A/HRC/33/59
104. The representative of FIAN International insisted on the importance of access to
justice. In response to comments regarding affirmative action, the representative stated that
those measures were aimed at ensuring substantive equality as recognized by several
national courts.
105. The representative of the United States asked for clarification on article 13 and on
whether access to market information should be considered as a human right, as it could
impinge on trade rules and corporate confidentiality. The representative expressed
disagreement with article 13 (2)-(4), which listed new rights.
106. The representative of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel,
Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Association called for a reference to
decent work under article 15, a reference to agroecology under article 16 or 20, and more
detailed language on earnings and wages under article 18, in particular regarding wagefixing mechanisms and collective bargaining in rural areas.
107. The representative of FIAN Belgium called for maintaining the content of article 17
and, in particular, the right to produce food in a sustainable way, and with dignity. The
representative called for adopting a holistic approach to the right to food and nutrition, in
the framework of food sovereignty.
108. The representative of Serikat Petani Indonesia insisted, regarding article 14, on the
right to organize and form trade unions, and on the fact that States needed to respect the
plurality of peasant organizations.
109. The representative of Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo
mentioned the framework law on the right to food, food security and food sovereignty
adopted by the Latin American Parliament, as well as several useful FAO documents on
food sovereignty. The right to food needed to include the right to produce food. The
realization of individual rights depended on the collective dimension.
110. The representative of the Zimbabwe Organic Smallholder Farmers Forum appealed
to African delegates to implement social safety nets, transition to agroecology and protect
the right to land. Migrant workers needed to be ensured a living wage and protected by
States.
D.
Articles 19 to 24
111. Christophe Golay (Geneva Academy for Humanitarian Law and Human rights)
reminded participants that the Human Rights Council had always considered it important to
adopt a new instrument recognizing both existing and new rights to protect persons in
particular situations of vulnerability. Mr. Golay noted the recognition of the right to seeds
in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and
highlighted a number of tensions between the rights of peasants to save, use, exchange and
sell seeds and intellectual property rights, which needed to be debated. He stated that such
rights most often protected business, which was outside of the human rights sphere. He
suggested various ways of addressing that tension in the declaration and outside the human
rights system.
112. Mr. Golay mentioned the importance of including extraterritorial obligations, and
explained the distinction between individual rights to be exercised collectively and
collective human rights, such as the right to self-determination or the proposed elements of
article 19 on the right to land and natural resources relating to the commons. The
representative of Centre Europe-tiers monde expressed disagreement with the proposals
made for reconciling human rights and intellectual property rights and insisted that human
rights must prevail.
15
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