Via-info-en April 2015

via-info-en@viacampesina.org

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Major Earthquake in Nepal has Caused Great Suffering and Destruction
by La Vía Campesina 30 Apr '15

30 Apr '15

MAJOR EARTHQUAKE IN NEPAL HAS CAUSED GREAT SUFFERING AND DESTRUCTION [1] LA VIA CAMPESINA SOLIDARITY MESSAGE AND CALL FOR SUPPORT (Thursday, 30 April 2015) - La Via Campesina wants to express its solidarity and support with the peasants and all people in Nepal after the terrible recent earthquake. Nepalese authorities estimate that almost 10.000 people may have died, and many more wounded. We are deeply saddened by this tragedy that has taken place as well as by the suffering of all the people that lost relatives, friends and their homes. We are especially aware that suffering is made worse in remote rural villages where the situation is critical. These areas cannot be reached by regular transport, making it difficult to organize support. Beyond the enormous sadness of the beloved that did not survive this disaster, the people of Nepal face a huge task in re-building their houses and infrastructure over the coming months and years. The role of social organisations is crucial - they should play a key and leading role in this process. La Via Campesina has set up a direct communication with its local member, the All Nepalese Peasants' Federation (ANPFa), who is now collecting the information, has set up an information desk, and is organizing the relief and support in the rural areas. We will give them all the support they need in this difficult task. It is crucial that social organisations like ANPFa receive all support they need in order to organise themselves and organize the support for the communities they work with. We will be in close contact over the coming days and try our best to respond to the needs for support that ANPFa will communicate to us. If you or your organisation wish to support or express solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Nepal, you can write to ANPFa at anpfa(a)anpfa.org.np with copy to secretariatlvcsouthasia(a)gmail.com and viacampesina(a)viacampesina.org CONTACT ANPFA Balram Banskota Deputy Secretary General All Nepal Peasants Federation (ANPFA) Madan Nagar- Balkhu Kathmandu-Nepal Email: balram(a)anpfa.org.np, anpfa(a)anpfa.org.np CONTACT SOUTH ASIA REGION LA VIA CAMPESINA Yudhvir Singh yudhvir55(a)gmail.com Shanta Manavi shanta(a)anpfa.org.np Regional secretariat: secretariatlvcsouthasia(a)gmail.com For information in French please write to annelies.schorpion(a)viacampesina.org For information in Spanish please write to boa.monjane(a)viacampesina.org -- Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/natural…

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Final declaration of the 6th Congress of CLOC Via Campesina
by La Vía Campesina 24 Apr '15

24 Apr '15

FINAL DECLARATION OF THE 6TH CONGRESS OF CLOC VIA CAMPESINA [1] [2]On the International Day of Peasant Struggles and after a march through Buenos Aires streets from the US Embassy, an imperialistic symbol, to the Argentinean Rural Association, a symbol of agribusiness in the country, the organizers shared the final statement of the 6th Congress of the Latin American Coordination of Countryside Organizations (CLOC-Via Campesina) which you can read below. The document is a result of eight days of debates and was read by representatives of the Youth Assembly of CLOC. _"Each person shines with his or her own light. No two flames are alike. There are big flames and little flames, flames of every color. Some peopleâs flames are so still they donât even flicker in the wind, while others have wild flames that fill the air with sparks. Some foolish flames neither burn nor shed light, but others blaze with life so fiercely that you canât look at them without blinking, and if you approach you shine in the fire"._ EDUARDO GALEANO In Argentina, the homeland of Che Guevara, Evita, Mercedes Sosa, 200 years after the Congress of Free Peoples called by Artigas which prompted the first Agrarian Reform in Latin America, 10 years after the defeat of the FTAA in Mar del Plata, we are holding the 6th Latin American Congress of Countryside Organizations. We are the CLOC-VC, an organized expression of peasant men and women, native peoples, afro-descendants and rural workers. CLOC is the flame, the light and the actions of Via Campesina in Latin America. We emerged from the heart itself of the 500-year process of indigenous, peasant, black and popular resistance, which gathered the historical peasant movement and the new movements emerging as a response to the dismantling processes imposed by neoliberal policies. We gather strength, experience and struggles and we build proposals according to the new political moments, highlighting that the agrarian issues are relevant for the society as a whole, and as such, we need to face it with an alternative and popular power strategy. Our Congress has taken place in a time where contradictions and the class struggle are reflected in the attacks of capital that promotes new wars, oppression and conspiracy against the peoples, for instance the direct attack against Venezuela by declaring it a risk for US security, but also with the different destabilizing coup strategies implemented by an alliance of large communication, business and financial groups that aim to undermine the sovereignty of our peoples and prevent progressive governments of the region from taking action. Recognizing the advance of regional and continental processes of integration such as UNASUR, ALBA, MERCOSUR and CELAC, the 6th Congress welcomes the solidarity and unity of Latin American and Caribbean countries and organizations that supported CubaÂ´s position and denunciation of the US blockade and the campaigns against their people, an attitude that encourages us to continue building the Motherland of Bolivar, San Martin, MartÃ, Sandino and Chavez. We reject patriarchy, racism, sexism and homophobia. We struggle for democratic and participatory societies, free from exploitation, discrimination, oppression, and exclusion of women and young people. We condemn all forms of domestic, social, work and institutional violence towards women. We raise the flags of our women colleagues: peasant and popular feminism is part of our strategic horizon for a socialist transformation. The work to strengthen our organizations, especially at grassroots level, will continue being at the center of our priorities. We are committed to strengthen the participation and integration of young people in all organizational processes. We reclaim Integral and Popular Agrarian Reform, peasant and indigenous agroecological farming as essential elements of our path towards food sovereignty and cooling down the planet, ensuring access to land and water for women, young people, landless workers and ensuring the recovery of territories by native and afrodescendant peoples. We also struggle for the recognition of the social function of land and water, and the prohibition of all forms of speculation and land grabbing affecting them. We are committed to continue defending and keeping alive our peasant and indigenous seeds, to recover them in the hands of communities so as to reproduce and multiply them based on our peasant systems. We will not hesitate in the struggle against all forms of privatization and appropriation of seeds and life forms. We need to defeat the agricultural model imposed by agribusiness corporations that is supported by international financial capitals and is based on GM monocultures, the massive use of agrotoxics and the displacement of peasants from the countryside. In addition, this model is responsible for the food, climate, energy and urbanization crises. We call people to continue struggling for a world free from GMOs and agrotoxics that pollute, make ill and kill our peoples and Mother Earth. We will resist together with the people and communities against extractivism, megamining and all megaprojects threatening our territories. We celebrate la Via Campesina´s achievement of putting the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants in the agenda of the United Nations Human Rights Council and demand governments to ratify our positions. We call our organizations to turn the declaration into an instrument for the struggle of rural peoples and the society as a whole. The future becomes a fertile place when hundreds of children gathered at the 1st Children´s Congress delivered their message in favour of peace and protection of our Mother Earth. Our children are the future, and the present shines with the strength of young people. Our main tools are capacity building, education, communication and mass mobilization, unity and alliances among peasants, native peoples, afrodescendants, rural and urban workers, students and popular sectors organized to conform a force that is capable of achieving the changes we are fighting for. We are living in unprecedented and complex times, determined by a new correlation of forces among capital, the government and popular forces. The imperialistic capital is now under financial and transnational control, so we need to identify ourselves with SOCIALISM as the only system capable of reaching the sovereignty or our countries, highlighting the values of solidarity, internationalism and cooperation among our peoples. AGAINST CAPITALISM AND IN FAVOR OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF OUR PEOPLES: THE AMERICAS UNITED CONTINUE STRUGGLING! Links: ------ [1] http://www.viacampesina.org/en/index.php/news-from-the-regions-mainmenu-29/… [2] http://www.viacampesina.org/en/images/stories/newsfromregions/foto%20declar…

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April 17: Farmers mobilise around the world against Free Trade Agreements and for food sovereignty
by La Vía Campesina 16 Apr '15

16 Apr '15

APRIL 17: FARMERS MOBILISE AROUND THE WORLD AGAINST FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS AND FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY [1] PRESS RELEASE—LA VIA CAMPESINA (Zimbabwe, Harare, April 17, 2015) Today thousands of women and men farmers of the international peasant movement La Via Campesina mobilize worldwide against Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) which affect peasant and small-scale agriculture and national food sovereignty. Since April 17, 1996 [2][1] La Via Campesina celebrates this day as a global day of action with allies and friends. Free Trade Agreements promote TNCs and a capitalist industrialised mode of production heavily reliant on agrochemicals. These have increased the displacement, expulsion, and disappearance of peasants. Free Trade Agreements put profit over all other rights and concerns. Currently, the most significant FTAs in history are being negotiated by the European Union, the United States, and Canada. These agreements, if finalised, will liberalize trade and investment markets in favour of transnational companies (see tv.viacampesina.org/April-17th [3]). With hundreds of actions at local and global level (see our regularly updated MAP [4]) in all continents, La Via Campesina reasserts the importance of local struggles and at the same time underlines the need of a global resistance and organization between the cities and the rural areas. Actions such as land occupations, seed exchanges, street demonstrations, food sovereignty fairs, cultural events, lobby tours and debates will be carried out until the end of the month as part of these global days of action. This year in Europe, various actions are being organised against Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement (CETA), Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) in Germany, Switzerland and Belgium; in Asia, a mass rally to reject the negotiation of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) by Japanese government is being organised in Japan and South Korea; in South America, a big march (over 1,500 people from all continents) is being organised in Argentina during the CLOC-Via Campesina (Latin American Coordination of Rural Organizations) congress in Buenos Aires. La Via Campesina denounces laws and interests that affect the peasant way of life, an important heritage of the people at the service of humanity. The movement promotes food sovereignty to end hunger in the world and promote social justice. Instead of a gloomy future based on free trade and big business, La Via Campesina believes the time has come for an economy based on equity that will restore the balance between humanity and nature. Agrarian reform and sustainable agriculture are at the heart of this way of living based on peoples' Food Sovereignty. FOR INTERVIEWS PLEASE CONTACT: Ndiakhate Fall, CNCR - Senegal (French): + 221 77 550 89 07 Marina dos Santos, Landless movement, Brasil (Spanish) +54 92615717585 Yudhvir Singh, BKU, India (English) +54 92615717585 · Register your actions by sending us information about the planned events to our mail: lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org · Please also send us pictures, videos, posters, flyers etc. We will publish them together with a map of all actions on www.viacampesina.org [5] ------------------------- [6][1]On April 17, 1996 in Brazil, military police forces assassinated 19 peasants in Eldorado dos Carajás (Pará). The farmers were members of the Movement of Rural Landless Workers (MST). On that day, 1500 men and women occupied and blocked the highway BR-150 in Eldorado dos Carajás with the goal of putting pressure on the state and federal government to carry out agrarian reform. Around 4PM 155 military police forces of the state surrounded the MST demonstrators, throwing tear gas and they fired guns at them. Therefore, in addition to the 19 massacred, three more died later and 69 were injured. State authorities, police, the army and landowners were responsible in the planning and execution of this massacre. Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/17-apri… [2] file:///C:/LA%20VIA%20CAMPESINA%20WORK/2015%20URGENT%20WORK/April%2017%202015%20press%20releaseIsa%20and%20NN%20edited2242.docx#_ftn1 [3] http://tv.viacampesina.org/April-17th-International-Day-of?lang=en [4] http://viacampesina.org/map/17april/2015/ [5] http://viacampesina.org/ [6] file:///C:/LA%20VIA%20CAMPESINA%20WORK/2015%20URGENT%20WORK/April%2017%202015%20press%20releaseIsa%20and%20NN%20edited2242.docx#_ftnref1

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New publication - Seed laws that criminalise farmers: resistance and fightback
by La Vía Campesina 08 Apr '15

08 Apr '15

NEW PUBLICATION - SEED LAWS THAT CRIMINALISE FARMERS: RESISTANCE AND FIGHTBACK [1] LA VIA CAMPESINA | GRAIN Media release - 8 April 2015 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Peasant seeds - the pillar of food production - are under attack everywhere. Under corporate pressure, laws in many countries increasingly limit what farmers can do with their seeds. Seed saving, which has been the basis of farming for thousands of years, is quickly being criminalised. What can we do? A NEW BOOKLET [2] and poster from La Via Campesina and GRAIN documents how big business and governments are moving to stop farmers from saving and exchanging their seeds, and shows how farmers are fighting back. Control over seeds must remain in peasants' hands. This is the principle, based in the production process, that guarantees the food sovereignty of rural communities and urban populations against multinationals and their enormous profits. Over centuries, peasant farmers have created the thousands of varieties of crops that are the basis of the world's food supply and diversified diets, says La Via Campesina's Guy Kastler. But for corporations who want to impose laws that will give them complete control of land, farming, food and the profits that could be made from this sector, these time-tested practices around seeds are an obstacle. For La Via Campesina, the law should instead guarantee the rights of peasants to conserve, use, exchange, use and sell their seeds and protect them from biopiracy. Big business is carrying out, with the support of governments, a global legal offensive to gain complete control over seeds. This includes not only privatising seeds through new laws, but giving themselves new rights to physically search farmers' homes and destroy their seeds, says Camila Montecinos of GRAIN. Seed laws are evolving and becoming more aggressive in response to new demands from the seed and biotechnology industry. So-called free trade agreements, bilateral investment treaties and regional integration initiatives are hardening 'soft' forms of ownership rights over seeds. And laws strengthening intellectual property rights over seeds are being reinforced by other regulations that are supposed to ensure seed quality, market transparency, prevention of counterfeits, and the like. What is at stake is the very basis of peasant farmers' existence. Social movements worldwide, especially peasant farmers organisations, have resisted and mobilised to prevent such laws being passed. Corporations and governments rely on secrecy and lack of transparency because they know that an informed citizenry will reject the privatisation of seeds. This booklet will strengthen the resistance by ensuring that as many people as possible - especially in the rural communities that are most affected - understand these industry-backed laws, their impacts and objectives, as well as the capacity of social movements to replace them with laws that protect peasants' rights. CONTENTS 1. How seed laws make farmers' seeds illegal 2. African seeds: A treasure under threat 3. The Americas: Massive resistance against "Monsanto laws" 4. Asia: The struggle against a new wave of industrial seeds 5. Europe: Farmers strive to rescue agricultural diversity DOWNLOAD THE NEW PUBLICATION HERE [2]. _ __ ___ CONTACTS LA VIA CAMPESINA Guy Kastler (French) +33 46 891 2895 Andrea Ferante (English, Spanish) +39 348 018 9221 GRAIN Renée Vellvé (English, French) +33 67 507 3468 Camila Montecinos (Spanish) +56 22 222 4437 _ __ ___ NOTE TO EDITORS This booklet is accompanied by * an infographic explaining actions farmers & others can take to defend their seeds [3] * a map and table tracking changes to seed laws around the world [4]- published by GRAIN Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/biodiversity-a… [2] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/stories/pdf/2015-Seed%20laws%20booklet%20… [3] http://www.grain.org/article/entries/5150-infographic-stop-seed-laws-that-c… [4] http://www.grain.org/article/entries/5153-map-seed-laws-around-the-world

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Declaration of the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles
by La Vía Campesina 07 Apr '15

07 Apr '15

Declaration of the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles [1] Published on Saturday, 04 April 2015 13:27 RIGHTS TO WATER AND LAND, A COMMON STRUGGLE _Dakar to Tunis: Declaration of the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles (Tunis, 28 March 2015)_ We, social movements, grassroots organizations and civil society organizations engaged in the defence of the rights to land and water, gathered in October 2014 in Dakar at the African Social Forum. We are fighting and protesting against natural resource grabbing, especially water and land grabbing of our Commons, and against the systematic violations of the associated human rights. Sharing our ideas led to acknowledgement of the essential linkage between our struggles, given the inextricable nature of land and water grabbing. We met again at the World Social Forum in Tunis in March 2015 to continue this dialogue with movements and organizations from all over the world in order to broaden this convergence. To date, more than 200 million hectares of land have been grabbed globally by private firms, governments, elites and speculators, often with the support of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the G8 and other institutions and consortiums. The minority's appropriation of our Commons leads to concentration, forced evictions and the oppression of peoples. This is implemented in the name of environmental protection, the prevention of climate change, the production of "clean" energy, mega-infrastructure projects and/or so-called development, often promoted by Public-Private partnerships, such as the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa. Entire areas and territories are thus dispossessed and local populations evicted, while the loss of identity and ecosystems makes life impossible! Communities whose rights and dignity have been abused find themselves with broken up families, or obliged to become refugees, forced to migrate, lose their rights, and are impoverished and starving. It is estimated that 3.000 persons die each day due to lack of water. The access to and management of spaces of community life are destroyed by military and armed groups that perpetuate war and occupation, criminal State authorities, supported by economic, financial and political elites. This undermines local food systems and many local producers who feed the majority of the world's population. When people resist they are criminalized, jailed and killed. The huge profits of elites are thus built on the systematic violation of human rights of the majority of peasant farmers, informal settlement and slum dwellers, fisher folk, pastoralists, indigenous peoples and communities, nomads, rural and urban workers and consumers, especially youth and women, who are dispossessed of their land and livelihoods through violence, intimidation and torture. Land grabbing always goes hand-in-hand with water grabbing, and takes different forms: cases of unsustainable water-consuming farming, through the privatization and management of water utilities (stealing this vital resource from those who are unable to pay for it), contamination of aquifers caused by unregulated mining, the change of river courses and waterways through the construction of dams and the resulting eviction of communities, the militarization of access to water points, the dispossession of pastoralists and fisher communities of their livelihoods through practices such as coastal sand mining. The criminalization of activists fighting for the protection of the Commons has become widespread, albeit hidden by the authorities. Land and water resources are increasingly scarce, and therefore critical to the security of societies and the sovereignty of States. However, the scarcity underpinning the water, land and food crises is not a given; it is a political, geo-strategic and financial construct. In response to these threats to our lives and wellbeing, we are fighting back, asserting our rights and providing real solutions. We believe that peoples' access to and control of land and water is essential to peace, to stopping climate change, as well as to fulfilling fundamental human rights and guaranteeing a dignified life for all. Equal distribution of land and water, and gender equality are central to our vision of food sovereignty, based on agroecology (as outlined in the Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology in Nyéléni, in February 2015), local food systems, biodiversity, control of our seeds, and respect for natural water cycles. This vision applies to rural, urban and peri-urban populations and includes respectful producer - consumer relationships of mutual solidarity and cooperation. OUR SOLIDARITY, GROUNDED IN OUR COMMITMENT AS ACTIVISTS, IS BUILT UPON THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES AND CONVICTIONS THAT UNIFY OUR STRUGGLES: * That the human rights to water, food and land are fundamental, and crucial for life. All people, men, women, adults, children, rich, poor, rural and urban dwellers, are entitled to them. * That water and land are not only vital natural resources, but are also part of our common heritage, whose security and governance must be preserved by each community for the common good of our societies and the environment, now and for future generations. * Water, land and seeds are Commons, and not commodities. * We recognize that States are legally and constitutionally mandated to represent peoples' interests. States are therefore duty-bound to oppose any policy and international treaty that undermines human rights and their own sovereignty, such as Investor-State Dispute Settlement schemes as included in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the majority of investment treaties. * Land water management policies should promote the achievement of social justice, gender equality, public health and environmental justice. * We take a firm stand against foreign occupation and domination in all forms. We therefore jointly with civil society organisations from around the world, PLEDGE TO: * Raise awareness, educate and organize communities in rural and urban areas in order to build a strong and united movement struggling for the recognition and enforcement of our human rights to food, water and land and territories * Always defend the right of citizens and communities to free, prior and informed consent and full participation in the governance of natural resources in citizens' legal institutions * Build synergies between civil society actors across constituencies struggling against land and water grabbing in order to build national and regional platforms that support the building of an international convergence of land and water struggles * Reclaim our lands, waters and seeds; reclaim the legitimate political spaces that we as rights-holders have fought for, such as the Committee on World Food Security and Nutrition; and oppose co-optation of our language in a way that supports false solutions such as "climate smart agriculture" * Express our solidarity with and support for human rights defenders and those who resist land and water grabbing, especially when they are criminalized * Oppose national policies and international treaties promoting the privatization and commodification of natural resources, as well as land and water grabbing, including prepaid meters, automatic tariff adjustments and the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and ACP countries, for both goods and services * Denounce the World Bank's "business" climate ranking and biodiversity offsetting systems, that are drafted solely to support speculation and foster land and water grabbing, while completely neglecting human rights and social and environmental standards. WE CALL ON INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, STATES AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES TO: * Recognize the indivisibility of human rights and their international obligations towards their realization, especially for vulnerable and marginalized groups, women and youth. They must systematically apply the human rights approach, stop violations and prevent and prosecute human rights abuses * Implement adequate policies of agrarian reform, land reform, genuine land restitution, equitable redistribution and sustainable management of land, water and other natural resources * Adopt coherent policies including on development that benefit communities' empowerment rather than economic and geopolitical interests * Respect, protect and fulfil the human right to water and sanitation that was recognized and made explicit by the UN General Assembly resolution 69/2010, and adopt the constitutional and legislative regulatory frameworks that guarantee everyone the availability and accessibility of water and sanitation, as well as the effective justiciability of the human right to water * Recognize, respect and protect the collective customary rights regulating the access, security and governance of land and water, our Commons, by ensuring women's rights * Strictly uphold their obligations not to recognize illegal situations, including and especially prohibited acts by occupying powers, and not to cooperate or transact with any parties that engage in, or benefit from illegal situations * Guarantee peoples' free, prior and informed consent and full participation when decisions are made about the management of land, water, and other natural resources. And not just hear us, but address our demands, including our right to say No to land and water grabbing * Implement the International Labour Organization Convention 169 on the Rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples * Explicitly endorse the promotion of human rights, including the human rights to water, food and land, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN post-2015 Agenda * Implement the CFS/FAO Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests, and the FAO Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries immediately and with our full participation as rights holders; and enact national laws that make their provisions upholding peoples' rights fully justiciable * Support and adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other People working in rural areas as currently being developed in the Human Rights Council * Adopt and implement a Binding Treaty to prevent and prosecute crimes committed by transnational corporations and other business enterprises * Adopt the relevant measures and instruments of international law, especially in the framework of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of the United Nations, in order to effectively strengthen the human right to water and sanitation, and to clarify and specify its content and States' obligations, and to prevent any form of water grabbing We call upon civil society, social movements, grassroots organizations, workers' unions and NGOs of the world to engage in this discussion, to strengthen this declaration and support its claims by all available means. We need to foster the solidarity of our struggles, including the struggle for our rights to the essential resources required for life, we need to make civil society's voice heard in the negotiations towards the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Agenda post-2015, in the application of international and regional guidelines on land and natural resources, and the COP 2015 in order to stop climate change. As we continue to build this convergence, we recognize and appreciate our diversity, and welcome diverse initiatives that are emerging and which we will debate and discuss. To do this we commit to disseminating this declaration widely. We will take it to our territories and communities in order to involve them further in the process of shaping this Convergence. _ Water and land: same plight same fight!_ Tunis, 28 March 2015 Download the PDF Declaration [2] Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/agrarian-refor… [2] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/stories/pdf/2015-04-Dakar%20to%20Tunis%20…

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La Via Campesina extremely concerned about Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp situation
by La Vía Campesina 07 Apr '15

07 Apr '15

La Via Campesina extremely concerned about Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp situation [1] Published on Tuesday, 07 April 2015 17:45 LA VIA CAMPESINA RELEASE, APRIL 7TH, 2015 _La Via Campesina is extremely concerned about the situation in the Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp in southern Damascus_ La Via Campesina has been watching recent reports of the invasion of the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk by extremist armed forces with great concern. It comes at a time when the camp is suffering from a two-year siege on it. We are extremely worried about the well being of our friends and partners in the food sovereignty projects on the ground, who have been targeted by armed forces. The recent targeted execution of civil society activist Firas Al Naji--a founder of food sovereignty projects in Yarmouk (which aim to ease the suffering of a community living with severe malnutrition due to the siege), among other initiatives--is a dark example of the grave situation that civil society faces. We are also deeply concerned for the safety of Abdullah Al Khateeb and other human rights rights defenders targeted by militant groups. The threat against all of these active members of civil society is massive, and we do not want to stand quietly aside while they and their community are targeted. As Palestinian refugees--thus declared stateless persons by many nations--they are not granted the protection they should rightfully have in their host countries. As Palestinian refugees in Syria, being displaced yet again, their rights as stateless persons have deteriorated even further. In the case of Yarmouk, which is a southern suburb of the Syrian capital, the UN body that is meant to maintain and provide relief services to the Palestinian community, UNWRA, has not been able to fulfill its basic obligations to the camp's Palestinian residents. This has been the case for almost two years, ever since the regime-enforced siege was imposed on the camp. Meanwhile the entire population of the area--not only Palestinians--is left isolated and without any relief from the international community. This two-year siege prevents people from entering or leaving the camp, and prevents access to food and medical care. Since September 2014 a drought situation was created inside the camp by turning off the water supply. Thus the humanitarian situation has grown extremely dire for the camp's remaining 18,000 inhabitants. This siege is completely illegal according to international humanitarian law and has to be considered a war crime. As a peasants' movement and a movement for food sovereignty rights, we are deeply concerned about this continued violation of the rights of Syrians, all of them, facing the criminal strategy of "starve or surrender" in many areas around Syria. With almost 200 deaths caused by starvation, Yarmouk is one of the most strikingly outrageous examples of this method to try to break entire communities. We reject the use of hunger and food as a weapon against people, by any armed forces. In light of the new developments inside Yarmouk, with the invasion of the "Islamic State" and its attacks against Yarmouk's residents making the humanitarian situation even more dire, we call on the international community and especially the UNWRA to do everything they can to protect the people in Yarmouk. We urgently call for: * Safe passage for all of Yarmouk's residents in and out of the camp without facing the danger of arrest by forces on the ground, * Full protection for all those leaving the country, a protection which includes the right to leave and open-border-policies by other states, * That the UNWRA will bring immediate supplies of food, water and medical aid for besieged southern Damascus residents, * That all Palestinian parties make a collective effort to defend the rights of those trapped in and around Syria, * That the International Committee of the Red Cross support entry of medical supplies and food to all residents of the area, restore functioning hospitals that due to the siege have almost collapsed, and to ensure safe passage! Organize protests in your cities for solidarity with the people in Yarmouk and to demand that the international community, UNWRA and the International Committee of the Red Cross use their mandate and do anything they can to protect the people in the Yarmouk camp. Please write to: - UNWRA, go to http://www.unrwa.org/contact [2] - The International Committee of the Red Cross: Fax: +41 22 733 20 57, or go tohttps://www.icrc.org/eng/who-we-are/contacts/index.jsp [3] Download PDF Yarmouk Camp Release for circulation here [4] Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/human-rights-m… [2] http://www.unrwa.org/contact [3] https://www.icrc.org/eng/who-we-are/contacts/index.jsp [4] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/stories/pdf/2015-04-07%20Release%20on%20Y…

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La Via Campesina Declaration on Migration and Rural Workers
by La Vía Campesina 04 Apr '15

04 Apr '15

La Via Campesina Declaration on Migration and Rural Workers [1] Published on Thursday, 02 April 2015 15:28 [2]MARCH 25, 2015 – WORLD SOCIAL FORUM TUNIS 2015 The migration of peoples across arbitrary barriers is an integral part of human history. Rooted in the search for better living conditions, this movement of peoples from one place to another was later transformed into a social, economic, and political process that has largely served to benefit ruling elites - the slave traders of the past and the multinationals of the present. Today, as capital demands exceptional freedoms for itself - combined with greater restrictions on the poor - wars, social exclusion, economic injustice, and the global climate crisis are forcing millions of human beings to seek refuge across internationally imposed boundaries. As financial capital and agribusiness concentrates its power and holdings - diminishing opportunities for diversified and sustainable smallholder farming - precarious livelihoods continue to aggressively push a growing number of rural people off their farms and into the city. Neoliberal policies, free trade agreements, the development of industrial agriculture, the concentration of production areas… all have destructive effects on the environment, biodiversity, the climate and local, especially peasant, economies. These aggressive policies that impose a development model based on the exploitation of resources, the grabbing of the commons, the stealing of agricultural lands and the exploitation of peasants as well as that of women and men who work the land, have a particularly harsh effect on peasant communities. Ruined people have no other option to leave family, land and community to seek the means of survival some place else, in the big cities or in any countries. Once urbanized, our people are unlikely to find opportunities in our countries and soon become the migrants of today, the cheap labor of the corporate interests. In the most telling of cases, peasant farmers leave family farming only to become the low-paid agricultural workers of corporate giants Monsanto, Cargill, and DuPont. This occurs both internally - within Mexico or Palestine for example - as well as externally, as we cross borders to work for those who forced us off our lands. We of La Via Campesina, the world's largest social movement with millions of peasants, women, youth, indigenous peoples, afro-descendants, fisherfolk and - very often due to involuntary displacement - migrants and rural workers, denounce the fact that we, the poor majorities, are those who suffer most as climate change provokes extreme climatic events across our territories. The term "climate refugee" is now being used to describe those of us forced from our lands by the global climate crisis, by an industrialized food and social system that blames its victims and pardons its culprits. To advance the struggle for Food Sovereignty and help bring an end to the corporate control of the global food system, we declare that it is necessary to: * End all violence and repression against migrants perpetrated in the context of the so-called "War on Terror". Remove the issue of migration from the rhetoric around "threats" to national (or domestic) security since these are different questions altogether; * Stop the separation of undocumented migrant families, which has provoked a crisis in childhood migration. Halt the confinement of migrant children in detention centers, in unhealthy and inhumane conditions that violate their most elementary rights. End the deportation of all unprotected children; * Protect all refugees through international institutions (such as the UN) and NGOs of recognized moral authority (such as Amnesty International), safeguarding their rights as refugees and providing protection for all those living in refugee camps; * Halt and revoke all policies that criminalize migrants, policies that increase persecution, detentions, expulsions, and physical attacks. States should be obliged to respect international agreements and, if they have yet to do so, adhere to the International Convention on the Protection of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. Modify all local and national legislation so as to comply with said agreements; * Legalize "clandestine" migration so as to combat criminalization; * Allow (or guarantee) to migrants access to the labor market under conditions equivalent to workers 'national'. * Oppose all temporary worker programs, which serve only to divide the working class and weaken our organizations and struggles. With respect to temporary agricultural workers (braceros, guest workers, contratados de origen, etc.), these agreements serve only to benefit industrial agricultural by providing it with cheap and docile farm labor; * Organize all migrants, strengthening our rights to bargain collectively and to strike. Practice solidarity on an ongoing, permanent basis, firmly adopting the principle that "an injury to one is an injury to all"; * Dismantle all free trade agreements, especially those with the greatest impacts on collective resources, rural communities, and indigenous peoples. Implement Food Sovereignty, in direct contrast and in dispute with the corporate-controlled food system; * Challenge the capitalist model of economic growth and so-called "green" development, which does not address the causes of the climate crisis, a crisis that is exacerbating the migration crisis. The results of the climate crisis - extensive droughts, floods, avalanches, earthquakes, tidal waves, etc., which are ever more frequent, are now responsible for 25% of all involuntary migration worldwide, now estimated at 210 million people [according to the International Organization for Migration (www.iom.int [3])]; * Recognize the corporate causes of the global climate crisis and force transnational corporations and their governments in the industrialized nations to accept their responsibility in the surge of climate refugees. At the national level, incorporate the victims of environmental displacement into social development strategies that help to organize and empower these peoples; * Develop action plans with specific timeframes into national policies of research and development, giving priority to sustainable peasant agriculture as a viable option to combat the climate crisis and reduce the impacts of environmental displacement; * Bring Down All Walls: Mexico-USA, Melilla, Ceuta, Palestine (West Bank), Western Sahara, etc., because they not only represent a barbaric aggression against humanity, separating peoples, but also represent an affront to nature. While existing geographic borders already contribute to ecological disasters, new dividing walls only worsen the situation; * End all wars of territorial occupation, the extraction of wealth and the enslavement of indigenous peoples. We are here in the World Social Forum 2015 in Tunis to let everybody know, that this is our commitment and that we are ready to unite with all the social and popular movements to build an international alliance of peasants, migrant workers, indigenous peoples and social fighters for a more humane, dignify and better world. Links: ------ [1] http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/migrations-and… [2] http://viacampesina.org/en/images/migrants2o15.jpg [3] http://www.iom.int/

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Via-info-en April 2015