperation and access to techniques and technologies under popular control. This is an example of a real solution to confront the climate crisis. There is no climate justice without land back in the hands of peoples.
5. We demand the fight against environmental racism and the construction of fair cities and living peripheries through the implementation of environmental policies and solutions. Housing, sanitation, water access and use, solid waste treatment, afforestation, and access to land and land regularisation programmes must consider integration with nature. We want investment in quality public and collective transport policies with zero fares. These are real alternatives for tackling the climate crisis in peripheral territories around the world, which must be implemented with adequate funding for climate adaptation.
6. We advocate direct consultation, participation, and popular management of climate policies in cities to confront real estate corporations that have advanced the commodification of urban life. The city of climate and energy transition should be a city without segregation that embraces diversity. Finally, climate financing should be conditional on protocols that aim at housing permanence and, ultimately, fair compensation for people and communities with guaranteed land and housing, both in the countryside and in cities.
7. We demand an end to wars, we demand demilitarisation. That all financial resources allocated to wars and the war industry be redirected to the transformation of this world. That military spending be directed towards the repair and recovery of regions affected by climate disasters. That all necessary measures be taken to prevent and pressure Israel, holding it accountable for the genocide committed against the Palestinian people.
8. We demand fair and full compensation for the losses and damages imposed on peoples by destructive investment projects, dams, mining, fossil fuel extraction, and climate disasters. We also demand that those guilty of economic and socio-environmental crimes that affect millions of communities and families around the world be tried and punished.
9. The work of reproducing life must be made visible, valued, understood for what it is – work – and shared by society as a whole and with the state. This work is essential for the continuity of human and non-human life on the planet. It also guarantees the autonomy of women, who cannot be held individually responsible for care, but whose contributions must be taken into account: our work sustains the economy. We want a world with feminist justice, autonomy and participation of women.
10. We demand a just, sovereign and popular transition that guarantees the rights of all workers, as well as the right to decent working conditions, freedom of association, collective bargaining and social protection. We consider energy to be a common good and advocate for the overcoming of poverty and energy dependence. Neither the energy model nor the transition itself can violate the sovereignty of any country in the world.
11. We demand an end to the exploitation of fossil fuels and call on governments to develop mechanisms to ensure the non-proliferation of fossil fuels, aiming for a just, popular and inclusive energy transition with sovereignty, protection and reparation for territories, particularly in the Amazon and other sensitive regions that are essential for life on the planet.
12. We fight for public financing and taxation of corporations and the wealthiest individuals. The costs of environmental degradation and losses imposed on populations must be paid by the sectors that benefit most from this model. This includes financial funds, banks, and corporations in agribusiness, hydrobusiness, aquaculture and industrial fishing, energy, and mining. These actors must also bear the necessary investments for a just transition focused on the needs of the people.
13. We demand that international climate financing not go through institutions that deepen inequality between North and South, such as the IMF and the World Bank. It must be structured in a fair, transparent, and democratic manner. It is not the peoples and countries of the global South that should continue to pay debts to the dominant powers. It is these countries and their corporations that need to begin to pay off the socio-environmental debt accumulated through centuries of imperialist, colonialist and racist practices, through the appropriation of common goods and through the violence imposed on millions of people who have been killed and enslaved.
14. We denounce the ongoing criminalisation of movements, the persecution, murder and disappearance of our leaders who fight in defence of their territories, as well as political prisoners and Palestinian prisoners who fight for national liberation. We demand the expansion of protection for human and socio-environmental rights defenders in the global climate agenda, within the framework of the Escazú Agreement and other regional regulations. When a defender protects the territory and nature, they protect not only an individual, but an entire people, benefiting the entire global community.
15. We call for the strengthening of international instruments that defend the rights of peoples, their customary rights and the integrity of ecosystems. We need a legally binding international instrument on human rights and transnational corporations, which is built on the concrete reality of the struggles of communities affected by violations, demanding rights for peoples and rules for corporations. We also affirm that the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) should be one of the pillars of climate governance. The full implementation of peasants’ rights returns people to their territories, directly contributing to their food security, soil care and the cooling of the planet.

Finally, we believe that it is time to unite our forces and face our common enemy.

If the organisation is strong, the struggle is strong. For this reason, our main political task is to organise the peoples of all countries and continents. Let us root our internationalism in each territory and make each territory a trench in the international struggle. It is time to move forward in a more organised, independent and unified way, to increase our awareness, strength and combativeness. This is the way to resist and win.

“Peoples Of The World: Unite!”

La entrada Declaration of the Peoples’ Summit – COP 30 Belém se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

More than a statement, the Declaration is the fruit of an unprecedented collective process: shaped through years of local and regional assemblies, and translated into 18 languages during the Forum to ensure that every voice could be heard and every word shared in equality.

It stands as a common political compass for the movements of the world – guiding struggles for food sovereignty, health for all, social and solidarity economy, climate and gender justice, and peoples’ rights. It denounces the systems of capitalism, patriarchy, and colonialism that drive hunger, war, and ecological collapse, while affirming the power of peoples to build economies of care, solidarity, and self-determination.

The Kandy Declaration calls on movements everywhere to act in unity, defend the commons, and transform global governance so that it serves people, not profit.

Born from collective wisdom and multilingual solidarity, it is a living roadmap for the years ahead – lighting the way toward peace, dignity, and life for all.

Systemic Transformation, Now and Forever!

La entrada The Kandy Declaration: A Collective Roadmap for Systemic Transformation se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

As social movements mobilize toward Climate COP 30 and the Second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, this edition of the Nyéléni Newsletter highlights the centrality of land and territories in shaping just and sustainable futures.

Read it here:

La entrada Nyeleni Newsletter n°61 – Rooted in resistance: territories for climate justice se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

Transnational agribusiness corporations are among the primary violators of the rights enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). The statement underscores the urgent need for a robust and enforceable international instrument to hold such actors accountable.

The experts highlight the importance of using UNDROP as a legal foundation in the treaty’s development, noting that it provides a critical framework for addressing systemic injustices faced by small-scale farmers, fishers, pastoralists, and rural workers. As they emphasise: “The rights enshrined in UNDROP — including rights to land, seeds, biodiversity, and participation — must be implemented through binding laws and robust accountability mechanisms.”

Read the full statement here:

GENEVA — A handful of powerful corporations now control vast portions of global agricultural production, input markets and food supply chains, a concentration of power that undermines the autonomy of small-scale farmers, exacerbates inequality and endangers the ecological foundations of our food systems, UN experts* warned today.

In their reports to the UN General Assembly**, the Working Group on peasants and rural workers and the Special Rapporteur on the right to food warned that the growing dominance of transnational corporations and industrial agribusiness in global food systems poses an escalating threat to food security, rural livelihoods, and human rights.

“Peasants and small-scale farmers feed the majority of the world’s population with healthy and diverse food, yet they are increasingly marginalised and dispossessed by the expansion of corporate-driven food systems,” the experts said. “The current model of agribusiness, supported by powerful States, prioritises profit over people and the planet — this must change.”

Corporate practices, including large-scale land acquisitions, monopolisation of seeds and agrochemicals, food speculation, exploitative contract farming, and the escalating corporate capture of decision-making spaces traditionally held by peasants and rural workers in food system governance have cumulatively created deep dependencies that erode rural resilience and undermine the autonomy of those who sustain our food systems. Digital technologies are further reshaping food systems, often extending corporate control through the capture of agricultural data. These trends, combined with the climate crisis, have further jeopardised the right to food for millions.

The experts reaffirmed that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) provides a crucial legal framework for addressing systemic injustices faced by small-scale farmers, fisherfolks, pastoralists and rural agricultural workers.

“States have an obligation to regulate corporate activity, prevent human rights violations and abuses, and ensure access to justice for victims,” they said.

“Voluntary commitments are not enough. The rights enshrined in UNDROP — including rights to land, seeds, biodiversity, and participation — must be implemented through binding laws and robust accountability mechanisms. To ensure digitalisation serves equitable and sustainable food systems, data governance must protect farmers’ rights, knowledge, and autonomy.”

Peasants and rural workers harmfully affected by corporate misconduct, from land grabs and toxic exposure to wage theft and forced evictions, still struggle to access effective remedies.

The Working Group and the Special Rapporteur called on all governments, the private sector and UN agencies to place small-scale farmers, fisherfolks, pastoralists and rural workers at the center of food policies and global governance.

“Food is not a commodity — it is a human right,” they said. “We must act now to ensure that those who feed the world can live and work with dignity, free from exploitation and fear.”

Ahead of the upcoming session of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights, the experts urged all Member States to prioritise the finalisation of a legally binding treaty to regulate corporations and financial institutions and hold them accountable for human rights violations and abuses.

“A binding treaty is essential to close the accountability gap and rebalance power in our food systems. Without enforceable obligations, corporate impunity will continue to erode human rights and the planet’s capacity to feed itself sustainably,” they said.

* The experts:

• 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 Duerte (Colombia), other members are Geneviève Savigny (France); Shalmali Guttal (India), Uche Ewelukwa Ofodile (Nigeria) and Davit Hakobyan (Armenia).
• Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food

** Report A/80/180: “The Right to Participation of Peasants and Rural Workers” (Working Group on Peasants, 2025), and
Report A/80/213: “Concentration of Corporate Power in Food Systems” (Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, 2025).

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/

For inquiries and media requests, please contact: Jamshid GAZIYEV, Secretary of the Working Group on peasants and rural workers (jamshid.gaziyev@un.org).

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

Follow news related to the UN’s independent human rights experts on X: @UN_SPExperts.

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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 Malian peasant woman, the 1st Nyéleni Global Forum took place in Mali, in 2007, bringing together more than 500 people from 80 countries to exchange knowledge and perspectives to strengthen their common food sovereignty agenda through collective actions. Eight years later, in 2015, Mali also hosted the 2nd edition of the Nyéleni Global Forum, where a common idea of agroecology was framed and agreed upon among global social movements – mostly representing rural constituencies in their wide diversity. Agroecology was then conceived as a form of resistance and practical alternative to the hegemonic and highly destructive neoliberal food system.

While the first two Nyéleni Global Forums focused on asserting and strengthening food sovereignty and agroecology as foundations for a just and sustainable world, the upcoming 3rd Nyéleni Global Forum in Sri Lanka will adopt a broader, cross-sectoral approach. Ten years after the second edition, it became clear to social movements that the increasingly complex and rapidly worsening issues affecting peoples around the world demand a break from siloed work. Instead, they call for intersectional and cross-sectoral grassroots responses to the interconnected global challenges faced by us all. In this sense, the 2025 Nyéleni Forum marks “a landmark moment in our collective struggle for systemic transformation”, being “the most important gathering of grassroots forces committed to building a world beyond capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, racism, and fascism.” ¹

“The Forum will bring together a powerful constellation of movements and communities – Indigenous Peoples, peasant farmers, fishers, pastoralists, agricultural workers, artisans, feminists, migrants, wage workers, the urban poor, social and solidarity economy activists, consumers, health workers, artists, and researchers – united by a shared vision: to build people’s economies and democracy, promote peace and international solidarity, advance food sovereignty and agroecology, defend land and territories, ensure health for all, and achieve climate justice and energy sovereignty.” ²

Confronting the interconnected crises through expanded alliances and the convergence of interrelated grassroots struggles is central for the world’s working classes and marginalised people to yield positive transformation in their lives across multiple domains.

The place of UNDROP

Such an intersectional stance that begins to leave the realm of ideas and starts to enter the real and practical realities of social movements worldwide has a lot to contribute to the advancement of rural peoples’ rights enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas  (UNDROP). Indeed, the implementation of their rights is directly interconnected with myriad struggles spearheaded by workers’ unions, peasants, fisher peoples, feminist movements, Indigenous Peoples, and many others. The rights of rural peoples to land, resource management, food sovereignty, water and a clean environment, seeds, education and health – to mention a few – depend on structural changes in multiple areas to be fully realized.

The UNDROP provides a powerful normative framework that can anchor and strengthen the food sovereignty agenda at the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum. The rights recognized in this instrument are not abstract principles but concrete tools for countering corporate capture of food systems, challenging exploitative trade regimes, and resisting policies that undermine rural communities’ livelihoods. By framing food sovereignty not only as an aspiration but as a set of enforceable human rights, the Forum can reinforce its call for systemic transformation and empower movements worldwide to demand real structural change through legal and political leverage.

Moreover, integrating UNDROP into the Forum’s agenda is also strategic for building alliances across sectors and different levels of action. The Declaration can serve as common ground for uniting rural and urban struggles around shared rights-based demands, such as access to healthy and nutritious food, decent work, climate justice, and the protection of ecosystems. 

Coordinating actions, building the change

Just as guaranteeing rural peoples’ rights is in the interest of all sectors committed to providing quality, sustainably produced food for  future generations, these rights also go hand in hand with cross-sectoral struggles against issues such as corporate impunity, unjust trade and tax systems, and the privatisation of essential services.

Recognising rural peoples’ struggles as interconnected and complementary to – rather than separate from – struggles on other fronts is essential to building solidarity and a shared sense of interdependence among grassroots movements beyond the rural sphere. This is key to fostering joint, coordinated efforts able to effectively address and overcome our common challenges.

By embracing the fact that our struggles are bound together, and that none will succeed unless all are lifted through collective resistance, the 3rd Nyéleni Global Forum comes at a pivotal moment to consolidate coordinated actions across diverse grassroots fronts and to foster new potential for effective systemic change.

For more information on the 3rd edition of the Nyéleni Global Forum, access this press release published earlier this year, and check out the latest articles and interview series with movement representatives that will soon be together in Sri Lanka to move the aforementioned agenda forward.

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La entrada 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum: Sri Lanka hosts the largest gathering of social movements calling for ‘systemic transformation’ se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

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.

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Just moments ago, Israeli occupation forces launched a military assault on the Multiplication Unit of UAWC Seed Bank in the Hebron area, using bulldozers and heavy machinery to demolish storage facilities and infrastructure essential to the unit’s operations.
The attack resulted in the destruction of critical facilities used for storing agricultural materials and inputs, constituting a direct assault on Palestinian food sovereignty, efforts to preserve heirloom seeds, and a continued targeting of the Union itself. We call on all allies, friends, and international partners to urgently act to stop these violations and hold the Israeli occupation accountable for its crimes against land, people, and seeds.
We further urge increased solidarity and support for Palestinian farmers and their right to remain on their land.

31 July 2025

Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) a member organisation of La Via Campesina in Palestine.

The assault resulted in the following damages and losses:

• Complete destruction of the main caravan, which served as a storage facility for agricultural materials and tools used in seed multiplication, processing, and preservation.
• Destruction of the entire electricity network, leading to the total suspension of daily operations within the unit.
• Severe damage to the water infrastructure, causing a complete water cutoff. This has placed the entire 16-dunum cultivated area at risk, as the crops are now threatened with dehydration and death.
• Risk of losing the entire agricultural season, as the crops currently under cultivation represent approximately 80% of the seed stock intended for deposit in the main Seed Bank in Hebron, which was scheduled to be distributed to hundreds of farmers in the upcoming planting season.
• Destruction and loss of large quantities of essential agricultural inputs, including irrigation networks, organic fertilizers, and daily-use farming equipment and tools.
• The most immediate and critical threat is the total loss of the current season due to the water disruption, which could severely undermine national seed sovereignty efforts and impact food security for smallholder farmers.

A full damage assessment is underway, and a detailed report will be released in the coming days.

Images available thus far of the attacked site:

Image source: UAWC

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Defending Peasants Rights strongly condemns this targeted attack on a civilian infrastructure dedicated to food sovereignty and the preservation of peasant seeds in Palestine.

The destruction of this facility is not an isolated act, but part of a deliberate strategy not only to eradicate the livelihoods of Palestinian peasants and the Palestinian population, but also to shatter Palestinian agricultural resources and fertile land. We express our absolute solidarity with members of the UAWC and call on States as well as all social, trade union and popular movements to mobilise to denounce these violations and defend the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people.

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The webinar was honoured by the distinguished presence of Ms. Shalmali Guttal, member of the UN Working Group on the UNDROP, who provided not only an overview but also an interpretation of the Working Group’s understanding of Article 1 of the declaration, which defines its rights holders.

Moreover, a plurality of rural constituencies – represented through their global movements/organizations – participated in the rights holders’ panel, bringing their struggles into perspective in relation to our shared efforts to implement the rural peoples’ rights enshrined in the UNDROP at both international and national levels. The following movements and organisations provided valuable inputs in this important meeting of UNDROP’s rights holders:

• World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous People (WAMIP)
• International Federation of Rural Adult Catholic Movements (FIMARC)
• World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP)
• International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF)
• Rural Women Assembly (RWA)
• La Via Campesina (LVC)
• Sea Nomads Contact Group

Webinar Structure [with video timings]:

Introduction [Beginning – 15m16s] : Defending Peasants Rights and FIAN International

Understanding UNDROP’s Article 1 [15m16s – 30m06s] : Ms. Shalmali Guttal – UN Working Group on the UNDROP

Roundtable of UNDROP’s right holders [30m06s – 01h42m] : Moderation by CETIM; Speakers: Fernando García-Dory – WAMIP; Modesta Arevalo – FIMARC; Jones Thomas – WFFP; Sue Longley – IUF; Norah Mlondobozi – RWA; David Otieno – LVC; Henri Simarmata – Sea Nomads Contact Group

Final remarks [01h42m – End] : Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

La entrada Video of our webinar: RURAL STRUGGLES IN ACTION! UNDROP’s rights holders fight for sustainable and just food systems se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.