Briefing N° 22: The Right to Seeds in Africa

The Right to Seeds in Africa – authored by Dr Karine Peschard, Dr Christophe Golay and Lulbahri Araya – explores the implications of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) for the right to seeds in Africa.

The publication – the first of its kind – explores the implications of UNDROP for the right to seeds for African countries.

After providing an overview of the right to seeds in international law and the main provisions of UNDROP related to the right to seeds and corresponding states’ obligations, it identifies the main challenges to the protection of the right to seeds in Africa, as well as positive legal mobilizations and policy and legislative reforms.

The briefing aims to provide input for the revision of seed laws, regulations and policies at the national, regional and continental levels in Africa.

It is especially timely given that many African countries are in the process of revising their seed legislation, and that the African Union has launched an initiative aimed at harmonizing seed laws through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

AUTHORS

Picture of Christophe Golay

Christophe Golay

Senior Research Fellow

Dr Christophe Golay's expertise relates to economic, social and cultural rights, the right to food and the rights of peasants.

Karine Peschard

Associate Research Fellow

Her expertise and publications relate to intellectual property regimes in agriculture, agrobiodiversity, legal activism and the rights of peasants, in particular the right to seeds.

Lulbahri Araya

NEWS AND EVENTS

A woman's hand holding seeds News

New Publication Explores the Right to Seeds in Africa

6 March 2023

The Right to Seeds in Africa explores the implications of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas for the right to seeds in Africa.

Read more >

MORE ON THIS THEMATIC AREA

A woman's hand holding seeds News

New Publication Explores the Right to Seeds in Africa

6 March 2023

The Right to Seeds in Africa explores the implications of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas for the right to seeds in Africa.

Read more

African workers are picking out fresh coffee beans at washing station Event

Le Droit aux Semences en Afrique

20 June 2023, 16:00-18:00

Cette conférence co-organisée avec Swissaid et CROPS4HD – qui se tiendra en français en présentiel et en ligne – vise à approfondir la réflexion autour du droit aux semences en Afrique.

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Wooden lollypop sticks are used to label vegetable seeds in a greenhouse. Event

UNDROP and the EU Seed Marketing Reform: Perspectives from Croatia

12 June 2023, 16:00-17:30

Panlists will look into what UNDROP and the EU reform mean in the Croatian context, and how positive aspects of the national legislation could input the reform or, alternatively, suffer from new and more restrictive rules at the EU level.

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Rwanda, on the outskirts of Kigali, Wa-Jali. Jeanne Françoise, a young girl reunited two years ago with her grandmother by the ICRC, stands in a banana orchard near her house. Project

Sustainable Development and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

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This project aims to raise awareness about the complementarity of human rights and development by analyzing the relationship between economic, social and cultural rights and global development goals, namely the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000 and the Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015.

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Plastic pollution on an Italian shore Project

The Domestication of the Right to a Healthy Environment

Started in January 2022

This research aims at mainstreaming the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and the protection it affords in the work of the UN Human Rights Council, its Special Procedures and Universal Periodic Review, as well as in the work of the UN General Assembly and UN treaty bodies.

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Cover of the publication Publication

Briefing N° 22: The Right to Seeds in Africa

published on February 2023

Christophe Golay, Karine Peschard, Lulbahri Araya

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