Lobbying the UN to advance peasant rights

Lobbying is an increasingly valuable tool in the arsenal of social movements. Successful lobbying on an international level is contingent on alliances with human rights organizations, coupled with lobbying of national governments by local groups. In this article, the experience of La Via Campesina (LVC) member Serikat Petani Indonesia (SPI) illustrates how a two-level strategy incorporating direct action on the ground and the lobbying of governments through formal and informal channels is promoting the recognition of the human rights of peasants and the accountability of governments and private actors.

In Indonesia, land grabbing is not a new phenomenon. Colonization brought farmlands under foreign control and previously independent farmers became agricultural workers. Today, another insidious form of land grabbing has emerged through market liberalization and privatization that places the power to grab land in the hands of transnational corporations (TNCs) and governments. Under the guise of false solutions to the multiple crises of energy, hunger and climate, including agrofuels and the reduction of carbon emissions (REDD), small-scale farmers are deprived of access to land, water and other natural resources.

With the aim of preventing further violations of peasants’ rights and the aggravation of an epidemic of undernourishment which now directly affects approximately one billion people. Via Campesina and allied organizations are advancing The Declaration of Rights of Peasants – Women and Men.^2,/sup> The Declaration calls for a new instrument within the UN human rights system to provide clear standards that recognize the human rights of peasants all over the world. This framework must include provisions and mechanisms for addressing violations and discriminations in all their different manifestations.