Via-info-en December 2021

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Colombia Peace Agreement Monitor | Newsletter #5
by La Via Campesina 17 Dec '21

17 Dec '21

*|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. YOU CAN RENEW YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO LA VIA CAMPESINA BY CLICKING HERE [10]. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here [1] For questions or comments, email LVCWEB(a)VIACAMPESINA.ORG WEBSITE: www.viacampesina.org [16] TV: www.tv.viacampesina.org [17] To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here [1] Links: ------ [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-2… [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/human-rights-violation-in-colombia-continues-to… [4] https://viacampesina.org/en/colombia-millions-forced-to-migrate-due-to-conf… [5] https://viacampesina.org/en/colombia-peace-agreement-gender-justice-marred-… [6] https://viacampesina.org/en/socia-l-organizations-denounce-limitations-on-p… [7] https://viacampesina.org/en/colombia-despite-attempts-to-curb-it-the-proces… [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

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Training Modules: UN Declaration on Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP)
by La Via Campesina 17 Dec '21

17 Dec '21

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. ------------------------- 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: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/finally-un-general-assembly-adopts-peasant-righ… [2] https://viacampesina.org/en/position-paper-a-summit-under-siege-corporate-c… [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-i… [5] https://www.tni.org/es/node/22742 [6] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/LVC-EN-Bookl…

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Training modules on Peasant Seeds from La Via Campesina:
by La Via Campesina 10 Dec '21

10 Dec '21

LA VIA CAMPESINA LAUNCHES TRAINING MODULES ON PEASANT SEEDS ------------------------- 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 ------------------------- Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/la-via-campesina-launches-training-modules-on-p… [2] https://viacampesina.org/es/la-via-campesina-lanza-modulos-de-formacion-sob… [3] https://viacampesina.org/fr/la-via-campesina-lance-des-modules-de-formation… [4] https://viacampesina.org/en/tag/lvc-seed-modules/

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Latest Edition | Nyéléni Newsletter: Message of pastoralist communities, a voice from the land
by La Via Campesina 10 Dec '21

10 Dec '21

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 ------------------------- Links: ------ [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

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Illustrated Book: “The Path of Peasant and Popular Feminism in La Via Campesina”
by La Via Campesina 02 Dec '21

02 Dec '21

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]. ------------------------- NOTE: This illustrated book draws its inspiration from a handbook [5] that La Via Campesina had launched early this year. Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/es/nueva-publicacion-grafica-el-caminar-del-femini… [2] https://viacampesina.org/fr/nouvelle-publication-litineraire-du-feminisme-p… [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/VIA-CAMPESIN… [4] https://cloud.viacampesina.org/s/jmyLf2Rbwci23w2 [5] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/Peasant-and-…

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News: La Via Campesina celebrates its political transition to Europe
by La Via Campesina 01 Dec '21

01 Dec '21

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. ------------------------- FOR MEDIA QUERIES, CONTACT: PRESS[AT]VIACAMPESINA[DOT]ORG ------------------------- 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: ------ [1] https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1650694?ln=en [2] https://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/files/etc-whowillfeed… [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/LVC-EN-Broch… [4] https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL/videos/1135134243920612

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