Issue: LAND & NATURAL RESOURCES

Small-scale fishers : Struggles and mobilisations

Posted on by fredsaxo

The United Nations has declared 2022 as the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022) to highlight the importance of artisanal fishing and aquaculture.

Over the past ten years, and even more so since the pandemic, blue economy initiatives have been blooming. The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit advanced the notion of “Blue Foods”, which first and foremost means aquaculture. In 2021, the FAO Committee on Fisheries took unprecedented steps to advance aquaculture, giving birth to the “Shanghai Declaration” drafted by WorldFish, industry players, and other stakeholders.

IYAFA is now also showcasing artisanal fishing. Some prefer the term small-scale fishing, but regardless of the term used, it is always about the way of life that provides food and income for over a hundred million people globally. However, fisher people’s territories and resources are increasingly being grabbed: the entire blue economy agenda spanning from displacing people in the name of conservation (Marine Protected Areas -MPAs), to massive-scale investments for fish farming, to expanding ports to facilitate more global trade, and to unprecedented sound blasting and drilling for oil and gas, are examples of contemporary development that have and continue to dispossess fishing communities. We hope IYAFA will become the year for fisher people all over the world to scale up resistance and mobilise masses in demands for restitution and regeneration of nature.

Transnational Institute and FIAN International

Download / view the Nyéléni newsletter no 47 here :
Small-scale fishers: Struggles and mobilisations

More info at https://nyeleni.org/

Time for Human Rights-based Seed Policies

Posted on by fredsaxo

The rights and seed systems of peasants and Indigenous Peoples are under attack from laws on intellectual property rights and seed marketing and increasingly undermined by biotechnology, digitalization and increasing corporate control over food and technology. This has far-reaching consequences for the right to food and rapidly declining biodiversity. It is therefore critical that states and multilateral institutions take action to realize the right to seeds as part of a transition toward healthy, sustainable and just food systems.

This briefing paper argues that seeds should be dealt with as a human rights issue. It explains recent normative developments toward the recognition of a right to seeds. A specific emphasis is placed on the centrality of recognizing and protecting peasants’ and Indigenous Peoples’ distinct seed systems for the realization of the right to seeds. This would in turn help to ensure sustainable food production, improved nutrition, and addresses the existential challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Download the briefing Time for Human Righs-based Seed Policies

Paraguay: Stop the wave of forced evictions and criminalization of peasant and indigenous communities

Posted on by fredsaxo

On the occasion of International Human Rights Day, FIAN International joins FIAN Paraguay and FIAN Germany in calling for an end to violent forced evictions and harassment of peasants and indigenous communities across Paraguay.

According to Paraguayan research group BASE Investigaciones Sociales, at least 3,000 people from peasant and indigenous communities have been violently evicted in nine seperate cases across the country since September this year.

In most cases, the evictions were violent, with excessive numbers of security forces acting outside the law, without court orders. In many cases the belongings of the affected families were destroyed.

The communities facing these evictions mostly have decades-long roots in the areas they occupy, and to which they are legally entitled under Paraguay’s Agrarian Reform. Their claims are challenged by Paraguayan landowners who run large scale agribusinesses on the land, contributing to the country’s acute hunger and malnutrition problem. According to the FAO, 700,000 people in Paraguay were suffering from malnutrition in 2020.

“The underlying problem behind these evictions is the concentration of land in the hands of a few. Paraguay is Latin America’s most unequal country in terms of access to land. 90% of the land is in the hands of less than 5% of the population,” says Wilma Strothenke, FIAN International's Country Officer for Paraguay.

The disputed land was illegally acquired by large landowners and widely referred to as “tierras malhabidas” (ill-gotten lands). It was meant to be transferred to peasants and indigenous people as agrarian reform beneficiaries during the Stroessner dictatorship which ruled the country for three decades until 1989. Instead the land was illegally awarded to private actors close to the regime.

Today there are still eight million hectares of tierras malhabidas.

Increased criminalization against peasants and indigenous people

This latest wave of forced evictions coincides with the recent adoption of the so-called Zavala-Riera Law, which reforms Paraguay’s penal code to include harsher penalties for land occupation. This law is being used as another instrument to criminalize the struggle for land under the guise of protecting private property.

Abel Areco, from FIAN Paraguay, points out: “There is an imbalance in the management of the state, since without guaranteeing the basic rights of access to land, it is passing laws that can end up being misapplied to criminalize those who claim their land rights”.

The community of the María la Esperanza Settlement in Tava'i, Caazapá, is one of the first to be targeted by the criminalizing application of this law. This community returned to occupy land from which they had been expelled after verifying that there was in fact no eviction order against them. However, shortly after, 26 settlers and the community's own lawyer were detained and now face prosecution for trespassing, despite the fact that they have lived there for decades and that authorities recognise them as a de facto community.

The case of the Primero de Marzo community: evictions, criminalization and denial of expropriation

Another example of the increase in criminalization and evictions is the Primero de Marzo peasant community, whose members have been occupying the Pindó farm in the department of Canindeyú (near the Brazilian border) since 2012, as legitimate beneficiaries of the Agrarian Reform.

The Pindó farm is registered as the property of the Bendlin Beyersdoff family of businessmen, who acquired it from the Institute of Rural Assets (IBR) in 1969 in exchange for an airplane, an illegal operation according to the rules of the time, which makes this farm a “tierra malhabida”, as accredited by the Final Report of the Truth and Justice Commission.

Since their settlement on the Pindó Farm, the inhabitants of the Primero de Marzo community have been questioning the legal origin of the farm and requesting that Paraguayan authorities expropriate it for adjudication, in compliance with the agrarian reform. However, the inaction of the National Institute for Rural and Land Development (INDERT) and the refusal of the owners of the farm have prevented the community's right to land from being respected.

There are currently 430 families occupying the farm. They cultivate their gardens, raise animals and have built houses and other facilities including sewage, electricity systems, schools and so on. However, they face continuous threats of forced eviction by public and private authorities. This situation is not new as they were also subjected to numerous forced evictions between 2013 and 2016 when their houses, facilities and crops were razed and several members convicted.  

Open Letter

FIAN International in collaboration with FIAN Paraguay and FIAN Germany has launched an open letter to alert Paraguayan authorities about the constant threats of forced evictions to which the families of the Primero de Marzo Community are subjected.

“If these threats are carried out, not only would they be violating national and international norms that protect the right to land of indigenous and peasant communities,” says Almudena Abascal, Head of Latin America for FIAN Germany, “but also their basic human rights such as the right to food, education and decent housing. “

Contact us:

Almudena Abascal a.abascal@fian.de Tel: +49 (0)221 474491 13,  Wilma Strothenke: strothenke@fian.org Tel: +49 (0)6221-65300-30

More information about the evicted communities:

Global social movements stand in solidarity with Indian farmers a year after protests began

Posted on by fredsaxo

JOINT STATEMENT: Salute to India’s Farmers! A Big Win for Peoples’ Power!

In a big win for India’s protesting farmers, who were leading a historic agitation for nearly a year, the Government of India – on the 19th of November – announced the repeal of three controversial farm laws that threatened to corporatize the country’s agricultural sector. It is an inspirational account of what peoples’ power can achieve even in the most adverse conditions.

The Indian farmers' protest, one of the largest mobilizations in recent history, completes a year on 26th November 2021. In the course of this historic protest, peasants and workers have braved harsh winters, heavy rains, brutal crackdowns and a wave of campaigns that tried to criminalize, imprison, defame and delegitimize the protestors and their supporters.

According to Samkyukta Kisan Morcha, the coalition spearheading this agitation, at least 650 farmers have died in the past year while on protest. Among these are five farmers who were heinously mowed down by a car in October 2021, allegedly driven by a Union Minister's son.

Despite all the adversities and oppressive measures, the millions of farmers who have laid siege to the borders of New Delhi for a year are in no haste to call off their protest. While they welcome the announcement to roll back the three laws as a step in the right direction, their other crucial demand to bring a legal guarantee for a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their produce remains unmet. The government is planning to constitute a committee that would make the procurement system more transparent, but agitating farmers insist that a legal guarantee is an absolute necessity. They also demand that the government withdraws all the criminal cases filed against the protestors during the year.

India’s farmers have inspired the world with their resilience. They have shown us what a united struggle of the working class and the peasantry can achieve even in the face of all adversities. Over the last year, this protest has stitched alliances with workers unions and other social movements and issued inspiring messages of solidarity, communal harmony and unity among rural societies.

We, the global civil society members, offer our unwavering support and solidarity for India's farmers. We salute your resilience. You inspire every social movement everywhere. We stand with you in your demands to resist the corporatization of Indian agriculture that endangers India's food sovereignty. Your protest resonates with every peasant and indigenous community in every corner of the world. Behind you, we stand united and alert to the daily developments.

The threat of privatization and corporatization of agriculture is not unique to India. But what is at stake for India is the lives and livelihoods of nearly 600 million people linked to agricultural and allied sectors.

History teaches us the perils of agribusiness expansion. Europe, the US, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia, and several wealthy nations are living evidence of how agribusiness expansion marginalizes small-scale food producers and tilt agricultural production to large industrial farms. It is a model that pushes millions out of their farms, leads to large-scale land concentration, and turns precious natural resources into the hands of a few. It is a model that takes away small-scale food producers' autonomy and control over their seeds, farm inputs, and farm machinery. It is a model favouring large-scale monoculture with devastating consequences for the planet, soil health, biodiversity, and our communities' nutritional choices.

For a predominantly agrarian society like India, to undergo this path of corporatization – primarily when a large majority of its peasants comprise tenant farmers and small-holder farmers – is akin to inviting despair to the doors of millions. And when farmers of the country lose autonomy over their food production, it endangers their food sovereignty.

India is a signatory to the UN Declaration on Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), which lays out the obligation of the State in guaranteeing adequate income and fair price to its food producers (Article 16). Despite its commitment to the UN Declaration, and contrary to the spirit of this Declaration, the Indian government brought in three controversial laws, in the middle of a pandemic year, without consulting the farmers. We insist that any attempts to reform Indian agriculture must be conducted with due consultation with the small-scale food producers through a transparent and democratic process.

Over the last two decades, the agitating farmers in India have carried out several mobilizations demanding a legal guarantee for a minimum support price and a robust mechanism to ensure efficient public procurement of their produce. At this point, the protesting farmers fear that in the absence of such a legal guarantee, there is still scope for a backdoor entry for private corporations. That is why they insist on a legislation that ensures a Minimum Support Price to farmers in every state of India.

As a signatory to the UNDROP, India must listen to its people, and institute a process to consult the unions before instituting any reforms. It must bring in a legal guarantee that offers a minimum support price for its farmers. It must acknowledge and compensate the families of those who lost their lives in this struggle. It must immediately bring to justice the culprits who mowed down protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. It must stop any actions that criminalize the leaders or members of the protesting unions and immediately resume the dialogue and negotiations.

Call for Global Solidarity Actions:

On 26th November, we the members of the global civil society will carry out peaceful solidarity actions – online and offline – in support of India’s farmers.

Hashtag #SalutetoIndiasFarmers 

Send photos, statements, videos to samyuktkisanmorcha@gmail.com 

Globalize the Struggle, Globalize Hope! 

Salute to India’s farmers! You inspire us! 

————————————————————————————————–

Statement Signed by:

FIAN International

FIMARC – International Federation of Adult Rural Catholic Movements

FOEI – Friends of the Earth International

HIC – Habitat International Coalition

IITC – International Indian Treaty Council

LVC – La Via Campesina

URGENCI – International Network for Community Supported Agriculture

WAMIP – World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples

WWM – World Women March

 

 

 

Towards a pesticides-free planet

Posted on by fredsaxo

This has been underlined in three key UN reports on toxic substances, the right to a healthy environment and food systems published ahead of this week’s UN Food Systems Summit.  

FIAN International has contributed to the momentum for change with a study of local experiences from around the world. Transitioning to pesticide free food systems: people´s power and imagination takes a bottom-up human rights approach and shows that a transition towards agroeology is underway in many parts of the world. It also maps out concrete steps for other communities and for policymakers in a “key elements” paper which aims to support advocacy towards achieving pesticide-free environments.  

Pesticides are responsible for an estimated 200,000 acute poisoning deaths each year. Long-term exposure can lead to chronic health conditions including cancer, birth defects and reproductive harm, including neurological damage. Runoff from pesticides frequently pollutes surrounding ecosystems and exacerbates biodiversity loss – including the biodiversity of soils, which can lead to sharp declines in crop yields, threatening food security. 

Despite the harm caused, pesticide use has soared in recent decades to an estimated 3.5 million tonnes in 2020. Just six mega corporations — Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, Syngenta, Bayer and BASF — control 75 percent of the world pesticides market. 

Agricultural workers’ unions including the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations and peasants’ movements, such as La Via Campesina, have protested for years against the intensive use of pesticides due to their negative impacts on health and right to food and nutrition.  

Pesticides play a key role in the global food production system, contributing to increasing inequality, reducing food diversity, destroying the sovereignty of people over their territories, and fuelling environmental collapse. Their growing use highlights the failure of states to comply with their human rights obligations regarding the right to adequate food and nutrition and related rights. Pesticides are also an integral part of the current corporate-driven, export-focused, agri-food model, based on unsustainable monoculture. 

Already in 2017, UN Special Rapporteurs on the right to food and toxics called for an end to this model stating that:  

“While efforts to ban and appropriately regulate the use of pesticides are a necessary step in the right direction, the most effective, long-term method to reduce exposure to these toxic chemicals is to move away from industrial agriculture.”

Read more: Infograph on 4 steps to transition to pesticide-free communities

 

Philippine Supreme Court Denies Access to Land to Sariaya Peasants

Posted on by fredsaxo

As the Philippines marks its 33rd year of implementing agrarian reform this month, 36 rights-based organizations across the globe have joined the fight of Sariaya, Quezon farmers to reclaim a vast landholding long awarded to them by the government but was returned by the Supreme Court (SC) to its former owner – an old, wealthy elite family in the province – based on an obscure and outdated municipal ordinance.  

“(T)he undersigned organizations call on the Government of the Philippines to ensure the right to food and nutrition of Sariaya peasants by guaranteeing their right to the land they till,” said the organizations headquartered in 22 countries spread in Europe, Latin America, North America, Asia, and Africa, which are mostly members of the Global Network for the Right to Food and Nutrition.  

Court anchors ruling on old local ordinance declared vague, insufficient by municipal gov't  

In a ruling that it made final on Sept. 28, 2020, the high tribunal voided the ownership rights of 255 Sariaya farmers to a 295.5-hectare farmland in the town’s Barangays Concepcion I, Pinagbakuran, and Manggalang Kiling, which the latter secured in 1994 as beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) that the government started to implement in 1988. 

The same ruling of the SC, returned the land to its former owner, the Gala family, who became among the most politically and economically powerful clans in Quezon while the Philippines was under Spanish colonial rule and was known in the province as coconut tycoons during the said era.  

The high tribunal hinged its decision on Sariaya’s 1982 zoning ordinance that blanketly reclassified most farmlands in the town as “non-agricultural” and thus excluded from CARP coverage.  

However, the zoning supposedly no longer applies. On June 23, 2008, Sariaya’s municipal council approved a resolution stating that the 1982 ordinance had no clear boundary delineations and was insufficient to be used as basis for ascertaining the classification of landholdings in Sariaya.

The same resolution further noted that because of the said insufficiency, the ordinance should not also be used as basis to exempt lands from agrarian reform. 

The 2008 resolution was strengthened by the municipal council when it enacted an ordinance in 2018 stating that “agricultural lands distributed to agrarian reform beneficiaries” of the CARP “shall not be affected by the reclassification” of Sariaya landholdings to non-agricultural lands done through the 1982 ordinance. The provincial council of Quezon approved the 2018 municipal ordinance through a resolution it issued on April 2, 2020.  

Court ruling: A 'regressive measure' jeopardizing farmers and people's right to food, nutrition  

The 36 groups said the Philippine high court’s anti-peasant decision based on the obscure and outdated 1982 zoning ordinance “not only…constitutes a breach of the state obligation under international human rights law” but also “embodies a regressive measure, which jeopardizes the realization of Sariaya peasants’ right to food and nutrition and the millions of Filipinos, who benefit from Sariaya’s agricultural production.” 

“This decision is also ill-timed, considering that more than 5.2 million or 20.9 percent of Filipinos suffered starvation due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” the groups said.

The Sariaya farmers are among the top producers and suppliers of affordable vegetables in the regions of Southern Tagalog, Bicol, and Metro Manila. Even amid the threats of eviction, hunger, and poverty, following the high court’s ruling, the farmers still manage to regularly give away portions of their produce to hungry Filipinos via community pantries that sprouted in the Philippines amid the pandemic.   

Land redistribution and the provision of government support services and infrastructure such as farm-to-market roads, warehouses, solar dryers, a trading post, and agricultural trainings via the CARP has transformed Sariaya into one of the country’s food baskets, catering to the diversified and nutritious food requirements of millions of Filipinos.  

Within 10 years of redistribution, the poverty rate in the town drastically dropped, and Sariaya became a success story, giving hope and encouragement to many who continued to struggle for their access to land. 

Philippine gov't urged: Respect right to land, uphold int'l human rights obligations  

Finally, the 36 groups called on the Philippine government “to respect” the farmers’ “right to land,” which is recognized in Articles 5 and 17 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP).  

The groups said the Philippines, which voted for and signed the UNDROP in 2018 along with 120 other countries, is duty-bound to uphold the said U.N. General Assembly resolution on human rights, particularly, Article 17 (6).  

The said UNDROP provision reaffirms the importance of states to carry out agrarian reform to “facilitate broad and equitable access to land and other natural resources necessary to ensure that peasants and other people working in rural areas enjoy adequate living conditions, and to limit excessive concentration and control of land taking into account its social function.” -30- 

Read the STATEMENT OF SUPPORT TO SARIAYA FARMERS

CONTACT PERSONS: Danny Caranza (Katarungan) – 0920-904-4301 | Yifang Slot Tang (FIAN International) +49 -176-2409-6245 (via WhatsApp)

 

 

As pesticides poison the planet, people put into practice toxic-free food systems

Posted on by fredsaxo

Representing groups of environmentalists, peasants, workers, students, and consumers, speakers during the online seminar “Poisoned Food, Poisoned Ecosystems: How People Are Working Towards Pesticide-Free Communities” shared how people resisting the corporate capture of agriculture were able to advance their fight towards agroecology-based food systems, telling the audience about their solutions, challenges and ways to overcome those.  The event held on May 5, 2021 was organized by FIAN International with the assistance of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

“We are not just talking, we are doing,” said Usha Soolapani as she discussed how peasant women in her non-profit organization Thanal led the people’s 2003 battle against the aerial spraying of the highly toxic insecticide endosulfan on cashew plantations in Kerala, until they were able to establish and promote organic farming in the Indian state and set up local markets by linking farmers with consumers with the help of media.

Jorge Acosta of the Asociación Sindical de Trabajadores Agrícolas, which helps farmworkers in the banana industry in Ecuador fight for their food and health rights, underscored the importance of informing and educating people about the pernicious effects of bombarding farms with pesticides, and demanding for change.

“We must continue carrying out awareness campaigns and give voice to our workers and the civil society so we can help them push for the eradication of pesticide use,” Acosta said during the seminar.

 

Banana plantations in Ecuador were being sprayed with fungicide 40 to 44 times a year, according to Acosta. He said poisonous chemicals wafting through the air were being inhaled by workers and their families, who suffer from severe skin problems and serious respiratory ailments, which made them more vulnerable to Covid-19.

Valeria Burity from FIAN’s Brazil section, meanwhile urged states in Latin America to “refrain from carrying out regulatory actions that promote the increase in the demand for pesticide use” and protect people’s rights to common goods.

The unabated and indiscriminate use of pesticides in corporate-controlled food production in eight Latin American and Caribbean countries has been exposed by FIAN International sections in the region in their recently released publication titled, Pesticides in Latin America: Violations Against the Right to Adequate Food and Nutrition.

The 108-page study links the multiple layers of violations of the people’s right to life, health, and adequate food and nutrition to the “capture” of Latin American and Caribbean states by transnational agribusiness corporations that made the uncontrolled use of pesticides possible.

“It is necessary that organizations, leaders, and movements that fight against the expansion of pesticide join forces again,” FIAN Brazil’s Valeria  Burity continued, stressing that wider and stronger alliances were needed as the use of agrotoxics in monocultures intensifies and worsens violations of the right to health and adequate food and nutrition.

She also called for the elimination of “double standards” or the practice of wealthy nations in the North of exporting banned hazardous pesticides to poorer nations in the South.

On this, Susan Haffmans of the Pesticide Action Network (PAN)-Germany explained how her organization has  been exposing how big businesses profit from double standards and how these impact on the environment and human health and rights.

PAN’s campaigns for European countries to stop the export of banned pesticides are being taken to “global policy areas,” according to Haffmans.  PAN also engages in global on-ground campaigns and activities to protect pollinators and end pesticide drift or the transport by air of pesticides from an area of application to an unintended site.

FIAN International’s Charlotte Dreger reviewed the experiences of transitioning to agrotoxics-free food systems and communities and concluded that campaigns at “the local level have played a very important role in this struggle that is connected to the demands at the international level.” This is corroborated through a research study ‘Transitioning Towards Agro-Toxics Free Food Systems: People’s Imagination beyond Regulatory Frameworks’, to be published in June.

“All the struggles against pesticides clearly go hand-in-hand with the overall demands for profound transformation of food systems towards agroecology,”  Dreger continued.

FIAN International’s Angélica Castañeda added that the implementation of agroecology-based food systems “are in the hands of the people”, stressing the need for “strong convergence” among social movements and alliances in the fight against pesticides.

Concluding the event was Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights Marcos Orellana, who stressed that communities have been paying the price of “our planet’s intoxification” through the use of pesticides, resulting in human rights violations “that are unacceptable.”

Orellana concludes: “We are facing a crisis of global toxification. Simply relying on mitigation does not solve the problem and is contrary to human rights. It is clear that the instruments that exist are failing and that double standards lead to discrimination. We need a change.”

 

LEARN MORE BY WATCHING THE ONLINE SEMINAR

Read Pesticides in Latin America – Report about violations against the right to adequate food and nutrition

Watch the Online seminar on Pesticides in Latin America

Follow us on #NoPesticidesInOurFood

A new Guide to Advance the Right to Seeds

Posted on by fredsaxo

Peasants and Indigenous Peoples feed more than 70 percent of the world and are key agents in the preservation of biocultural diversity in food systems. The importance of seeds, traditional knowledge and innovations have been increasingly recognized as crucial factors in efforts to stop the rapid loss of biodiversity, including in the context of developing a new Global Biodiversity Framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The right to seeds of Peasants and Indigenous Peoples is enshrined in international agreements like the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP).

“Around the world, peasants and Indigenous Peoples take care of their seeds in order to produce food and to take care of ecosystems. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown once more that our seed systems are strong and resilient.” (David Cidi Otieno, Kenyan Peasant League)

 

Right to Seeds under threat

Currently, Peasants and Indigenous Peoples’ food systems and seed management practices are threatened by industrially produced food, restrictive seed laws, intellectual property claims and gene modification. The expansion of industrial agriculture has come with a dramatic decrease of agricultural biodiversity.

According to the United Nations, 75 percent of crop diversity has been lost over the past century. Humanity is relying on only six main crops to feed itself.

Restoring biodiversity is critical to adapt agricultural systems to climate change. However, intellectual property rights, which are introduced by organizations like the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and trade agreements restrict peasants’ and Indigenous Peoples’ rights to save, use, exchange and sell their seeds. New technologies such as Digital Sequence Information (DSI) and genome editing pose new threats to farming communities and risk undermining existing international agreements such as the ITPGRFA and the CBD.

“Existing seed laws are made for the seed industry and agribusiness. We participate in the Treaty [ITPGRFA] to reaffirm that our right to seeds is a human rights, which is superior to intellectual property rights.” (Alimata Traoré, President of the Convergence of Rural Women for Food Sovereignty in Mali)

 

At the moment, the challenge remains to implement peasants’ and Indigenous Peoples’ rights in national policies and laws. New efforts are therefore urgently needed.

Launch of a new guide on the Right to Seeds

Released on the occasion on a new round of discussion in the ITPGRFA, a new guide entitled “Recovering the cycle of wisdom: Beacons of light toward the right to seeds. Guide for the implementation of Farmers’ Rights” makes concrete proposals in this regard.

The guide intends to provide tools to support Peasant and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations in their work to advance the full realization of their right to seeds.

“This Guide is timely and needed. It contains the authority and wisdom of the people that hold seeds.” (Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food)

 

This publication is a joint effort of the Working Group on Agricultural Biodiversity of the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC), FIAN International and Centro Internazionale Crocevia.

Download Recovering the cycle of wisdom: Beacons of light toward the right to seeds. Guide for the implementation of Farmers’ Rights.