This article was originally published in the journal Lendemains Solidaires, available in French here.

Food Sovereignty is intended as the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food, produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and the right of peoples to define their own food and agriculture systems. La Via Campesina insists that diverse, peasant-driven agroecological modes of production, based on centuries of knowledge, experience and accumulated evidence, are central to guaranteeing healthy food to everyone, while ensuring harmony with nature. This paradigm puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and transnational corporations. It defends the interests of next generations. It offers a strategy to resist and dismantle the current corporate trade and food regime, building food, farming, pastoral and fisheries systems determined by local producers and users.

Background

The history and background of the concept of Food Sovereignty declared by LVC in 1996 is linked to the failure of the implementation of the concept of food security initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It was conceived to overcome the challenge of hunger and malnutritinon that was and is particularly – and paradoxically – affecting the rural areas.

During the World Food Summit in 1996, La Via Campesina coined the term, insisting upon the centrality of small-scale food producers, the accumulated wisdom of generations, the autonomy and diversity of rural and urban communities and the solidarity between peoples, as essential components for crafting policies around food and agriculture.

We must remind ourselves that the only way to make our voice heard is by uniting and building new alliances within and across every border. Rural and Urban Social Movements, Trade Unions and civil society actors, progressive governments, academics, scientists and technology enthusiasts must come together to defend this shared vision for the future. Peasant women and other oppressed gender minorities must find equal space in the leadership of our movement at all levels. We must sow the seeds of solidarity in our communities and address all forms of discrimination that keep rural societies divided.

In the commomeration of the 25 years of La Via Campesina, it was declared that Food Sovereignty offers a manifesto for the future of our planet. It is an idea that unites humanity and puts us at the service of Mother Earth that feeds and nourishes us.

"Food Sovereignty offers a manifesto for the future of our planet."

Linking Food Sovereignty to Right to Development

Linking food sovereignty to the framework and concept of the Right to Development (RtD) is very relevant, as the latter must be intended as the right of peasant and rural populations to design and build their own rural development models, autonomously and independently, thus aligning with the perspective and principles of food sovereignty.

The Right to Development is conceived as a process of empowerment that necessarily implies social mobilization and struggle. It becomes a programmatic right that requires structural and specific measures from public authorities in favor of rural workers and communities. Hence the RtD is also a political instrument, a strategic counter-hegemonic legal framework aimed at resisting the dangerous policies imposed by the architecture of globalization, which primarily benefits transnational agribusiness corporations and financial capital, which have always contributed to marginalizing peasantry.

The interrelation between the RtD, food sovereignty and peasants’ rights is further confirmed in the ongoing negotiation of the Draft International Covenant on the Right to Development within the United Nations¹. This process aims at legally strenghtening and further consolidating the legal framework of RtD, initially codified through the UN Declaration on the Right to Development (1986).

The Draft Covenant text includes a specific provision recognizing the right of peasants “to determine and develop priorities and strategies to exercise their right to development.” This explicit reference represents both a legal and political advancement. It strengthens the interpretation of the RtD as a right belonging not only to States, but also to organized peoples and communities—particularly rural populations historically excluded from decision-making.

By inserting peasants and rural people as a constitutive element of development, this new legal instrument reinforces the centrality of self-determination in defining agricultural, economic, and territorial priorities. It also consolidates the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) recognition that peasants must not merely be beneficiaries of policies, but rights-holders capable of designing, implementing, and monitoring their own development models (art. 3 and 10).

What Is Peasant-Led Rural Development?

Our vision of development is cantered on the development of peasant agriculture through agroecology, the only guarantee of dignified and just livelihoods and working conditions for people across the world, especially in rural areas as centre of food production. Therefore LVC proposed and finally success in getting the United Declaration on the rights of peasant and other people in rural areas ( UNDROP) as tool of struggle for Food Sovereignty.

To achieve this, we require public policies that regulate agricultural and food markets, as peasants always do not get the decent income from their food production’s activities for their livelihood and continuing food production ( article 16 of UNDROP). This is because of market mechanism-based food system with corporation control the market .

Among these regulatory mechanisms, we advocate for Minimum Support Prices (MSP), meaning that States must set support prices that cover peasants’ production costs and guarantee a fair income margin. This mechanism reverses the logic of dumping, which depresses prices, thereby protecting peasant dignity.

We also defend public procurement and public reserves. We demand the restoration of public food stock systems to regulate markets and stabilize prices. Public authorities should buy crops during harvest seasons to guarantee floor prices and release them during shortage periods to avoid speculation. Minimim Support Price, Public Procurement and public reserves are for instance implemented in Indonesia and India.

"Public authorities should buy crops during harvest seasons to guarantee floor prices and release them during shortage periods to avoid speculation."

These mechanisms are indispensable because the neoliberal model dismantled these regulatory tools, exposing small producers to competition with large subsidized agribusiness farms. LVC calls for strengthening local and regional supply chains, arguing that trade must prioritize short circuits over transcontinental flows.

Agrarian Reform, the right to land and the RtD

Agrarian reform is linked to access to and control of land and territory, which is now considered a fundamental right, enshrined in international human rights law, particularly through Article 17 of UNDROP. Many phenomenas and corporate initiatives violate and/or threaten the right to land: agrarian conflicts, criminalization, evictions, land grabbing, green grabbing and land concentration driven by agribusiness for large scale of agriculture (monocultures); carbon markets, biofuel and biodiversity offset; mining activities; and “development projects”, as the construction of highways, dams and others. These are the reasons why LVC fights at all levels for comprehensive and people-centered agrarian reform.

This approach goes beyond mere land titling, calling for effective and equitable redistribution of land. It includes setting to clearly limit property size, banning the sale of land to others and foreign entities, and expropriating holdings that rely on illegal or slave labour, especially in large scale agriculture and big plantations.

"This approach goes beyond mere land titling, calling for effective and equitable redistribution of land."

This vision directly opposes market-based “counter-reforms” promoted by the World Bank in the 1990s, which led to land privatization and a new wave of land concentration, imposing a single rural development model, rooted in neoliberalism and favourable to agribusiness interests.

The struggle for rights to land through implementing agrarian reform is therefore part of the RtD, it is a struggle for self-determination and for the right to define one’s own land systems. We advocate for a political understanding of land — as a social and productive ecosystem essential to life — and not as a mere financial asset.

Agroecology, the right to seeds and the RtD

In 2015, during the Second Nyeleni Forum², delegations representing diverse organizations and international movements of small-scale food producers and consumers gathered to get to a common understanding of agroecology, as a key component of Food Sovereignty.

Agroecology is intended to transform and repair our material reality in food systems, facing a rural world devastated by industrial food production and today by the so-called Green and Blue Revolutions. Agroecology is, thus, also political: it aims at challenging and transforming structures of power in society. It puts the control of seeds, biodiversity, land and territories, waters, knowledge, culture, and all the commons, in the hands of the peoples who feed the world.

The control of local/native seeds is a key mean of production amid the corporate offensive of seed industries to keep consolidating chemical agriculture. These industries develop genetically modified organismes (GMOs) seeds, while promoting patents (intellectual property rights) at the expenses of local/native seeds. Therefore, LVC strongly rejects the commodification of living organisms, notably through GMOs, patents, and the privatization and commercialization of biodiversity.

In this sense, the movement defends the collective and inalienable right of peasants to save, use, exchange, and sell their seeds, in accordance with Article 9.3 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources and Article 19 of UNDROP.

Faced with industrial attempts to use synthetic biology and genomics, LVC organizes seed exchanges and campaigns to safeguard traditional community-based systems of biodiversity management. Here again, the struggle for seed rights is rooted in the RtD, in the right of peasants to design and implement their own seed development models based on their traditional and Indigenous practices.

The neoliberal globalization against the rights of peasants

International financial and trade institutions are the main forces behind violations against peasantry and the dismantling of peasant based food systems. The triptych composed of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) prevents governments—especially those of the Global South—from implementing essential public policies in favor of rural populations through coercive mechanisms and conditions. These neoliberal actors forced a reduction in the role of the state in the provision of public services, while increasing the role of the private sector (through privatization).

"These neoliberal actors forced a reduction in the role of the state in the provision of public services, while increasing the role of the private sector."

In this regard, it is important to recall that the integration of agriculture into the global free-trade regime through the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (1994) was a devastating turning point. This policy transformed food into a mere commodity and systematically deregulated the agricultural sector, dismantling market regulation tools such as minimum intervention prices and public reserves. The consequences have been systemic: falling agricultural prices, destruction of local peasant markets, loss of autonomy over seeds, and the expulsion of millions of peasants from their territories in favor of large landholders.

The tragic act of South Korean peasant Lee Kyung Hae, who took his life in Cancún in 2003 while wearing a banner that stated “WTO Kills Farmers,” remains emblematic of the violence of this neoliberal and neocolonial-imperialist system.

However, the neoliberal trade regime is not only the WTO, but it is also characterized by the spread of free trade and investment agreements at both regional, mulitilateral and bilateral level. In addition, today we are also facing Trump’s trade policies, which force countries to open market fully, but not vice-versa.

The Struggle for an Alternative Trade Framework

In response to the damage caused by the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, LVC launched a process to urgently claim for the creation of a new international trade framework grounded in food sovereignty. This new framework must be based on solidarity, international cooperation, and social justice. Its main purpose is to redefine the function of trade—from a tool that maximizes the profits of large transnational corporations to one that guarantees human rights and food sovereignty.

By asserting that agricultural and food trade must comply with human rights—and that the right to food is a fundamental human right, not a commodity—LVC advocates for a new trade framework that protects peasants’ rights and legitimizes States’ measures such as market protections against dumping and guaranteed support prices for producers.

"La Via Campesina advocates for a new trade framework that protects peasants’ rights and legitimizes States’ measures such as market protections against dumping and guaranteed support prices for producers."

To this end, LVC identifies the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as the legitimate forum to build this renewed multilateral consensus, considering it a counterweight capable of realigning global trade norms with human rights.

Conclusion

Development, as conceptualized by La Vía Campesina, is an integrated and radical response to the systemic failures of the neoliberal model. It is defined by the achievement of dignity, social justice, and ecological sustainability for rural populations.

We will continue to fight for our rights by all means at our disposal, but above all through the popular mobilization of our masses. We will continue to consolidate advocacy through international legal instruments, such as UNDROP, to demand the implementation of redistributive and regulatory public policies that can realize our right to development, namely our right to define our own rural and agricultural development systems and models, in light of the food sovereignty paradigm.

By emphasizing autonomy and peasant knowledge, and by placing rural women and youth at the center of struggle, LVC proposes a pathway that prioritizes the protection of ecosystems and communities over capital accumulation, reaffirming its commitment to systemic transformation of the global economic, trade, financial, and social order.

1 https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/54/50

2. https://nyeleni.org/en/homepage/

La entrada The Right to Development: A Leverage for Food Sovereignty and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP) se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Working Group on Peasants and other people working in rural areas is comprised of five independent experts from all regions of the world. The Chair-Rapporteur is Carlos Duarte (Colombia), other members are Geneviève Savigny (France); Shalmali Guttal (India), Uche Ewelukwa Ofodile (Nigeria) and Davit Hakobyan (Armenia).

Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.

Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/

UN Human Rights, country page – Ghana

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

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

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

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Calling for concrete actions for an effective realisation of rural peoples’ right to participation, the report examines the central role of peasants and rural workers in global food systems and stresses the importance of their meaningful participation in decision-making processes. It further outlines how securing peasants’ legal rights – including participation – is essential to advancing social justice, promoting environmental stewardship, and achieving sustainable development.

Read the full report:

Read also the statement delivered by the current Chair of the Working Group, Carlos Duarte, to the UN General Assembly when presenting this report:
 

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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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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.

La entrada When Civil Society Plants the Seeds of Normative Change: the Role of Non-state Actors in the Adoption of UNDROP se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

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 and systemic threats persist, and in some cases are even worsening. At the 60th session of the Human Rights Council, La Via Campesina—represented by Alberto Silva for the Swiss organization Uniterre and on behalf of CETIM—and FIAN—represented by Alfonzo Simon (World Forum of Fisher Peoples, Panamanian organization SITRAMAR)—emphasized the importance of placing peasants and rural communities at the heart of public policies and of protecting their territorial and land rights in the face of growing threats.

The second report of the UN Working Group presents a striking overview: land and ocean grabbing, “green grabbing” in the name of carbon offsetting, violence and criminalization of defenders, and persistent discrimination against rural women. Yet, alongside these challenges, the report also highlights positive experiences, where land reforms, innovative judicial mechanisms, and agroecological initiatives demonstrate that it is possible to put peasants at the center of public policies. Between mounting threats and inspiring good practices, this report underscores the urgency of collective action to make UNDROP a genuine roadmap for dignity and social, economic, and climate justice in rural areas.

Summary of the 2nd Report on UNDROP: Issues and Recommendations

From land and ocean grabbing to violence, criminalization, and repression of peasants and fisherfolk, to seeds, climate crises, discrimination, and social protection, the latest report of the Working Group provides a panorama of the systemic challenges faced by rights-holders under UNDROP.

The report warns in particular of the rise of “green grabbing,” that is, the appropriation of land for carbon offsetting purposes. Under the guise of sustainable environmental protection, fossil fuel giants such as Shell continue to invest massively in offset projects, thereby reinforcing transnational corporations’ (TNCs) control over land and the financialization of nature. Today, such “green grabbing” practices account for around 20% of all large-scale land acquisitions, directly impacting rural communities. The same applies to ocean grabbing: the blue economy agenda (with trade agreements and marine spatial planning) is leading to the commodification of oceans and the appropriation of customary commons by TNCs.

“Globally, 1% of farms now control 70% of the world’s agricultural land, while 84% of farms control only 12% of agricultural land. The richest 10% of the rural population hold 60% of the value of agricultural land, while the poorest 50% hold just 3%.” cf. Report A/HRC/60/33 of the Working Group on the Rights of Peasants, Part II.F on the concentration of land ownership.

In a context of strong competition for land and resources, rural communities are subjected to violence, forced evictions, destruction, and repression.

The rights of peasant women, notably in terms of land ownership, political participation, and access to resources, are still widely violated due to patriarchal norms, discriminatory legal frameworks, and intersecting oppressions linked to gender, rurality, class, or ethnicity. Peasant women face exclusion from decision-making, deprivation of inheritance and agricultural control, an overload of unpaid domestic work, gender-based violence, and restricted access to education and healthcare. This structural discrimination increases poverty and food insecurity, highlighting the urgent need for legal, social, and economic reforms to guarantee their rights and justice.

Nevertheless, the report also lists good practices observed in some states. In Mali, the new agricultural land law, developed through a multi-stakeholder platform, is cited as a good example of adequate and effective participation of peasants in political processes. In Colombia, the creation of an agricultural court aims to ensure the presence of judges and prosecutors dedicated exclusively to the rapid and simplified resolution of agrarian conflicts. Ghana’s land law includes an innovative protection that nullifies any decision or practice under the customary land regime that results in discrimination.

The Working Group notably recommends strengthening the legal recognition and protection of peasant organizations, unions, cooperatives, and land rights movements, as well as the territorial rights of all rights-holders. It calls for the repeal of anti-terrorism and public order laws used to criminalize peasant struggles, the pursuit of fair agrarian reforms, the elimination of discriminatory practices against rural women, and the reorientation of agricultural policies. Experts emphasize the need for states to recognize UNDROP, to integrate peasant rights into their institutional and legal frameworks as well as climate strategies, to ensure that funding directly supports their solutions rather than the commercial interests of transnational corporations.

Read the report

The Interactive Dialogue at the UN Human Rights Council

On Wednesday, 17 September 2025, during the 60th session of the Human Rights Council, the Chair of the Working Group on the Rights of Peasants, Mr. Carlos Duarte, presented the Group’s 2nd report in plenary session. While the growing number of countries recognizing peasants’ rights in their constitutions and legislation is encouraging, threats and violence against rural and Indigenous communities are also increasing. In response, Carlos Duarte reminded that UNDROP is a clear roadmap and that it is high time to act collectively to guarantee a dignified life for peasants.

During the interactive dialogue, the majority of states emphasized that peasants are essential to the fight against poverty and to food security. Concerns about the concentration of land in the hands of a few and problems of land access were frequently raised. States stressed the need for sustainable rural policies, better access to land, water, credit, and markets, and emphasized that peasants must participate directly in the decisions that affect them. Several countries (Bolivia, Gambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Cameroon, Malawi, Honduras, Mexico, Sudan, Cuba, Venezuela) highlighted recurring challenges: land grabbing, criminalization of human rights defenders, stigmatization, gender-based discrimination, violence, climate change impacts, and armed conflicts. They insisted on the importance of resilient agricultural policies, sustainable practices, and climate financing directed toward peasant solutions rather than commercial interests. Many states reaffirmed their support for the Working Group and their willingness to cooperate, and also called for the protection of peasant rights defenders and stronger mechanisms for implementing UNDROP.

Many states presented actions taken to promote and implement peasants’ rights. In terms of land, Colombia has launched a comprehensive rural reform stemming from the peace agreement, while Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi, Togo, Burkina Faso, and India have adopted laws or created agencies to regularize and secure access to land. Several countries have highlighted specific initiatives in favor of rural women: empowerment programs in Azerbaijan, Mexico, Malaysia, and Bangladesh. Others have strengthened social protection and basic services in rural areas, such as Portugal, Spain, and Algeria, as well as programs providing economic and technical support to smallholders (Gambia, Cameroon, Egypt, Iraq). Finally, some states emphasized measures to increase resilience to climate change, through promoting sustainable agricultural practices, access to credit, and resilient inputs (Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran).

Alberto Silva of La Via Campesina (representing the Swiss organization Uniterre), speaking on behalf of CETIM, emphasized that the Working Group’s report presents positive experiences that can inspire all member states. These demonstrate that placing peasants at the center of public policies can improve living and working conditions in rural areas. Alberto Silva warned of the existential challenges humanity faces: land grabbing, biodiversity erosion, the threat to seeds from industrial selection, and environmental degradation. In the face of these threats, UNDROP is an effective and concrete legal and political tool, which strengthens national legislative frameworks and opens inclusive spaces for dialogue. He called on states to collaborate with peasants and the Working Group to advance the rights of peasants contained in UNDROP.

Alfonzo Simon of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) (representing the Panamanian organization SITRAMAR), speaking on behalf of FIAN, thanked the Working Group for its report, which recognizes the erosion of territorial rights (land, rivers, waters…). Fisherfolk, Indigenous peoples, and rural communities in Panama face strong repression when they defend their rights or resist forced displacement. While they are the guardians of biodiversity and food systems, their livelihoods are increasingly threatened by the agribusiness and extractive industries, as well as conservation agendas such as the 30×30 initiative.

“We, Indigenous fisherfolk, are not a threat to biodiversity, we are its guardians. Our voices must be heard, and our rights protected.”

Alfonzo came from Panama to denounce the urgent situation of the Ngäbe Buglé Indigenous fisherfolk, threatened by the government’s suspension of fishing on Escudo de Veraguas Island, their last ancestral fishing ground. He asked the Working Group to urge the Panamanian state to end these measures and the violence, to recognize their rights (enshrined in UNDRIP and UNDROP), and to guarantee their participation in decisions that impact their way of life.

La entrada Systemic Challenges and Good Practices in Rural Areas – The 2nd Report of the UN Working Group on UNDROP se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

All the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council can published calls for inputs. These calls are addressed to any interested parties to the subject. Civil society organizations and human rights defenders are strongly encouraged to participate.

The current call for inputs from the Special Rapporteur Michael Fakhri, is directly linked to peasants struggles and the rights enshrined in UNDROP. The inputs will be the base material for the next report of the Special Rapporteur to the General Assembly of the United Nations. The report will take them into account to draw conclusion and propose guidelines.

We are reproducing below the call for inputs, you can find the official page here.

Deadline : June 12th, 2025

Purpose: To inform the Special Rapporteur’s upcoming thematic report to the UN General Assembly, October 2025

Background

The Special Rapporteur seeks inputs from both States and civil society to better understand how the concentration of power in the hands of a relatively small number corporations affects food systems, governance, and people’s everyday lives — and to explore transformative alternatives that prioritize human rights, social equity, and ecological sustainability.

Corporate-led industrial food systems have a massive environmental impact and often violate the rights to life, health, water, food and the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. In many places in the world, they also deprive the people of eating healthy and culturally appropriate food, in line with dietary habits and ancestry traditions.

Objectives

To inform the Special Rapporteur’s upcoming thematic report to the UN General Assembly, October 2025

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

Submission of inputs

The Special Rapporteur on the right to food invites States, international organizations, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, communities, business enterprises, academia, networks, and other relevant stakeholders to share inputs to address the topics below. He encourages the submission of specific data, statistics, good practices, and further materials to enrich the report.

Please email your responses to the questionnaire by 12 June 2025 in Word format (subject: Inputs for Food Systems report) to hrc-sr-food@un.org. Kindly limit your submissions to a maximum of 2,500 words (5 pages), and if necessary, add links to relevant documents or attached annexes. Due to a limited capacity for translation, we request that your inputs be submitted in English, French, or Spanish.

Unless otherwise specified, the input will be published on the website of the Special Rapporteur. If you would NOT like your written input or any other information to be published on the website of the Special Rapporteur, please explicitly indicate this in your input. While we encourage submissions on general situations, in view of consent and privacy issues, contributions containing names of alleged victims will be considered but not published online.

Please provide your inputs to the following questions:

Questions for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)

1. How does the concentration of power in the in the hands of a relatively small number of corporations affect food sovereignty and the right to food in your country or region? Please, if relevant, share examples of how corporate-led food systems have negatively impacted the human rights of communities, workers, small-scale farmers and vulnerable groups in your country/region.
2. What alternatives to corporate-controlled food systems are you promoting or supporting (e.g., agroecology, food cooperatives, community-supported agriculture)?
3. What barriers or threats do these alternative systems face from dominant corporate actors or state policies?
4. What kind of legislation is needed in your country to limit the growing corporate concentration and power in food systems and allowing to hold corporations accountable for human rights violations?
5. Please share any experiences you have with lawsuits against corporations for their human rights violations in your food system.
6. Please share your experiences within a social and solidarity economy?
7. Have you experienced or observed forms of ‘controlled participation’ where CSOs were invited to join a process in ways that undermined autonomy? If yes, please describe.
8. How are you navigating the shrinking political space for food sovereignty within international forums like the FAO or the CFS?

Questions for Businesses

1. Are you a small/medium enterprise (SME) or a transnational corporation?
2. What markets do you work in? What would make those markets more fair and stable?
3. How do you incorporate human rights obligations into your business?
4. Please describe any human rights due diligence process your company has adopted to respect the right to food throughout its activities. In particular, please provide information on positive measures taken to prevent and address negative human rights impacts in food systems, including as they relate to supply chains, labour practices, Indigenous People’s rights, and land use.
5. Please provide information on existing measures to provide effective access to remedy for victims of abuses of their human right to food that your company may have caused or contributed to through its operations.

Next Steps

Input/comments may be sent by e-mail. They must be received by 12 June 2025 .

Email address: hrc-sr-food@un.org

Email subject line: Submission for the call for input HRC-SR-FOOD

Word/Page limit:
2500 words / 5 pages

Accepted file formats:
Word, PDF

Accepted Languages:
English, French, Spanish, Arabic

La entrada Call for input from the Special Rapporteur on the right to food se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

On September 16, the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) published a report on the implementation of UNDROP in Europe. You can find the launch press release here.

This new publication presents the Declaration: its origin, purpose, content and how it should be implemented. It lists policy recommendations for international and regional organizations, European decision-makers and national and local authorities.

The main requests are as follows:

• States and international and regional organizations must provide resources (including financial) to support the Working Group.
• The EU must ensure that all its legislation and policies on agriculture are in line with UNDROP. ECVC has already drawn up specific policy proposals on how to ensure this compliance concerning: seeds, a proposed directive on land, agricultural market policy and CAP social conditionality.
• When implementing international policies linked to food and agriculture, the EU must respect and ensure the coherence with UNDROP.
• In accordance with Article 10 of UNDROP, ECVC, as the only European peasant organization, must be systematically consulted by all EU institutions dealing with agriculture.
• The EC’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) should create a specific sub-unit responsible for peasants’ rights and human rights in agriculture.
• The EU should conduct an independent study to assess the level of coherence of EU legislation and policies with UNDROP.
• When implementing the EU directive on corporate due diligence, EU member states must include UNDROP.
• States must draw up national action plans and national committees for family farming, as called for under the UN Decade for Family Farming. These plans must put the implementation of UNDROP at the center, and promote a broader concept of family farming that goes beyond cis-heterocentric patriarchy, embracing chosen families, a diversity of people and ways of living and working, as well as all kinds of small-scale artisanal food producers.

La entrada How to implement the UNDROP at the European and national level to promote peasants’ rights – publication and video se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

The first focuses on global trends and challenges affecting peasants and other people working in rural areas. To this end, it identifies and assesses persistent or emerging risks and vulnerabilities faced by peasants and other people working in rural areas, while also considering opportunities to promote their rights. This report was presented to the Human Rights Council in September 2025.

The second report deals with the right to participation, i.e. the rights of UNDROP rights holders to participate in public affairs, including a safe and enabling environment for them to exercise their right to participation on an equal footing. This report was presented to the UN General Assembly in October 2025.

Both reports were prepared on the basis of many contributions received by the Working Group from peasant and rural organisations.

See all contributions here.

La entrada Contributions to the second call for input of the UN Working Group on UNDROP se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

All the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council can published calls for inputs. These calls are addressed to any interested parties to the subject. Civil society organizations and human rights defenders are strongly encouraged to participate. The current Special Rapporteur on climate change has shown a lot of interest in UNDROP and peasants’ rights, she has, among other things, replied to the call for inputs of the Working Group on UNDROP. The calls contain a series of questions, however participants do not have to answer all of them and are free in the form of their response.

Fossil Fuel-based Economy and human rights

Deadline: 28 February 2025

Background – In her upcoming report to the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur seeks to synthesise and analyse a varied body of evidence (from across the natural and social sciences, including Indigenous science and other knowledge systems) of the human rights impacts of the fossil fuel-based economy on the basis of a life-cycle approach, and expected impacts of the phase out of fossil fuels and related subsidies. On that basis, the report will seek to clarify States’ international human rights obligations, individually and as part of international cooperation, as well as business responsibility, to ensure a just transition away from fossil fuels and the phase out of fossil fuel subsidies, in order to protect and respect human rights in the context of climate change.

Objectives – The call for inputs aims at advancing understanding on how to respect, protect and fulfil all human rights, as well as prevent harm and ensure non-discrimination, in the context of a just transition away from fossil fuels and the phase out of fossil fuel subsidies.

The Special Rapporteur would like to invite States, interested individuals, organizations and businesses, working on issues related to human rights and climate change to provide input for the preparation of her thematic report. Inputs can be both country-specific or of a general nature.

The Special Rapporteur has prepared a series of questions to guide the inputs, you can find them here.

Human Rights in the life cycle of Renewable Energy and Critical Minerals

Deadline: 30 April 2025

Background – In her upcoming report to the UN General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur seeks to synthesise and analyse a varied body of evidence (from across the natural and social sciences, including Indigenous science and other knowledge systems) of the positive and negative human rights impacts of different sources, scales and stages to renewable energy development, throughout their full life cycle, including the extraction and re-use of critical minerals. On that basis, the report will seek to clarify States’ international human rights obligations, individually and as part of international cooperation, as well as business responsibility, to support a just transition while enhancing the protection of everyone’s human right to a healthy environment and the prevention of foreseeable negative human rights impacts of certain climate mitigation approaches.

Objectives – The call for inputs aims at advancing understanding of the documented positive and negative impacts on human rights of different sources, scales and stages of renewable energy development as part of a just transition, including in relation to critical minerals, throughout their life cycle.

The Special Rapporteur would like to invite States, interested individuals, organizations and businesses, working on issues related to human rights and climate change to provide input for the preparation of her thematic report. Inputs can be both country-specific or of a general nature.

The Special Rapporteur has prepared a series of questions to guide the inputs, you can find them here.

La entrada Calls for inputs from the Special Rapporteur on Climate change se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

Carlos Duarte, member of the Working Group, has participated in the elaboration of two other publications on the subject. The first one before the COP : Towards an international recognition of the environmental component of peasantry – Pathways from the Convention on Biological Diversity. This article discuss the “environmental dimension of the peasantry” in international environmental law, using the Convention on Biological Diversity as an example. The second publication was published after the COP, as review of the integration of rural communities : COP16 and Peasants: the Great Transformation of the 21st century.

La entrada The Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and COP16:Advancing Peasants’ Rights in Biodiversity Conservation se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.

On this page we have compiled all the information concerning this first report: the report itself, the written commentary from civil society, but also a summary of the presentation of the report, with interventions by members of La Via Campesina and the recording of a side-event organized around UNDROP.

A new step forward: The vision report of the UN Working Group on UNDROP presented at the UN

During the 57^th session of the Human Rights Council, on September 19th, 2024, the newly appointed UN Working Group on UNDROP – represented by Geneviève Savigny, former peasant and now Chair of the Working Group – presented its first report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. If the first two parts of the report are dedicated to the context of their mandate and the history of the recognition of the UNDROP, the last parts are a first view of how the group understands its mandate and will carry it out.

According to this report, the Working Group fully recognizes peasants and rural workers’ role in the elaboration of the UNDROP and intends to keep them as the main actors in the implementation of their rights. The report addresses as well key substantive issues, as the definition of peasants and other people working in rural areas (as per article 1 of the Declaration) and the structural and systematic discrimination that they are facing in the context of a dominant economic architecture that generates exclusion and dispossession.

Read the report here:

The interactive dialogue with the Working Group in the Human Rights Council plenary session

On September 19th, 2024, The UN Working Group on UNDROP held its first interactive dialogue, during which Genevieve Savigny presented the first report of the Working Group. She stated that her election as Chair was a “strong signal” as it is the first time that a peasant woman holds such a position in the UN system.

She recalled that the mandate was first and foremost the realization of the UNDROP and that the Working group will identify and promote good practices, facilitate and contribute to the exchange of technical assistance, collaborate strongly with other UN agencies, States, rights-holders (peasants and other people working in rural areas) and civil society organizations.

She emphasized the importance of the UNDROP for the protection and realization of peasants’ rights as the only international norm encompassing peasants’ rights and defining them. She asked States to share with the Working group the actions taken to promote the UNDROP, she encouraged them to allocate resources for this aim, to translate the Declaration, and to elaborate training programs for civil servants and civil society, among other actions.

The Working Group already launched a call for inputs to identify the priority issues on which it will be working over the next two years. The Working Group will hold 3 sessions of 5 days per year -2 in Geneva and 1 in New York.

Overall, the majority of States welcomed the 1^st report of the Working Group.

States such as Bolivia, Cuba, Luxembourg, Colombia, and other countries sensitive to the issue, recalled that UNDROP is a key instrument to protect peasants’ rights. They wished every success for the members of the new Working Group, assured them of their support and shared the hope that the Working Group will be a space for joint action, and more engagement from States and others stakeholders.

States shared the actions taken to promote and realize the rights of peasants, for instance :

Brazil is currently in the process of translating the UNDROP into portuguese ; Colombia recognized in July through a legislative act, peasants as subject of law ; Algeria took measures to compensate peasants facing droughts and shortages as well as steps to support rural women’s entrepreneurship ; Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Togo, created and increased their policies and programs to support peasants’ work and livelihood ; Malaysia launched a campaign promoting organic farming practices ; Vietnam organized land reforms and the promotion of sustainable agriculture, and assured the Working Group of its commitment to the implementation of UNDROP.

See the videos of the presentation of the report and of the interactive dialogue here:

• http://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1p/k1pdvaevd2 (starts at 02:06)
• http://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k19/k1938xb443

La Via Campesina and its allies at the forefront of the discussions

Prior to the publication of the report of the UN Working Group on UNDROP, CETIM, FIAN International and La Via Campesina submitted a written statement to the Human Rights Council.

The statement :

• puts into context the adoption of the Declaration and the creation of the Working Group,
• explains that the implementation of the rights of peasants and rural workers must remain at the heart of the process
• recalls that peasants’ and rural organizations have been strongly advocating for the creation of the Working Group,
• supports the Working Group and its future work,
• proposes priority areas of work for the Working Group such as the collection and dissemination of best practices, technical support and monitoring of the implementation of the Declaration rights at the heart of peasants’ and rural workers’ struggles.

Read the statement here : https://defendingpeasantsrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Writen_Statement_UNDROP_offic-ENG.pdf

Two members of La Via Campesina made oral statements during the interactive dialogue with the Working Group in the plenary session:

Diego Monton from La Via Campesina, speaking on behalf of CETIM, presented the main challenges for the Working Group to address: building bridges with the rights holders and States in order to accelerate the implementation; dismantling of the transnational financial architecture that imposes dominant trade and investment regimes that directly threaten the rights of peasants; accompanying States in the process of implementation, by sharing good practices; and identifying the main obstacles to the proper respect of peasant rights.

Watch the full statement here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep8lw9iyFJc

Moayyad Bsharat from La Via Campesina, speaking on behalf of FIAN International, welcomed the first report of the Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas. He highlighted the devastating impacts the Israeli occupation and settler violence have on peasants, pastoralists, fishers, and rural communities. Agricultural fields and food systems have been destroyed not only in Gaza, also in the West Bank, the system of colonial oppression restricts peasants’ rights to access their agricultural lands. He called on all States to end the war, the starvation and the occupation – a precondition for fulfilling the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, their right to food sovereignty, and all other rights enshrined in UNDROP.

Watch the full statement here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLIxZ1Us4O8

A joint side-event: Rights holders, CSOs, States and UN mechanisms united for the peasants’ rights cause

At the occasion of the presentation of the report, La Via Campesina, CETIM and  FIAN International co-organized a side event entitled “The Right of Peasants and Rural People to Determine Their Own Food Systems: Food Sovereignty to Tackle the Multidimensional Crisis”. The panel of speakers, moderated by Maira Macdonal, Ambassador of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the UN, included Geneviève Savigny, Chair of the UN Working Group on UNDROP; Mihir Kanade, Chair of the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development; Daniel Uribe, Lead Programme Officer of the Sustainable Development and Climate Change (SDCC) Programme of the South Centre ; Diego Monton, La Via Campesina, MNCI Somos Tierra Argentina; Yasmeen El-Hasan, La Via Campesina, Union of Agricultural Working Committees (Palestine); and Herman Kumara, General Secretary of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples.

The side event discussed the UNDROP as a major normative advancement not only in protecting the rights of rural communities and workers to live and work in dignity but also in empowering peasants, rural workers, fishers, pastoralists, nomadic people, hunter-gatherers, Indigenous Peoples working in the rural areas, rural women, migrant workers and landless communities. Speakers welcomed the creation of the UN Working Group and expressed their expectations and commitment to collaborate with it. 

The importance of the right to food sovereignty to tackle multiple crises and the key role peasants, fisher people and rural communities around the globe play has been highlighted. The panel specifically touched on the importance of active participation when it comes to achieving food sovereignty for peasants, rural workers, and Indigenous Peoples. Peasants must be able to define what development looks like for them in realizing their right to development and must be enabled to actively participate in decision-making processes that will impact their communities and livelihoods. This right to participation is specifically enshrined in Articles 2 and 10 of UNDROP. In the face of threats such as large agribusiness powers dispossessing peasants and rural workers of their land, the exploitation of natural resources to maximize profits primarily at the expense of peasants and rural workers, and war and settler colonialism violently severing the connection of Indigenous Peoples to their land, the panelists emphasized the human rights to development, food, water, and self-determination, as well as agroecology, as pathways to the full realization of food sovereignty and the principles of UNDROP.

Watch the side-event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TA4MpLRy5Q

La entrada Dossier: Activities surrounding the first report of the UNDROP Working Group se publicó primero en Defending Peasants' Rights.