15 March 2023, 15:00-16:00
Event
Adobe
The world is in the midst of multiple crises, in the area of food, climate, poverty and growing inequalities, health, finance, trade etc. The current models of food production and distribution, as well as the architecture and system governance in food and environmental matters are dysfunctional, unsustainable, unjust and violent. Peasants and other people working in rural areas have been historically among the most vulnerable population, and nowadays they are the most affected by these crises. In fact, while producing most of the food (studies say that peasants and other people working in rural areas produce about 70 percent of world food, they are among the people that suffer hunger and poverty the most.
The elaboration and adoption, in December 2018, of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) is a direct response to this fragile situation and a way to strengthen and promote human rights in the field.
Peasants, fishers, pastoralists, forest-dependent people, nomadic people, agricultural workers, rural women and other people working in rural areas also play a key role in conserving biodiversity, fighting environmental degradation and ensuring the right to adequate food for all. Therefore, safeguarding their rights, including through the implementation of the UNDROP, is critical for the realization of the rights of present and future generations and for the transition towards a more just, healthy and sustainable world.
This side-event – co-organized with the Permanent Mission of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Honduras, Cuba, South Africa and the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, the South Centre, La Via Campesina, Centre Europe-Tiers Monde (CETIM) and FIAN International – aims to highlight that protecting the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas – who produce the majority of the food in the world –, including by implementing UNDROP and fostering the transition to agroecology, is a clever way to respond to the current multiple crises.
Interpretation will be provided in English and Spanish.
Vance Culbert is a senior development and humanitarian professional who has managed operations for NGOs and UN agencies over the past twenty years. He just started as a Visiting Fellow at the Geneva Academy and will stay with us until the end of October.
ICRC
This project examined the relationship between the right to food and gender equality in ensuring food security in the context of land commercialization in two case-study countries, Cambodia and Ghana.
Daniel Taylor
The project will notably identify the main opportunities and obstacles to protect the right to seeds in Europe. It will also discuss how to promote changes in European laws, policies and trade agreements to ensure that they do not infringe, but facilitate the realization of peasants’ right to seeds.
Geneva Academy