A/HRC/13/32
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) as an instrument to protect
peasants' right. Also, the Charter of the Peasant- produced by the UN in 1978, was not able
to protect peasants from international liberalization policies. The other international
conventions, which also deal with peasants' rights, can not be implemented either. These
conventions include: ILO Convention 169, Clause 8-J Convention on Biodiversity, Point
14.60 Agenda 21, and Cartagena Protocol.
V.
The Peasants need an International Convention on the Rights of
Peasants
Because of the limitations of those conventions and resolutions, it is important to create an
international instrument to respect, protect, fulfil, and uphold peasants' rights -- the
International Convention on the Rights of Peasants (ICRP). There are already conventions
to protect vulnerable groups of people, such as indigenous peoples, women, children and
migrant workers. The ICRP will articulate the values of the rights of peasants, which will
have to be respected, protected and fulfilled by governments and international institutions.
The ICRP will be supplemented by optional protocols to ensure its implementation.
During the Regional Conference on Peasants' Rights in April 2002, Via Campesina
formulated the Declaration of the Rights of Peasants through the process of a series of
activities, including the Workshop on Peasants' Rights in Medan North Sumatra on 2000,
the Conference of Agrarian Reform in Jakarta April 2001, the Regional Conference on
Peasants' Rights held in Jakarta in April 2002 and the International Conference of Via
Campesina also held in Jakarta, in June 2008. The text of the declaration is attached to this
document. It should form the basis of the ICRP, to be elaborated by the United Nations,
with the full participation of Via Campesina and other representatives of civil society.
We are looking forward to the support of the people who are concerned with the peasants'
struggle and the promotion and protection of the rights of peasants.
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