The Rights of Peasants

Academic Support to UNDROP’s Negotiation

Our research team has been providing academic support to UNDROP’s negotiation between 2008 and 2018 via expert advice and participation in the negotiation, expert seminars and publications clarifying key rights and issues.

From 2008 to 2012, we supported the work of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, which led to UNDROP’s negotiation, via legal advice given on the right to food and the rights of peasants.
From 2013 to 2018, our team provided direct support to UNDROP’s negotiation via participation of our researchers in the negotiation as experts, legal advice to states and other stakeholders involved in the negotiation, expert seminars, and a series of publications that identified agreed language from other international instruments and clarified key rights and issues.

This support notably clarified the scope and content of a number of rights enshrined in UNDROP, including the right to food sovereignty, the right to free, prior and informed consent, the right to land and other natural resources and the right to seeds.

Our experts also helped identifying agreed language on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas from existing instruments – thus contributing to advance negotiations and ensure the consistency of UNDROP with other human rights treaties and declarations.

Promotion of UNDROP’s Implementation by States and UN Human Rights Mechanisms

The Research Brief The Implementation of UNDROP – also available in French and Spanish – focuses on the role of states and international and regional organizations in UNDROP’s implementation. It also examines the lessons learned from the implementation of the UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (UNDRIP) adopted by the UN in 2007.

The Research Brief The Role of UN Human Rights Mechanisms in Monitoring UNDROP focuses on the role of UN, but also regional and national human rights mechanisms in monitoring UNDROP’s implementation. It also examines the lessons learned from their role in monitoring UNDRIP’s implementation. This publication builds on a Statement released on 17 December 2019 – on the occasion of UNDROP’s first anniversary – by nine UN Special Procedures and four members of UN Treaty Bodies, in which they committed to integrate UNDROP’s implementation in the exercise of their mandates.

A Concrete Case Scenario: Switzerland and its Foreign Policy

The Research Brief Switzerland’s Foreign Policy and UNDROP – also available in French and German – provides a summary of a larger study published in French. It presents measures that Switzerland should take in its foreign policy to support UNDROP’s implementation in Switzerland and abroad.

Practical Guidance on the Implementation of the Right to Land

The Practical Manual on the Right to Land, published with the International Land Coalition (ILC) and also available in French and Spanish, provides guidance to all ILC members – more than 250 organizations – and the broader land community on the implementation of UNDROP and its key provisions on the right to land.

The Research Brief The Right to Land and Other Natural Resources – addressed to policy-makers and peasants organizations – details the content of this right, states’ obligations and accountability mechanisms for its enforcement at national, regional and international levels. It also presents the Colombian case where peasant organizations are using UNDROP to defend peasants’ right to land.

Towards the Precedence of the Right to Seeds over Intellectual Property Rights

The Research Brief The Right to Seeds and Intellectual Property Rights – also available in Spanish and Romanian – outlines UNDROP’s definition of the right to seeds and states’ obligations under international human rights law and explains why these shall prevail over other international instruments dealing with, as well as national and regional laws and policies related to intellectual property.

The Research Brief The Right to Seeds in Europe – also available in French and Spanish – focuses on the steps that the European Union (EU) and the EU Member States shall take – via UNDROP’s implementation – to better protect the right to seeds. Authored by Dr Christophe Golay and Dr Fulya Batur, it summarizes the main findings of the Practical Manual on the Right to Seeds in Europe.

The Briefing The Right to Seeds in Africa written by Dr Karine Peschard, Dr Christophe Golay and Lulbahri Araya focuses on the steps that the African Union and African States shall take to better protect the right to seed, using UNDROP. Its Research Briefs – available in English and French – summarize this publication's key findings and recommendations

Integrating the Rights of Peasants and Family Farmers in the UN Decade on Family Farming and in the Implementation of the FAO Plant Treaty

The Guide International and Regional Instruments to Defend and Promote the Interests and Rights of Family Farmers – also available in French and Spanish– provides a comprehensive overview of international and regional legal frameworks and instruments that protect the rights of family farmers and peasants. The guide is the result of a study carried out in collaboration with the World Rural Forum, with the support of the International Land Coalition.

The Briefing Paper Implementing the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in light of UNDROP - also available in Spanish, French and Portuguese - co-published with APBREBES is a collective effort by a broad panel of renowned experts. In addition to Dr Christophe Golay and Dr Karine Peschard from the Geneva Academy, it includes Professor José Esquinas, former Secretary of the FAO Treaty on Seeds, two former UN Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Food – Professors Hilal Elver and Olivier De Schutter – and the current one Professor Michael Fakhri. The Briefing Paper explains how UNDROP complements the FAO Plant Treaty and stresses the importance of taking UNDROP into consideration when implementing its article 9 on farmers’ rights.