A/HRC/26/48 and submit to the Council a draft United Nations declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas, on the basis of the draft submitted by the Advisory Committee. They expressed support for the draft declaration put forward by the Advisory Committee. 28. Some delegations and other participants stressed that the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas were paramount to food security and the realization of the right to food, sustainable development, biodiversity, countering climate change, protecting the environment, combating discrimination, and the prevention and response to crises such as the financial and food crises. Some delegations and other participants expressed their view that a new instrument would enhance the protection of the rights of peasants by addressing the gaps in the current legal framework, including by clarifying the obligations of States and the specific rights that peasants could claim. They also noted that, in addition, it would send a strong political message on the need to protect that marginalized population and give communities the ability to claim individual and collective rights. Other delegations stressed that the declaration could contribute to better protecting the rights and improving the livelihoods of people living in rural areas and their families, who together represented approximately one third of humanity and suffered disproportionately from hunger, poverty and discrimination. Accordingly, they emphasized that the adoption of a declaration could make a substantial difference at the global level. Some delegations and other participants noted that at some point in history all rights were new, and that the “new rights” contained in the draft declaration were essential to further promoting and protecting peasants and other people working in rural areas. Some delegations and other participants added that many provisions in the draft declaration were not new, but reflected the application of existing rights to the specific needs and vulnerabilities of peasants, or reflected provisions existing in other international instruments that it was important to recognize and reaffirm in the human rights framework. 29. Other delegations were opposed to the draft declaration for a number of reasons. They stressed that the current session of the working group had been preceded by a process whereby the Advisory Committee had worked, without a mandate, on a draft declaration that the Human Rights Council had not requested. In response, a number of delegations argued that the Council had given a clear mandate, and expressed support for the declaration put forward by the Advisory Committee. The delegations that expressed opposition were of the view that the declaration set out new rights on which there was no broad consensus; that the proposed rights were premised on a differential treatment of peasants as a special category; that the declaration purported to bestow collective rights to peasants, with no basis in international human rights law; that the declaration did not comprehensively define “peasants”; and that existing human rights provided adequate protection to peasants. Those delegations stated that the Human Rights Council and its subsidiary bodies were not the appropriate forums for discussion of many of those issues, pointing instead, for instance, to the work being done by the Committee on World Food Security and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, including, for example, on land tenure. Those delegations noted that it was important not to repeat work being done in other forums, or pursue work that would confuse, detract from or contradict the important work other forums had already completed, and that perhaps the energy of the working group could be more constructively used to look into other ways forward, whether by exploring the needs and challenges faced by individuals living in rural situations or by developing a discussion of best practices with respect to existing human rights. Some delegations also stressed that while they were not engaging in negotiations on a draft declaration on the rights of peasants, they would be prepared to engage constructively on the issues. 30. There was agreement on the need to improve the situation of peasants and other people working in rural areas. In particular, some participants noted that poverty, hunger 9