Colombia Peace Agreement Monitor | Newsletter #5
by La Via Campesina
*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*
This newsletter is the result of La Via Campesina's collective effort
to make visible and accompany the implementation of the Peace Accords in
Colombia.
To subscribe click here [1]
SNAIL PACE OF PEACE: "AT THIS RATE, IT WILL TAKE 26 YEARS TO REALISE THE
COLOMBIAN PEACE ACCORD"
Three years ago, Ivan Duque came to the presidency as a candidate for a
party promising to "tear to shreds" the Peace Agreement. The sentences
of the Constitutional Court, the pressure from the international
community and the citizen mobilization prevented the president and the
government party from dismantling the Accord, yet Duque's mandate
delayed the implementation process and led the country in a serious
security crisis. read the full press release [2] of La Vía Campesina.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION IN COLOMBIA CONTINUES TO RISE
Political violence in Colombia is a persistent phenomenon despite the
Peace Agreement. The assassination of community leaders, ex-combatants
and their relatives continues to increase, as well as the various forms
of human rights violations suffered by peasant, indigenous communities,
and afro-descendants during the territorial reconfiguration of the armed
conflict. READ MORE... [3]
COLOMBIA: MILLIONS FORCED TO MIGRATE DUE TO CONFLICTS, AND THREATS FROM
MINING FIRMS
Considerable forms of violence have been suffered by rural communities
in the context of the armed conflict, one of the most serious being the
forced displacement by stripping peasant communities, indigenous people,
and Afro-descendants of a fundamental element of their identity and
their existence: the land. This phenomenon, causing 8 million victims
during the whole armed conflict, has not stopped with the signing of the
Peace Agreement, on the contrary, it continues to rise. READ MORE... [4]
COLOMBIA PEACE AGREEMENT: GENDER JUSTICE MARRED BY LACK OF POLITICAL
WILL
In Colombia, there are over 6 million rural women, many of whom have had
limited access to land due to conflict and structural policies that have
historically concentrated the property of land in the hands of men. The
signing of the Peace Agreement raised hopes to make this situation
change, yet nothing is being accomplished. READ MORE... [5]
COLOMBIA: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE NATIONAL STRIKE
What initially was a call to protest the regressive Tributary Reform
presented by the Duque government, has turned into a social explosion
triggered by the upsurge in violence, the assassination of community
leaders, the government's failings regarding the Peace Agreement,
increased poverty, precarious working conditions, and measures adopted
by the government to deal with the crisis generated by the pandemic.
READ MORE... [6]
COLOMBIA: DESPITE ATTEMPTS TO CURB IT, THE PROCESS OF FINDING THE TRUTH
MOVES FORWARD
The truth is an indispensable element in peace and reconciliation
processes. Its importance remains in the need for the creation of a
collective memory, the fight against oblivion and the guaranteeing of
the rights of victims and society to know what happened in the context
of the armed conflict. The process of obtaining truth, justice and
reparation in Colombia is progressing little by little, despite attempts
by the far right to curb it. READ MORE... [7]
[8]
Omar Moreno, life and peasant struggle
[9]
HYMN OF THE INDIGENOUS GUARD
YOU ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE AUTONOMY OF OUR MOVEMENT
-------------------------
As a supporter who has contributed financial resources to La Via
Campesina, and as an activist who joins us on the streets and in the
fields, your support is always welcome and put to good use.
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Links:
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[1] https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-en
[2]
https://viacampesina.org/en/snail-pace-of-peace-at-this-rate-it-will-take...
[3]
https://viacampesina.org/en/human-rights-violation-in-colombia-continues-...
[4]
https://viacampesina.org/en/colombia-millions-forced-to-migrate-due-to-co...
[5]
https://viacampesina.org/en/colombia-peace-agreement-gender-justice-marre...
[6]
https://viacampesina.org/en/socia-l-organizations-denounce-limitations-on...
[7]
https://viacampesina.org/en/colombia-despite-attempts-to-curb-it-the-proc...
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhOgyaHgiJc
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwR6VgQ1mOE
[10] https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/viacampesina
[11] https://viacampesina.org/en/donations/
[12] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL
[13] http://www.twitter.com/via_campesina
[14] https://www.instagram.com/la_via_campesina_official/
[15] https://viacampesina.org/
[16] http://www.viacampesina.org
[17] http://www.tv.viacampesina.org
3 years
Training Modules: UN Declaration on Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP)
by La Via Campesina
On the third anniversary of the formal adoption of the UN Declaration on
Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), La
Via Campesina and FIAN International are launching the first booklet in
a five-part training kit of popular education materials.
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STRENGTHENING THE IMPLEMENTATION, ASSERTION AND ADVANCEMENT OF PEASANT
RIGHTS
This 17 December, we celebrate the third anniversary of the
international recognition of the human rights of peasants and other
people in rural areas. In 2018, on this day, the UN General Assembly had
adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People
Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) [1].
The backdrop to this anniversary is undoubtedly bleak. Big businesses
continue to violate, with impunity, the rights of peasants and other
rural people. Any form of resistance or advocacy to protect these rights
is met with blatant criminalizationcriminalization of the social
movements leading it. This past year, agribusiness corporations also
persisted with their false solutions and Big Tech Reforms in
agriculture, despite the worsening COVID-19 pandemic and climate crises.
Working hand in glove with the UN Secretary-General, the World Economic
Forum, and mega-philanthropies, Transnational Corporations continued to
champion an agribusiness free-market narrative at several global policy
spaces.
The latest in this series is the UN Food System Summit (UNFSS), held in
September 2021 and marred by opaqueness and exclusionary processes [2].
UNFSS outcomes are attempting to shape international narratives and
policies on responding to the multiple crises facing humanity and Mother
Earth.
Recently, COP26 saw the announcement of many public-private partnerships
pledging to fast-track agriculture innovation, financed by the same
agribusiness corporations that promoted the Green Revolution, and now
masquerading many of their practices under the garb of 'climate-smart
agriculture. And these are not disparate events but an inter-connected
attempt, to preserve the dominance of translational agribusiness firms.
In many ways, what big corporates have been brewing in Davos [3] over
the years as the "template" of a digitalized, high tech future food
system [4] became a reality at the UNFSS.
All these recent events and actions indicate that we will continue to
witness even more concentration of resources, productive chains and
infrastructure among a few corporations. Democratic governance spaces
will shrink further [5], and violate the rights of peasants and workers
will worsen.
But what gives hope is also the emergence of organized resistance from
affected communities. There is a growing recognition among people that
these violations are being carried out with impunity and often in
connivance with the local authorities and officials. We cannot discount
the relevance and significance of the UN Declaration (UNDROP) in this
context. It is a fantastic tool to shield us from profit-driven
corporate agenda and roll back the tide of neoliberalism. These training
modules offer a practical tool to initiate transformation and take our
power back from transnational agribusinesses.
The UNDROP Introductory Booklet is the first in a five-part toolkit of
popular education materials.
[6]It is crucial to reconnect the UNDROP to the small-scale food
producers worldwide - the same people who inspired its content, who
worked on its development and whose Rights to dignified lives and
livelihoods continues to be violated. This training toolkit will help us
to effectively use the UNDROP in our struggles to assert and advance our
collective and individual rights. The purpose of this toolkit is to
create broader awareness, promote deeper understanding and enhance
capacities (through training) of rural people's movements. We should use
this booklet as a foundational tool to ensure that the UNDROP will be
respected, implemented and promoted at all levels, from local to
international, from community customs to policymaking mechanisms.
This popular education toolkit is context-based and will empower
peasants to improve their livelihoods in rural areas. It will reinforce
food sovereignty and agroecology, strengthen the fight against climate
change. It recognizes peasants' rights to conserve, use, exchange and
sell their seeds. It defends people's right to protect blatant attempts
to grab land, rivers and oceans. In short, using this toolkit will bring
UNDROP to life, turning it into an effective tool for our struggles.
It is crucial that working-class people, rights holders, peasants, and
people living or working in rural areas incorporate the UNDROP in their
daily struggles and understand how their rights are violated.
To achieve this, the Basic Booklet and the forthcoming four Thematic
Booklets have focused on specific articles adopted in UNDROP and how
affected people can apply it in legal and advocacy spaces. All peasants
must understand their rights for the implementation to be effective, so
these booklets are part of a crucial popular education campaign.
For La Via Campesina, the adoption of this Declaration by the UN in
December 2018 was only a battle half won. It is now crucial to see this
Declaration fully implemented in letter and spirit in every country,
everywhere.
UNDROP can help us overcome structural discrimination and violence and
promote our rural ways of life to respond to the current political,
economic, social and ecological crises._ _Let's mobilize ourselves with
this toolkit to implement our UNDROP!
Globalise the Struggle, Globalise Hope!
DOWNLOAD NOW
Links:
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[1]
https://viacampesina.org/en/finally-un-general-assembly-adopts-peasant-ri...
[2]
https://viacampesina.org/en/position-paper-a-summit-under-siege-corporate...
[3]
https://www3.weforum.org/docs/IP/2016/NVA/NVAGuidetoCountryLevelAction.pdf
[4]
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/09/the-time-to-reinstate-food-systems...
[5] https://www.tni.org/es/node/22742
[6]
https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/LVC-EN-Boo...
3 years
Training modules on Peasant Seeds from La Via Campesina:
by La Via Campesina
LA VIA CAMPESINA LAUNCHES TRAINING MODULES ON PEASANT SEEDS
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La Via Campesina joyfully announces the launching of a series of
training modules called "LA VIA CAMPESINA: CONSTRUCTION OF SHARED
KNOWLEDGE ON PEASANT SEEDS". These are 5 pedagogical documents that seek
to deepen the study of the global struggle for peasant seeds, their
situation and context and connection with other struggles for Food
Sovereignty.
The modules have been built within the Agroecology, Seeds and
Biodiversity Collective of La Via Campesina. It will strengthen the
GLOBAL CAMPAIGN – _"SEEDS: PEOPLES' HERITAGE AT THE SERVICE OF
HUMANITY"_. Each of these modules explores lived realities, reflections,
victories and struggles and have been systematically collected and
synthesised for the activists of the movement, its organizations,
institutions, and anyone interested in training on such issues.
THE FIRST MODULE IN THIS FIVE-PART MONTHLY SERIES, "FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
BORN OF PEASANT SEEDS" IS NOW ONLINE and is available in ENGLISH [1],
SPANISH [2] AND FRENCH [3].
The subsequent editions will also be available on the website of La Via
Campesina. [4]
We encourage activists, organizations to use this tool and a crucial
resource in your training programs and to spread this knowledge in
communities. The module comes embedded with a "Virtua Shigra" that
points to additional and useful resources on the topic. May it be of
much benefit and revolution!
If you have comments or queries, please write to lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org
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Links:
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[1]
https://viacampesina.org/en/la-via-campesina-launches-training-modules-on...
[2]
https://viacampesina.org/es/la-via-campesina-lanza-modulos-de-formacion-s...
[3]
https://viacampesina.org/fr/la-via-campesina-lance-des-modules-de-formati...
[4] https://viacampesina.org/en/tag/lvc-seed-modules/
3 years
Latest Edition | Nyéléni Newsletter: Message of pastoralist communities, a voice from the land
by La Via Campesina
NYELENI : INTRODUCING THE MESSAGE OF PASTORALIST COMMUNITIES, A VOICE
FROM THE LAND
THE NEW EDITION OF THE NYÉLÉNI NEWSLETTER IS ONLINE!
-------------------------
The latest edition of the Nyéléni newsletter throws light on the lives
and lived realities of pastoralist communities around the world.
More than half of the Earth's surface is made up of grasslands and
rangelands. For thousands of years pastoralist communities have
domesticated animals and managed ecosystems in a sustainable way,
producing a diversity of cultures and food systems that are adapted and
resilient. Associated biodiversity has always co-existed with
pastoralism.
Pastoralism is based on the extensive use of territory, sometimes
grasslands but also forests or cropland after harvests, marginal lands
and other spaces that very often are not suitable for agriculture.
Pastoralism is practised by between 200 and 500 million people worldwide
in highly variable environments in nearly every country of the world
from the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa to the Arctic Circle. But today
pastoralism is threatened as never before by the forced
industrialization of livestock farming.
DOWNLOAD THE NEWSLETTER FOR MORE: ENGLISH [1] SPANISH [2] FRENCH [3]
Illustration by Fernando Garcia Dory/European Shepard Network / WAMIP
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Links:
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[1] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=171
[2] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=172
[3] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=173
3 years
Illustrated Book: “The Path of Peasant and Popular Feminism in La Via Campesina”
by La Via Campesina
On 25th November 2021, La Via Campesina's global campaign to eliminate
gender-based violence published an illustrated book that traces _THE
PATH OF PEASANT & POPULAR FEMINISM _in the movement. During the month of
November, members of LVC in all continents, amplified our global
solidarity actions that called for an end to violence against women and
girls. The launch of this book coincided with these actions, and echoes
all our demands and our collective critique and condemnation of a
capitalist and patriarchal system that perpetuates these violations.
As La Via Campesina, we demand justice and dignity for those affected
by the violence and condemn the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators. It
is time to say "_enough!_" to gender-based violence experienced by
women, girls and non-binary genders.
The book is a vital political-pedagogical tool in our struggle, aiding
our training processes at the grassroots, regions and continents.
Organized by the Women's Articulation of La Via Campesina and
beautifully illustrated by the _FemGarabat Feminist Collective_ of the
Basque Country, this book synthesis the historical struggle of peasant
and indigenous women around the world.
The artists who worked on the book also expressed their support and
respect for these struggles when they said, _"As a feminist graphic
collective, we use illustrations as a tool for transmitting ideas that
we believe in and value. Through our work we had the opportunity to
learn about women's struggles from all over the world and, in that
sense, working with La Vía Campesina has been a very enriching
experience. It has been a pleasure to visually illustrate these diverse
struggles, those in which Femgarabat firmly believes"_
Twenty-eight pages of stunning graphic work reveal the role of women in
the global fight for Food Sovereignty and their centrality in promoting
Peasant and Popular Feminism in their territories and organizations. It
also offers several testimonies of peasant leaders from across
continents in implementing the 'Global Campaign to End Violence Against
Women' promoted by LVC since 2008.
-------------------------
GET YOUR COPY TODAY AND SHARE IT WIDELY WITHIN YOUR ORGANIZATION, REGION
AND AMONG FRIENDS AND ALLIES. THE PUBLICATION IS AVAILABLE IN ES [1], FR
[2] AND EN [3]. YOU CAN ALSO MAKE A VERSION IN YOUR LOCAL LANGUAGE HERE
[4].
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NOTE: This illustrated book draws its inspiration from a handbook [5]
that La Via Campesina had launched early this year.
Links:
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[1]
https://viacampesina.org/es/nueva-publicacion-grafica-el-caminar-del-femi...
[2]
https://viacampesina.org/fr/nouvelle-publication-litineraire-du-feminisme...
[3]
https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/VIA-CAMPES...
[4] https://cloud.viacampesina.org/s/jmyLf2Rbwci23w2
[5]
https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Peasant-an...
3 years, 1 month
News: La Via Campesina celebrates its political transition to Europe
by La Via Campesina
La Via Campesina celebrates its political transition to Europe.
AFTER ELIZABETH MPOFU, MORGAN ODY BECOMES THE GENERAL COORDINATOR OF
LVC.
-------------------------
BAGNOLET, FRANCE | 01 DECEMBER 2021:
The International Operative Secretariat of La Via Campesina, the global
movement that represents around 200 million peasant farmers worldwide,
moved this week to Bagnolet, France, hosted by European Coordination Via
Campesina (ECVC) and its member organisation La Confédération Paysanne,
in line with the organisation's principle of geographical rotation
between the continents.
With this step, Morgan Ody - a vegetable producer from Bretagne, France,
assumes the General Coordination of La Via Campesina from Elizabeth
Mpofu (Harare, Zimbabwe).
In the context of the current climate, biodiversity and resource crises,
this responsibility can help underline that the defence of peasant
agriculture and food sovereignty is essential to promote climate,
economic and social justice and establish sustainable and fair food
chains. For the past 25 years, small and medium-scale farmers from La
Via Campesina have fought for peasants' rights, agrarian reform and food
sovereignty, i.e. the right of peoples to decide how and by whom food is
produced. We have worked tirelessly to feed the population and ensure
that past, present and future generations have healthy, fresh and
culturally appropriate food.
However, as peasants, we are under constant attack. Peasant Agroecology,
the solution we offer to climate and food issues is not only ignored but
actively destroyed by incoherent policies, industrial monopolies and
neo-liberal capitalism. Continuing the struggle against industrial
agriculture and the power of transnational companies, the member
organisations of LVC are committed and determined to defend peasant
agriculture. Our solidarity is our strength!
At present, the world finds itself at a crucial crossroads, and in this
context, the arrival of the secretariat of a global movement so strongly
committed to agroecology and food sovereignty in Europe is an
opportunity to ensure the truly sustainable solutions of small-scale
farmers are reflected in the policies implemented at an international,
European and national levels.
As Morgan Ody commented during the Secretariat transition ceremony held
in Bagnolet on 30 November 2021, peasant farmers are key to building a
future based on social justice: fair prices for producers and fair wages
for rural workers, harmony with the natural environment, international
solidarity, equality and dignity.
> _"We, the peasants, the indigenous peoples, the rural women, the agricultural workers, the youth of our rural areas, produce while reviving biodiversity and emitting very few greenhouse gases: mixed farming and livestock farming, like pastoralism or traditional agro-forestry, are models of energy saving, carbon capture and maintenance of environments rich in wild and cultivated diversity. Thus, with our know-how and skills, peasant agriculture f__eeds__ o__ver __70% of world's population with less than 30% of the productive resources__[2]__."_
Across all levels, united in our vision of food sovereignty, the regions
and members of La Via Campesina will continue to work to ensure that the
human rights of all those who live and work in rural areas are
respected, for the good of the planet and its population.
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FOR MEDIA QUERIES, CONTACT: PRESS[AT]VIACAMPESINA[DOT]ORG
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NOTES
[1] United Nations Declaration of Rights of Peasants and other people
working in rural areas [1]
[2] Who will feed us? [2], ETC group, 2017
[3] LVC Organizational Brochure, edition 2021 [3]
[4] Link to the Transition Ceremony [4]
Links:
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[1] https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1650694?ln=en
[2]
https://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/files/etc-whowillfe...
[3]
https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/LVC-EN-Bro...
[4]
https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/videos/1135134243920612
3 years, 1 month