Via-info-en November 2022

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#25nov2022 La Via Campesina: We defend Food Sovereignty and our territories from violence, evictions and agribusiness!
by La Via Campesina 15 Nov '22

15 Nov '22

LA VIA CAMPESINA: WE DEFEND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND OUR TERRITORIES FROM VIOLENCE, EVICTIONS AND AGRIBUSINESS! 15 NOVEMBER 2022 CAMPAIGN TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN [1], PATRIACHY [2], WOMEN [3] _CALL TO ACTION_ (Bagnolet, November 15, 2022) On 25 November 2022, _International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women_, as peasants organised in La Via Campesina, we demand Food Sovereignty, the right to land, and an end to criminalisation and all types of violence in the countryside and the cities. At the same time, we condemn the fact that in the midst of a food, political and economic crisis, the rates of violence against women, children and minorities are alarmingly high. There is an urgent need to build societies free from violence and peaceful communities with social justice. In addition to the situation of structural violence experienced by women in the world, there is the high cost of living, the aftermath of COVID 19, the work of caring for the elderly and children due to lack of state infrastructure, lack of employment, forced displacement and migration, wars and climate disasters. Today more than ever we must consolidate Food Sovereignty as living spaces in the territories, and as a concrete way to confront capitalist, colonial and patriarchal policies that oppress and violate women and commodify life. Worldwide, it is estimated that 2 out of 3 women have suffered abuse in their lifetime. In the countryside, violence is further deepened by the expansion of agribusiness, extractivism and land grabbing, as well as the lack of policies to support peasants, especially women. The main economic resources are earmarked for large agricultural investments in agri-hydro and mining business. Meanwhile, violent evictions, feminicides and criminalisation continue with total impunity in complicity with the state and the judiciary. Throughout these 30 years, the political proposals of La Via Campesina have remained valid and more relevant than ever, and peasants play a fundamental role in Food Sovereignty, in the conservation of biodiversity, in the production of healthy food with agroecological practices, in markets, in the family economy, and in political and organisational life. However, peasant women, indigenous women, sea and forest women, landless women, fisherwomen, and pastoralists continue to demand structural equality, paid and dignified work in the countryside, recognition of care work, guaranteed political participation, access to land, the right to basic services and investment in peasant agriculture as recognised in the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants adopted by the UN in 2018. Article 4: Non-discrimination against women: * States shall take all appropriate measures to eradicate all forms of discrimination against rural women and other women working in rural areas and to promote their empowerment so that they may fully enjoy, on equal terms with men, all human rights and fundamental freedoms and be able to work for, participate in and benefit freely from the economic, social, political and cultural development of the rural environment. LET'S DEFEND OUR TERRITORIES FROM AGRIBUSINESS AND FEMICIDES! We cannot allow agribusiness and the plague of feminicide to advance in our territories; feminicides are today the most violent expression of patriarchy over women's bodies, and the numbers are growing all over the world. This is why we call on our member organisations and allies to commit to our STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED IN 2008, which is a political and pedagogical tool for dialogue within our organisations, regions and with societies. It also allows us to articulate struggles with women's organisations and diversities in the cities to demand rights, justice and an end to impunity. Currently, the Americas is one of the most violent continents for women, with most of these murders occurring in the family environment as well as by common and organised crime. For example, in Ecuador, a feminicide is registered every 31 hours. While in Brazil, one occurs every 7 hours and a rape every 10 minutes. In Europe, the rise of the extreme right is causing an increase in cases of femicide, as in Italy, where these cases increased by 15%, in France, where femicides are recorded every 48 hours, and in Spain, where 76 femicides and other murders of women have been recorded so far in 2022. Violence against women and children is also high in Africa, particularly in conflict zones such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. In South Africa, from April to June 2022, more than 9,500 cases of rape were reported, and almost 4,000 of these rapes took place inside homes. Likewise, in Southeast Asia, 33 percent of women with intimate partners between the ages of 15 and 49 will experience physical and/or sexual violence by a current or former husband or male partner at least once in their lifetime, according to reports. In this sense, as La Via Campesina, we urge States to invest in public policies for prevention of and response to gender-based violence, we demand mechanisms so that justice bodies are aware of gender issues, so that they have empathy and respect when dealing with these cases, as well as political and economic conditions on the part of the State that guarantee sufficient experts and respect for the dignity of the survivors. Women all over the world require comprehensive public health care and guarantees of their human rights. Instruments such as the purple code, which aims to protect and give priority attention to women victims of gender-based violence, have proven not to work, and survivors are re-victimised through long and tedious legal proceedings, which is why many women drop their complaints. In many countries and cultures, girls continue to be forced to marry and give birth, while millions of women die from back-alley abortions, with no guarantee of their sexual and reproductive rights such as access to dignified menstruation. That is why as La Via Campesina, every 25 November, we raise our voice for memory, justice and reparations for all women who struggle, defenders of territories and survivors of violence. We stand in solidarity with the families and organisations, and express our concern for all defenders, women, youth and minorities who experience harassment, violence and reprisals from the state, transnational corporations and the judiciary for their active resistance to agribusiness. On this day of action, together with organised and rebellious women from all over the world, we will call for marches, forums, direct actions in courts, fairs and other events denouncing the daily and structural violence experienced by women and peasant minorities. DOWNLOAD AND SHARE! _#StopViolenceAgainstWomen #25Nov22_ [4] You are very important to amplify our voices and actions, we need to show unity of action, download our official poster and communication materials for social networks available in ES, FR and EN, you can also find a blank version to put it in your local language, HERE [4]. Check out our publication " The Path of Peasant and Popular Feminism in La Via Campesina", STUDY VERSION [5] and GRAPHIC VERSION [6] for grassroots work. JOIN US! Send us information about your actions, videos and photos to our email: communications(a)viacampesina.org, tag us on social media: Twitter (@via_campesinaSP/@via_campesina/@viacampesinaFR), Facebook (@viacampesinaOFFICIAL), Instagram (@la_via_campesina_oficial), and make our collective mobilisation for societies free from violence and agribusiness globally visible. Links: ------ [1] https://viacampesina.org/en/what-are-we-fighting-against/patriachy/campaign… [2] https://viacampesina.org/en/what-are-we-fighting-against/patriachy/ [3] https://viacampesina.org/en/who-are-we/women/ [4] https://cloud.viacampesina.org/s/xcKJdZjs7aqSbzw [5] https://viacampesina.org/en/publication-the-path-of-peasant-and-popular-fem… [6] https://viacampesina.org/en/graphic-book-the-path-of-peasant-and-popular-fe…

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La Via Campesina Call to Action for the 27th UN Climate COP
by La Via Campesina 03 Nov '22

03 Nov '22

*|MC:SUBJECT|* *|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* (Bagnolet, October 31, 2022) Year after year, one UN Climate Conference of the Parties (COP) after another, the global climate crisis only worsens. Caused in great part by agribusiness and the destructive capitalist system it fuels, today’s crisis is a direct result of an economic system that exploits every form of life without recognizing any limits to nature. Mother Earth’s intricate systems and life-sustaining cycles are broken, with the devastating Covid19 pandemic, and the inaccessibility of health care for many, demonstrating just how cruel capitalism can be when it comes to inflicting the pain, suffering and loss, caused by the destruction of nature. Be it in Pakistan, Palestine or Puerto Rico – to name just a few – the once distant threat of “climate change” now comes in wave after wave of “catastrophic weather events” making climate-fueled tragedies an all-too-frequent part of people’s daily lives. From droughts to floods, through wildfires and hurricanes, these extreme manifestations have threatened and even destroyed people’s lives and food sovereignty, who are calling for real solutions to limit global warming to 1.5°C. As if that weren’t enough, wars, occupations and sanctions are dished out by the power-hungry with little regard for the UN-recognized rights to Food, Health, Peace and Self-Determination, much less the now universal human right to a “clean, healthy and sustainable environment” (UN General Assembly, 2022). In addition, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI, 2022) reported that the climate vulnerable and extremes underline rising numbers of hungry people, poverty and inequality. At the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its annual Climate COPs, transnational corporations (TNCs) use their control over most national governments and multilateral institutions to commodify the crisis, deny fossil fuel capitalism has anything to do with it, and limit any real possibility of transformative change. Though the corporate food system is responsible for more than 50% of all greenhouse gasses (GHGs), the Bayer-Monsanto’s of the world offer nothing more than profit-hungry proposals packaged into shameful “net zero” schemes. Instead of a very real, urgent and necessary reduction in emissions – whose main responsibility lies with the elites of historic emitters such as the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia – corporate false solutions provide a free pass to the dominant colonial core while leading a global assault on rural communities, livelihoods and territories. So-called “nature-based solutions” (NBS) such as REDD and REDD+, “soil c/arbon for offsetting”/ and other market-based trading schemes, and the corporate takeover of agriculture through patenting, “digitalization”, “sustainable intensification” and “climate-smart(ation)” are all big wins for agribusiness but terrible losses for peasants, indigenous peoples, fisherfolk, forest dwellers and others on the frontlines of the global climate crisis. And when the great hoax of “net zero” fails to calm the climate, transnational corporations promise extremely high-risk geoengineering will somehow save the day (or at least their profit margins). This has been the norm at Climate COP after Climate COP, and the 27th Annual Conference of the Parties (COP27) is unlikely to be any different. Supposedly “Africa’s COP”, this year’s Climate COP is set to take place at the elitist and artificial enclave that is Egypt’s Sharm el Sheikh. Far removed from the African and Arab People’s steadfast struggles for self-determination, COP27 is leaving very little room for organized communities to speak truth to corporate power. For this reason, among others, many of our sister organizations of the Africa Climate Justice Collective (ACJC) organized the African People’s Counter COP demanding real solutions rooted in climate justice, a prioritization of people and the planet, and an end to corporate control of the UNFCCC. These demands are in line with our hard-fought UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP):/“States shall take all necessary measures to ensure that non-State actors that they are in a position to regulate, such as private individuals and organizations, and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, respect and strengthen the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas..(and)…take appropriate measures to ensure that peasants and other people working in rural areas enjoy, without discrimination, a safe, clean and healthy environment”./ It is precisely because of this context that La Vía Campesina will be at COP27. Delegates from member organizations will make their voices, traditions, experiences and solutions heard. We will continue to promote, practice and uplift /Food Sovereignty/ as the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods and the right to define our food and agricultural systems. We will explain once again that peasants through agroecological practices and territories cultivate more than 70% of the food produced worldwide on less than 30% of the arable lands available. We will emphasize that /Agroecology/ is a sustainable path forward based on centuries of experience and accumulated real evidence – it is a science, a social movement and a lifestyle practised by millions around the world through meaningful work, cooperation, strategy and organization. We will amplify and share /UNDROP/, an international legal instrument that we helped to create and that defends people’s rights over their territories, seeds, waters, forests and that promotes a more sustainable way of being and living. We will stand in S/olidarity /with all who struggle for collective rights and reiterate the need for “/common but differentiated responsibilities/” among States – including a vibrant Green Climate Fund free of any International Monetary Fund (IMF) or World Bank (WB) influence, void of all neo-liberal impositions that serve only to further exploit people and the planet, and fully financed through climate reparations for the colonial legacies of the past and present. We stand in solidarity with and support those in the Climate Justice Movement demanding climate just reparations, not simple “climate finance”. Finally, we will be in COP27 continuing to expand our arms and shoulders building solidarity, action and common strategy with grassroots organizations, alliances and social movements from around the world fighting for climate and social justice. While most national governments and multilateral institutions offer capitalist solutions that systematically fail to address the climate crisis, we, the organized voice of over 200 million peasants, landless workers, indigenous people, pastoralists, fishers, migrant, farmworkers, small and medium-size farmers, rural women, peasant youth and gender-diverse persons of La Via Campesina, in convergence with a diversity of movements for Climate Justice, reiterate here and now our real solutions: *FOOD SOVEREIGNTY COOLS THE PLANET ! *We will build it with agroecology and peasants’ rights to ensure a /Just Transition/ rooted in people’s power, ecological and social well being, and solidarity at the local, regional and international context. Together, in struggle, we will win! *PEASANTS RIGHTS’ AND AGROECOLOGY FOR A JUST TRANSITION!* *GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE!* *GLOBALIZE HOPE!* /For media inquiries, contact:/ press(a)viacampesina.org <mailto:communication@viacampesina.org> Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/viacampesinaOFFICIAL> Twitter <http://www.twitter.com/via_campesina> Link <https://www.instagram.com/la_via_campesina_official/> Website <https://viacampesina.org/> To unsubscribe from the distribution list click here <https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-en> For questions or comments, email *lvcweb(a)viacampesina.org* <mailto:lvcweb@viacampesina.org?subject=Newsletter%20Comments%3A%20> *Website:* www.viacampesina.org *TV:* www.tv.viacampesina.org To subscribe to this newsletter - Click Here <https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-en>

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