UniteLANDWORKER
Spring 2024
SOLIDARITY CALL
Support
International Peasants’ Day – April 17
The International Day of Peasants’ and Farmers’
Struggles on April 17th helps celebrate one of
the largest but least recognised groups in the world, who grow most of the food
we eat.
Backed by organisations such as War on Want, the date
marks the massacre of 19 landless peasants, organised in the Movement
of Landless Rural Workers, at
Eldorado do Carjas by Brazilian police, two of whom were later jailed in 1996.
La Via Campesina,
the international farmers movement was created in 1993, uniting at global
level national organisations and unions active for years in their own country
or region.
“This has only been made possible because the global peasant
movement has strengthened and given visibility to the rights of workers in the
food and agriculture sector,” explains Sabrina Espeleta, War on Want.
(WoW) “The movement has managed to include the rights to land and food
sovereignty at the international level for the first time with UNDROP, which is
the first declaration of its kind that has been written by peasants, for
peasants.”
This spring five independent experts will become
responsible for promoting and implementing the Declaration.
“The creation of a Working Group by the UN Human
Rights Council dedicated exclusively to the rights of peasants and people
working in rural areas is an important milestone,” says Espeleta “but as our 2023 report ‘Profiting from Hunger’ shows,
challenges persist in implementing UNDROP at the national level, as it is not
legally binding.
“The Working Group
will help identify best practices and advise states about the implementation of
their human rights obligations, with a focus on peasants and other rural
people. It should also respond to key discussions from a peasants’ perspective
on important issues such as a just transition in agri-food systems. However,
their work may face resistance due to the lobbying power of corporations and
their control in global food supply chains, where profits come before human
rights.”
Which makes it
important that workers in general back events on April 17th.
“Corporate control
over global food systems continues to grow, and as the multiple crises of
inequality, malnutrition and climate worsen, peasants and rural workers are
facing injustice from the erosion of their rights and corporate land grabs, to
low wages and unfair competition.
“It’s essential to
celebrate International Peasants Day to draw attention to these challenges and
show solidarity with the international peasants’ movement,” explains Espelata.
War on Want’s
report, ‘Profiting from Hunger: Popular Resistance to Corporate Food Systems’,
was published in 2023: https://waronwant.org/resources/profiting-hunger
More about War on
Want’s work on food sovereignty: ‘Our Work: Food’, War on Want: https://waronwant.org/our-work/food
https://viacampesina.org/en/who-are-we/ To subscribe to their newsletter go to:- https://mail.viacampesina.org/lists/listinfo/Via-info-en
No comments:
Post a Comment