A/HRC/30/55 reflected obligations that States had already undertaken in a number of international instruments. She noted that instruments for the protection of the environment and cultural heritage imposed on States the obligation to respect and protect traditional cultural practices of peasants and other people working in rural areas and to adopt measures to safeguard their access to natural resources, including lands and seed. She also noted that the right to participation and the principle of free, prior and informed consent were entrenched in a number of international instruments, some of them widely ratified, such as the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from Their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The panellist also explained that international courts had increasingly recognized those rights and a number of States had already incorporated them into their national legal systems. She expressed her opinion that it was fundamental that the Human Rights Council compiled the existing legal guidance into one single instrument so as to secure the realization of the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas all over the globe. 28. A number of participants asked the panellists to elaborate on the right to land and its consequences for States obligations. One panellist noted that normative gaps remained in relation to the right to land and that land should be recognized among the fundamental rights, as it was vital to rural communities’ existence. She also noted that land was often privatized, sold and marketed without due attention to the fact that all human beings need land to live. IV. General statements 29. Many delegations noted that they would not be able to provide comments on the draft declaration owing to the tight time frame since receiving the text, and therefore their comments and positions would be preliminary. For the same reason, many States who attempted to engage noted that they had to reserve their positions on the draft. A number of States highlighted their concerns regarding rights that were not already established as international human rights. They also raised concerns regarding the elaboration of existing human rights in the new draft declaration, and their reach beyond the agreed language. A number of delegations expressed concerns about the procedural process regarding the first draft declaration circulated by the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee. They argued that the Council had not mandated the drafting of the declaration and voiced concern regarding the scope and length of the latest version of the draft declaration. A number of States argued that the draft declaration focused too much on the rights of indigenous peasants and that, by singling out that group, others could be discriminated against. One State noted that the free, prior and informed consent principles were not appropriate in the draft declaration. Another delegation stated that the Human Right Council was not the right forum for a declaration on peasants and other people working in rural areas. All delegations stated their willingness to participate in the working group in a constructive manner in order to find common ground and discuss appropriate ways forward. 30. A number of States highlighted their support for a United Nations declaration that specifically focused on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas, as a new human rights instrument. They argued that was due to the vulnerability of peasants and other people working in rural areas as a group and because they represented over a billion persons. Those States highlighted the mandate given by the Human Rights Council to the working group in resolutions 21/19 and 26/26 to negotiate, finalize and submit to the Council a draft United Nations declaration on the rights of peasants and other people 9