Statement by UN Special Procedures and Treaty Body Members on the Implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants

CIFOR

19 December 2019

On 17 December 2019, nine United Nations (UN) Special Procedures and four members of UN Treaty Bodies issued a Statement on the occasion of the 1st anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) by the UN General Assembly.

Integrating Key Recommendations of our Research Brief

In their statement, in which they quote our Research Brief on the Implementation of the UNDROP, UN human rights experts call states and international and regional organizations to take steps to implement the UNDROP. They also commit to integrate the monitoring of the Declaration in the exercise of their mandates, protect the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas, and provide guidance to states on how they can implement the UNDROP.

‘The fact that they recommend to the UN Human Rights Council to create a new Special Procedure on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas must also be underlined, as this is a major request of many stakeholders engaged in the implementation of the UNDROP’ explains Dr Christophe Golay, Senior Research Fellow and Strategic Adviser on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the Geneva Academy.

‘This statement contains many recommendations entailed in our Research Brief, including the fact that states must ensure the consistency of international agreements and standards to which they are party with the UNDROP, and must establish mechanisms to ensure the coherence of their agricultural, economic, social, cultural and development policies with the UNDROP’ explains Dr Golay.

‘This statement is one of the major outcomes of the expert seminar organized by the Geneva Academy, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Geneva Office in June 2019 on the role of UN human rights mechanisms in monitoring the UNDROP’ he adds.