UN Special Procedure on the UNDROP urgently needed to achieve social justice and equity and equality
by La Via Campesina
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UN Special Procedure on the UNDROP urgently needed to achieve social
justice and equity and equality
/La Via Campesina Press Release/
(Bagnolet: December 16, 2022) This December 17th, the fourth anniversary
of the international adoption and recognition of the human rights of
peasants and other people working in rural areas, we reflect on the
strides we have taken towards full implementation and enforcements of
peasants’ rights.
On this day in 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration
on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas
(UNDROP)
<https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org...>,
beginning a new chapter to address peasants’ claims and interests and to
ensure respect of their rights.
It is important to highlight from the outset that the implementation of
the UNDROP is underway in various forms, though not at the scale and
urgency we desired, in many regions and countries[1]
<https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org...>.
The question of the extent to which states are making rights enshrined
in the UNDROP a reality at local level is difficult to answer. The
current geopolitical global context is fraught with a disturbing lack of
political will to uphold human rights. Unhindered capitalism, protracted
conflicts, and the climate crisis continue to deepen inequality; since
the adoption of UNDROP in 2018, the world has experienced crisis after
crisis. In the last four years, the number of undernourished increased
by about 200 million. Hundreds of environmental and community defenders
were killed defending the land rights of their people against
appropriation by big businesses and state interlocutors. Under the cloud
of the COVID-19 pandemic, workers’ rights were severely eroded. Instead
of States upholding their obligations to safeguard the rights of
marginalized people and to guarantee an enabling environment to address
these interwoven crises, many governments look the other way as
corporations profit on despair.
The corporate false solutions (known as ‘nature-based solutions’ or
net-zero schemes
<https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eurovia.org%...>)
to the climate crisis are expanding carbon markets and offsets into land
and farming are a glaring example. Such solutions are terrible losses
for peasants, Indigenous Peoples, fisherfolk, forest dwellers and others
on the frontlines of the global climate crisis. Instead of shifting away
from fossil fuel-based industrial agriculture and supporting food
sovereignty and peasant agroecology – the real solutions to the current
crises – many governments and leaders continue to prop up polluters in
the interest of short-term economic security.
Women, youth, gender and sexual diversities, migrants, farm workers and
other vulnerable people, particularly those living in the rural areas,
bear the full brunt of state neglect and negligence. Violence in various
forms has increased against these groups as the crises worsen. More and
more girls are forced in marriages, women’s sexual and reproductive
rights are grossly violated, and basic health care is denied.
Considering the gross injustices against peasants, their families, and
other people working in rural areas, La Via Campesina (LVC) calls upon
governments to accelerate the implementation of UNDROP at all levels.
This is important as it empowers the peasants to improve their
livelihoods, reinforce food sovereignty and agroecology, and strengthen
the fight against the climate crisis and criminalization of our struggles.
LVC is thus putting forth concrete demands in making UNDROP a lived
reality for our communities.
*Demand for a UN Special Procedure on the UNDROP*
The implementation of UNDROP will only happen through mainstreaming and
monitoring at the international level. Therefore, LVC and its allies are
leading the struggle for the creation of a Special Procedure on the
UNDROP. If created, this mechanism will allow for effective
implementation through increased mainstreaming and monitoring at the
international level. We call on all our allies, member organizations,
and likeminded activists to increase their advocacy efforts in their
countries and the UN bodies in support of the creation of the UNDROP
Special Procedure at the UN Human Rights Council session scheduled in
March 2023. We call on all countries to support peasant communities and
to engage in the creation of this new UN monitoring mechanism.
To build better and socially just societies, we urgently need
transformative change from destructive, profit driven systems to
people-centered systems that work in harmony with nature. A UN Special
Procedure on the UNDROP will create a mechanism to begin identifying
both rights violations and systemic solutions: we believe this will play
an important role in the transformation process.
The Special Procedure, housed within the Human Rights Council, could
include a Working Group of Experts or a UN Special Rapporteur which will
serve as follow-up mechanisms of the UNDROP, allowing for the monitoring
of human rights situations of peasants and other people working in rural
areas in different countries, and providing a space for discussion and
exchange of ideas on good practices between states and between states
and civil society organizations (in particular those organizations made
up of the rights holders).
*What have we been doing?*
LVC members worldwide have brought UNDROP to our bases and grassroots at
the national and local level with direct actions, formations, and
creation of UNDROP popular materials. We will continue our efforts to
translate UNDROP and the popular materials into our local languages to
understand and increase ownership over this crucial tool of struggle. We
call on our members, right-holders, and our allies to continue to raise
awareness and use UNDROP as a tool in their daily fights. Cite and
reference UNDROP at every available opportunity, discuss it at meetings
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present it to lawyers and government officials, and relate it to
personal and community contexts. Spreading UNDROP at the grassroots
level is a powerful way to create momentum for change.
*The UNDROP Popular Educational Toolkit is ready!*
Between 2021 and 2022, LVC with FIAN International developed a UNDROP
popular education toolkit
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to create broader awareness, promote deeper understanding and enhance
capacities through training of rural people’s movements to effectively
use the UNDROP to assert and advance our collective and individual
rights. The toolkit, in 3 languages – English, French and Spanish,
comprises of five booklets, an explanatory video
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audio script[2]
<https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fviacampesina.org...>(2)
and memes
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This toolkit will play a crucial role 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.
*A new website to share UNDROP experiences*
This month LVC, FIAN, CETIM and the Geneva Academy of International
Humanitarian Law and Human Rights are thrilled to launch a shared
website dedicated to the UNDROP: /Defending Peasants’ Rights:Platform of
rural struggles in action!/
<https://us13.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.defendingpeas...>/–/
a broad knowledge base in three languages to share examples of UNDROP in
action.
On this December 17^th , we both celebrate the efforts of our movement
to advocate for and implement the Declaration and call on governments to
take urgent steps towards widespread adoption and implementation. There
is no more time to waste: peasants and other people working in rural
areas are the foundation of our agriculture and food systems and need
their rights protected and upheld. We need peasants’ rights NOW!
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[1]
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Bolivia, Canada, Cuba, Colombia, Indonesia, Nepal, Palestine, etc.
UNDROP was used as a basis for making recommendations on the application
of remedial actions in Paraguay and Argentina.
[2]
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Available in January 2023
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