Country: Argentina

Agrarian reforms key to climate justice

Posted on by Tom

A new briefing paper, Land for Food and Climate Justice: The Case for Redistributive Agrarian Reforms released today underscores a powerful yet underutilized solution to the intersecting crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, and inequality: redistributive agrarian reform. Drawing on case studies from Argentina, Mali, and India, the publication presents evidence that placing land and ecosystems under the control of Indigenous Peoples, small-scale food providers, and rural communities is key to achieving climate justice and food systems transformation.

The paper, based on the landmark report Lords of the Land: Transnational Landowners, Inequality and the Case for Redistribution, highlights how global land inequality and resource grabbing—particularly so-called “green grabs” made in the name of environmental protection—are accelerating environmental destruction and undermining human rights.

“Corporate control over land is not only driving environmental collapse but also pushing millions into hunger and marginalization,” said Philip Seufert, policy officer of FIAN International.

“The solution lies in the hands of those who have always safeguarded ecosystems – small-scale food providers and Indigenous Peoples. It’s time to prioritize redistributive tenure policies as a climate strategy.”

Key messages from the briefing include:

  • Land inequality is a major driver of environmental degradation. One percent of farms now control over 70% of farmland globally. This concentration of land is deeply linked to increased carbon emissions, deforestation, and biodiversity loss.
  • “Green grabs” are displacing communities. The paper shows that over 20% of large-scale land deals today are made in the name of environmental objectives. These land grabs, including those earmarked for carbon markets and biodiversity schemes, often displace people who are the most effective stewards of land and ecosystems.
  • Small-scale food providers feed the world. Despite using just 35% of cropland, they produce over half of the world’s food, manage landscapes more sustainably, and support greater biodiversity. Their continued viability depends on control over land and natural resources.

The briefing paper includes three case studies that illustrate how rural communities in Argentina, Mali and India are setting the foundations for sustainable and just food systems, anchored in human rights and social and environmental justice.

The briefing paper calls for a bold rethinking of climate and food policy: agrarian reform and redistributive tenure policies must be recognized not only as social justice tools but as ecological imperatives.

“Small-scale food providers, Indigenous Peoples and rural communities are not just victims of climate change – they are frontline climate actors,” said Philip Seufert.

“If we are serious about just transitions and climate justice, land redistribution must be at the center of global policy efforts.”

Download the full briefing paper here.

For media inquiries or interviews, please contact: sullivan@fian.org

Global land grab highlights growing inequality

Posted on by fredsaxo

Massive tracts of land in the Global South are being bought up by international investors and ultra-rich corporations, fueling growing inequality – part of a wider global trend of wealth transfers away from the poor and working people.

The report from FIAN International and Focus on the Global South, Lords of the Land: Transnational Landowners, Inequality and the Case for Redistribution, puts the spotlight on the world’s ten largest transnational landowners – who together control 404,457 km², an area the size of Japan.

This is part of a global land rush. Since 2000, corporations and financial investors have acquired an estimated 65 million hectares of land – twice the size of Germany. Today, 70 percent of global farmland is controlled by the largest 1 percent of giant industrial-scale farms.

Forced displacements

This concentration has grave implications for food security, threatening the livelihoods of 2.5 billion smallholder farmers and 1.4 billion of the world’s poorest people, most of whom rely on agriculture for survival. It is also driving violence, forced evictions, and environmental destruction while also contributing significantly to climate change.

Virtually all the top global landowners named in the report have been implicated in reports of forced displacements, environmental destruction, and violence against communities.

One of the main players is the US pension fund TIAA, which has acquired 61,000 hectares in Brazil’s Cerrado region, one of the world’s most biodiverse areas. In the Cerrado, approximately half of the land has been converted into tree plantations, large agro-industrial monocultures, and pastures for cattle production — amid reports of violent land grabs, deforestation and environmental destruction which already shows signs of impacting the climate.

TIAA almost quadrupled its global landholdings between 2012 and 2023 — from 328,200 hectares to 1.2 million hectares.

Inequality

Land concentration undermines state sovereignty and peoples’ self-determination, with distant corporations controlling vast tracts of land across multiple jurisdictions.

The industrial-scale monocropping, often carried out on this land, is a major driver of climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem destruction, preventing just transitions to more equitable and sustainable food systems and economic models.

These developments reflect a broader global trend of rising inequality and wealth concentration. Since the mid-1990s, the richest 1% of the world’s population has captured 38% of all additional accumulated wealth, while the poorest 50% have received only 2%.  An estimated 3.6 billion people, or 44% of the world population, now live on less than US$ 6.85 a day, below the threshold for a dignified life.

Because land grabbing is largely driven by global capital and the accumulation of land across jurisdictions by transnational corporations and financial entities, international cooperation is essential. The upcoming International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD+20) in Colombia early next year offers a critical opportunity for governments to agree on measures that end land grabbing, reverse land concentration, and ensure broad and sustainable distribution of natural resources.

In a world facing intersecting crises – from climate breakdown and food insecurity to entrenched poverty and social inequality – and amid reconfiguration of the global balance of power, now is the time to move away from neoliberal policies that have benefited very few, and to create a more just and sustainable global future for all.

Watch an expert panel discussion on the report here:

For more information or media interviews please contact Anisa Widyasari anisa@focusweb.org or Tom Sullivan sullivan@fian.org.

Transitioning towards Pesticide-free food systems: People’s Struggles and Imagination

Posted on by fredsaxo

Pesticides are causing a global human rights and environmental catastrophe. They are
responsible for an estimated 200,000 acute poisoning deaths each year. Long-term
exposure can lead to chronic diagnoses like cancer; birth defects and reproductive
harm; and abnormalities in the neurological, developmental, and immune systems.
Runoff from pesticides applied to crops frequently pollutes the surrounding ecosystem
and beyond, with deleterious ecological consequences that exacerbate the loss
of biodiversity. Pesticides can also harm the biodiversity of soils, which can lead to
large declines in crop yields, posing problems for food security.

FIAN’s study investigates how countries are transitioning to agroecology and pesticide-
free food systems. By examining cases in India, Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain,
Italy, and the United States (US), FIAN’s study offers a clear diagnosis of the human
rights and environmental problems resulting from pesticides.

It provides a foundation for grassroots movements, local and state governments,
and the international community to create pesticide-free societies that can uphold
the right to a toxic-free environment for all.

Read and download the Study Transitioning towards Pesticide-free food systems: People's Struggles and Imagination

See also  Key Elements in Regulatory Frameworks to Ban Highly Hazardous Pesticides, Phase Out Other Pesticides, and Facilitate the Transition to Agroecology

See also the report Pesticides in Latin America: Violations Against the Right to Adequate Food and Nutrition

IACHR meets European counterparts at a critical time

Posted on by fredsaxo

The Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) – Organization of American States (OAS), Paulo Abrão will cross the Atlantic to meet his European counterparts this week.

A series of high-level meetings will be held with EU and EU Members States officials as well as international CSOs, which have been supporting both politically and financially the inter-American system, particularly during last year’s financial crisis.

Abrão will also take the opportunity to present its recently approved Strategic Plan, which various CSOs contributed to, including FIAN International’s section in Ecuador on behalf of all FIAN entities.

Need for real commitment

In a context where States and the private sector (particularly transnational corporations) are increasingly pushing for voluntary guidelines to take over internationally binding human rights instruments and standards, it is crucial to genuinely reinforce the political and legal role of regional human rights systems. This is particularly imperative for OAS Member States that have progressively been withdrawing their financial and political support to the IACHR, thereby leading the latter to its worst crisis in history. 

The lack of political commitment by OAS States is also reflected on some of their sponsored candidates, whose competences are questionable, for the two seats that the 47 Regular Session of the OAS General Assembly will choose in June. The 163rd Period of IACHR Sessions in July will also see the appointment of the first rapporteur on economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, which could suppose a positive change for communities across the Americas. 

Guarani and Kaiowá, seeking justice in IACHR

The Inter-American system is crucial for fighting injustice and structural inequalities against most marginalized groups, especially indigenous communities. This is the case of the indigenous peoples Guarani and Kaiowá in Brazil, who have been facing evictions and violence throughout their struggle for the right to ancestral territory as well as to food and nutrition, and whose situation has only worsened following the Parliamentarian coup d´état.

Last December, the Guarani and Kaiowá’s great assembly Aty Guasu, with the support of CIMI, FIAN International and its Brazilian section, as well as Justicia Global, filed a petition to the IACHR against the State of Brazil. Not only this petition will contribute to further developing standards on the right to food and nutrition in connection with the right to ancestral territory, but also to the IAHRC rapporteurship on economic, social, cultural and environmental rights.

FIAN International hopes that OAS Member States strengthen and prioritize their political and financial support to the IACHR. In addition, this should be reflected on the dialogue and cooperation between the EU and its Member States with the OAS, as regional systems are a crucial element for the development and implementation of the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders and EU Action Plans on Human Rights.  

The organization will engage in the IACHR visit, together with the European CSOs network CIFCA to keep supporting the consolidation of regional human rights systems. 

For more information, please contact castaneda-flores[at]fian.org 
For media enquiries please contact delrey[at]fian.org 

Violent repression of Mapuche indigenous community in Argentina

Posted on by fredsaxo
Based on a judicial order to liberate the railway line of the Old Patagonia Express, the federal and provincial police carried out a major operation involving about 200 agents.  The community Lof de Resistencia Cushamen, which belongs to the largest indigenous population in South America, the Mapuche, had blocked the railway line last year in their struggle for their ancestral territories, currently in the hands of the Italy-based company Benetton. 

The operation was carried out in the context of increasing criminalization and stigmatization of the Mapuche people and their struggle for the recovery of their ancestral territory. The community Lof de Resistencia Cushamen started mobilizing in 2015 in order to recover their traditional lands, occupying a fraction of it.

In a letter sent to the Governor of the Argentinian Province of Chubut in Patagonia, FIAN International expresses its concern over the violent action of the police against the Mapuche community Lof de Resistencia Cushamen on 10 and 11 January 2017. The Argentinian State must comply with its obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of the Mapuche people, as laid down in United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The events require a thorough investigation of perpetrated violent acts, so too a process to restitute the Mapuche’s ancestral territory.

The organization has also approached the Italian Embassy to investigate and monitor the case, given its particular responsibility, as Benetton is under Italy’s jurisdiction. Likewise, FIAN International has called upon the delegation of the European Union to ensure the physical integrity of the community in light of the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders.

For media enquiries, please contact delrey[at]fian.org

A billion people need fully functioning IACHR

Posted on by fredsaxo

Last Monday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) broke the astonishing news about its financial crisis. The Commission announced that 40 percent of its personnel will not be renewed beyond July and that its 159th and 160th sessions will be suspended, unless it receives funds or the commitment for donations before June 15. Such drastic changes would have a serious impact on its ability to fulfill its mandate and carry out its basic functions, thereby risking the human rights protection of the billion people living in the Americas.

Reacting to the news, several NGOs from all over the world has issued an Open Letter whereby it appeals to all member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) to take the necessary measures to ensure the immediate and adequate funding of IACHR.

FIAN International recalls that the Inter-American Human Rights system is the result of people’s struggles in the Americas. They delegated their sovereignty to the States to create a system that ensures protection against abuse and injustice. Therefore,  it is the obligation of OAS member states to ensure sustainable financial fund for the Commission to remain fully operational as last resort against violations of fundamental rights in the continent and an international reference for its great efforts in protecting thousands of affected people and communities.

You can read the Open Letter here.

Hearing alerts current state of right to food and seed regulations in Latin America

Posted on by fredsaxo

Buenos Aires, Heidelberg, Washington; October 31, 2014: Peasant and human rights organizations make a presentation today before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) regarding food sovereignty, the right to adequate food, and the human rights impact of new seed regulations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Despite the fact that rural production generated a significant increase in economic growth during the last decade, 80% of those who go hungry and 75% of those who live in extreme poverty are rural inhabitants.

At a public hearing during the Commission’s sessions in Washington, D.C., the organizations aim to alert the IACHR to the state of the right to adequate food in the region, particularly with regard to small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples; the impact of development models; the problems with norms that regulate the use of seeds; and the role of the justice system in these matters. 

In 2014, ten years after the Right to Food Guidelines were established, the organizations contend that this right faces challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean, namely, the grabbing of land and natural resources for mining projects—as seen in the Hatillo community in Colombia and Kimsakocha in Ecuador—and for expanding agro-industry and cultivating crops such as palms, corn and soybeans—as in the cases of the Guaraní Kaiowá in Brazil and Monte Oscuro in Colombia. 

Communities have sought legal recourse but their access to justice has been ineffective. One example lies in the case of malnutrition in Camotán, Guatemala, where the State has been delaying implementation of the first judicial ruling that recognizes the violation of the right to food. The response by the state and private actors to community resistance and defense has tended to be violent and has criminalized peasants. This was true in the agrarian conflict in the Bajo Aguán, where people fighting for their land rights were murdered, and in Curuguaty–Marina Cue in Paraguay, where various peasants face a judicial process without due guarantees.

The public hearing can be watched at 4:15 p.m. local time, in which organizations will ask the IACHR to regularly monitor the status of the rural population’s food and territorial rights; recommend measures to States to improve rural inhabitants’ living conditions, address the structural causes of rights violations, and adopt public policies that benefit them; monitor States’ extraterritorial obligations in cases involving multinational companies; keep watch on the growing criminalization of peasant struggles; develop specific standards to tackle these problems; and exchange information with the United Nations regarding progress on these issues. 

These demands are united conceptually by the defense of food sovereignty and, if addressed, could help reduce violations of human rights, in particular Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR), and eliminate the structural discrimination that rural communities suffer today. In this framework, the promotion, defense and litigation of the right to adequate food can be carried out, along with condemnations and demonstrations regarding land grabs and the negative impact that new trends in seed regulations are having. To mitigate the harm to human rights, regulatory frameworks should be suited to each reality and aimed at preserving farmers’ traditional seed systems. 

The organizations that solicited the hearing are: the Latin American Coordinator of Rural Organizations (CLOC-Vía Campesina); FIAN International; Guatemala’s Social Collective for the Human Right to Food; Honduras’ Permanent Human Rights Observatory of the Aguán (OPDHA); and Argentina’s Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS).  

For more information please contact:

Diego Montón of CLOC-LVC

Angélica Castañeda Flores of FIAN International

Juan Carlos Morales González of FIAN Colombia

Magali Cano of the Guatemala sin Hambre Campaign

Gabriela Kletzel of CELS

Argentina: Violent eviction of peasant indigenous families due to land seizure by Soya growers in Santiago del Estero

Posted on by fredsaxo

The indigenous families of Lote 4, Pozo del Toba, Quimilí, Department of Moreno, Santiago del Estero, in north-eastern Argentina, were violently evicted by state police forces, who acted on behalf of Soya growers. The pacific and continuous possession of these families for more than 20 years had been recognized officially in 1994. Now the judiciary has taken sides aiming at selling this land to national and international Soya producers, thus causing a serious violation of the Right to Food of these indigenous people.

Argentina: Harassment of peasant communities threatened by forced evictions, Santiago de Estero

Posted on by fredsaxo

The peasant communities of Santa Maria Salomé in the province of Santiago de Estero suffer ongoing and systematic threats by the corporation “Madera Dura del Norte”, in connivence with the police, paramilitaries and the 4th court of Santiago del Estero. The harassment aims at finally occupying the land of the peasants. The ultimate purpose of the investors is to clear the land and leave no tree in about 156000 hectares, thus expanding even more their agroindustrial model, presumably for an extensive cultivation of soya beans.  

Please write letters to the governor of the province and mark a copy to the  secretary of the national presidency demanding asking them to respect and protect the human rights to food, water and housing of the communities. Please send a copy to the peasant movement of Santiago del Estero, MOCASE.