The creation of a Working Group of Independent Experts on the Rights of Peasants must mark the start of UNDROP implementation by the EU

Peasant farmers, small and medium-scale farmers, and agricultural workers across Europe are calling for the implementation of the United Nation’s Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) at the EU level, after the creation of a UN Working group of independent experts during the 54th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The resolution to create the working group, presented by the Permanent Mission of the Plurinational State of Bolivia in collaboration with Luxembourg, Cuba, Gambia, Kyrgyzstan, and South Africa, was approved yesterday, 11 October, with a large majority: 38 countries voting in favour, seven abstentions and only two voting against.

This Working Group will be charged with promoting “the effective and comprehensive dissemination and implementation of the UNDROP”, including at the European level, while also “identifying challenges and gaps in its implementation at national, regional, and international levels” and promoting good practices, collecting information, contributing to technical assistance and capacity building, and making recommendations to the Human Rights Council.

ECVC welcomes the importance given to this issue at the EU level by countries such as Luxembourg, Germany, and Belgium, who voted in favour of the resolution, representing a step forward from the adoption of UNDROP in 2018, when some of these countries abstained. We ask these countries to lead the EU on ensuring the implementation of UNDROP in European spaces, and to bring this perspective to national and European policy debates. UNDROP must be considered in all EU policy-making, from seed law to CAP reform and from trade strategy to international partnership orientations. The creation of this international monitoring mechanism highlights the responsibility of EU forces to ensure the implementation of the rights of peasants in EU policy, given its global scope and impact.

ECVC will continue, in collaboration with LVC members from across the globe, to fight for the protection, promotion and respect of the rights of peasants at international, regional and local levels and put the perspective of small-scale farmers at the heart of policy debates.

Notes to editor

The Resolution can be downloaded in all UN languages here:

https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/54/L.11