Across the globe, rural workers and rights groups are testing an international agreement they say could help hundreds of millions of people protect their right to own and use land.
In Ukraine this month, land rights advocates sought to use the legal tool, known as the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Peasants, to push back on a major planned liberalization of farmland they say would leave millions vulnerable.
In Colombia, activists say it could be used to nurture the country’s continued transition from half a century of civil war.
And as the European Union discusses its Common Agricultural Policy, some say the agreement could help bend governments’ priorities away from market forces and toward those whose livelihoods are linked to land.
On Tuesday, rights groups marked the one-year anniversary of the agreement’s adoption at the United Nations, which for the first time recognized the rights of rural groups at the international level and acknowledging them as needing special protections.
That recognition is very important it’s the start of everything, said Ramona Duminicioiu, a Romanian farmer and regional coordinator for La Via Campesina, a movement representing about 200 million farmers and others, and a key backer of the declaration.
The declaration seeks to protect rural populations from potential rights violations such as forcible evictions, land degradation and displacement.
It also covers issues like land discrimination and the legal recognition of customary land tenure rights.
The agreement has given traditionally marginalized smallholders, fishing communities and other rural workers a powerful new way to force conversations with officials, Duminicioiu said.
It opens doors, she said by phone from her farm in Transylvania, Romania.
Now we have something to talk about with governments that was achieved at the highest levels in the U.N. and (that) we want to bring home.
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