Analytical Feadback for United Nation Draft Statement
Rights of Peasants (Smallholder farmers)
The Human Rights Council of the United Nations mandated an Advisory Committee to undertake a preliminary study on ways and means to further advance the rights of people working in rural areas, in particular smallholders engaged in the production of food and/or other agricultural products by directly working the land. This is the same client group as LISO’s.

Below I have summaries this report and the draft “Declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas”, highlighting in red the areas of similarity with LISO’s commitment to the Rights of Livelihood Sovereignty

The Conclusion of this study was that
“Smallholder farmers … are among the most discriminated and vulnerable people in many parts of the world. Every year, thousands of peasant farmers are the victims of exploitation of land, forced evictions and displacements … owning to the new phenomenon of the global “land grab”.”

To overcome this situation, the Advisory Committee has made the following recommendations:
(a) More attention should be given to agrarian reforms that benefit small-scale land holders and promote security of tenure and access to land
(f) A new international human rights instrument … should be developed and adopted by the Human Rights Council. … The new instrument should recognize the rights enshrined in existing international instruments … It should also recognize new rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas, such as rights to land, seeds and means of production. The elaboration of this instrument by the Human rights Council, with the full participation of peasant farmers, small landholders … represents one of the ways to overcome centuries of discrimination against the most vulnerable groups working in rural areas.

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