International Landworker


n By Mark Metcalf


Support International Peasants’ Day – April 17


The International Day of Peasants’ and Farmers’ Struggles on April 17 helps celebrate one of the largest but least recognised groups in the world, who grow most of the food we eat.


Backed by organisations such as War on Want, the date marks the massacre


of 19 landless peasants in 1996 at Eldorado do Carjas, by Brazilian police.


La Via Campesina, the international farmers’ movement was created in 1993, uniting at global level national organisations and unions active for years in their own country or region.


Find out more


War on Want’s report, Profiting from Hunger: Popular Resistance to Corporate Food Systems, was published in 2023: https://waronwant.org /resources/profiting-hunger


More about War on Want’s work on food sovereignty: ‘Our Work: Food’, War on Want: https://waronwant.org/our- work/food


In 2022 the UN established an international monitoring mechanism on the rights of peasants. This followed from the UN Declaration of the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP) and others working in Rural Areas, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2018.


“This has only been made possible because the global peasant movement has strengthened and given visibility to the rights of workers in the food and


agriculture sector,” explains Sabrina Espeleta, War on Want (WoW). “The movement has managed to include the rights to land and food sovereignty at the international level for the first time with UNDROP, which is the first declaration of its kind that has been written by peasants, for peasants.”


This spring five independent experts will become responsible for promoting and implementing the Declaration.


“The creation of a Working Group by the UN Human Rights Council dedicated exclusively to the rights of peasants and people working in rural areas is an important milestone,” says Espeleta, “but as our 2023 report


‘Profiting from Hunger’ shows, challenges persist in implementing UNDROP at the national level, as it is not legally binding.


“The Working Group will help identify best practices and advise states about the implementation of their human rights obligations, with a focus on peasants and other rural people. However, their work may face resistance due to the lobbying power of corporations and their control in global food supply chains, where profits come before human rights.” Which makes it important that workers back events on April 17.


“Corporate control over global food systems continues to grow, and as the multiple crises of inequality, malnutrition and climate worsen, peasants and rural workers are facing injustice from the erosion of their rights and corporate land grabs, to low wages and unfair competition.


It’s essential to celebrate International Peasants Day to draw attention to these challenges and show solidarity with the international peasants’ movement,” explains Espelata.


36 uniteLANDWORKER Spring 2024


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