A/HRC/39/67 I. Introduction 1. The open-ended intergovernmental working group on a United Nations declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas, established by Human Rights Council resolution 21/19, has a mandate to negotiate, finalize and submit to the Council a draft declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas. In its resolution 36/22, the Council decided that the working group should hold its fifth annual session before its thirty-eighth session and requested it to submit an annual report on the progress made to the Council and to the General Assembly for their consideration. 2. The fifth session of the working group was held from 9 to 13 April 2018. In her opening statement, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights commended the leadership of the Chair-Rapporteur of the fourth session, Ambassador Nardi Suxo Iturry, in consulting with a wide range of stakeholders and reflecting their views on the revised draft declaration (A/HRC/WG.15/5/2). She stated that over five years of diligent effort, the draft had been built on existing international standards relevant to the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas and principles and guidelines adopted by the Committee on World Food Security and bodies of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), particularly the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, among others. The Deputy High Commissioner signalled that there was a sense of urgency for the Working Group to finalize its work on the draft declaration to address the protection gap for more than 1 billion people, who face discrimination and other challenges. Although small farmers provided a high percentage of the food consumed locally, such as 80 per cent in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, 80 per cent of the world population who suffered hunger lived in rural areas. Peasants and other people working in rural areas also faced challenges in regard to access to land and other resources, as well as discrimination, particularly against women. That situation was aggravated by globalization, free trade agreements and patents over seeds, which eroded the ability of small-scale farmers to use or exchange their own seeds, often indebting peasants by forcing exclusive purchase of those patented seeds. The situation was further aggravated by climate change, which particularly affected those who depend on the land. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development would benefit all if it was delivered based on human rights. That was particularly relevant for the situation of peasants and other people working in rural areas who had been left behind, despite the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She concluded that the only way to bring them in, was to stop leaving them out. II. Organization of the session A. Election of the Chair-Rapporteur 3. At its fifth session, the working group elected Luis Fernando Rosales Lozada (Plurinational State of Bolivia), as its Chair-Rapporteur, on the nomination of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries, represented by Mexico. B. Adoption of the agenda and organization of work 4. The agenda was adopted (A/HRC/WG.15/5/1). 5. The Chair-Rapporteur explained the modalities of the debate and noted that one of the objectives of the session was to move progressively in order to achieve the highest level of agreement possible. In order to achieve that, the Chair-Rapporteur encouraged participants to make suggestions aimed at compromise language in those articles where there were still concerns. 3