Declaration of the Global Meeting of La Via Campesina on the Rights of Migrant and Rural Workers
Gathered together between October 25 and 28 of the year 2022 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, we peasants from various parts of the world and rural villages displaced from their lands, rural workers of the agricultural industry, migrants, border peasant communities, mothers and fathers of the children who left us in search of better opportunities and income; we have gathered at the Global Meeting of La Vía Campesina on the Rights of Migrants and Rural Workers to listen to one another, to acknowledge one another and to build common proposals that may allow us to face the rural exodus from our territories and the violation of our lives and rights at the borders and within the countries of the global north.
We state that this global exodus is the result of a nefarious system that does not care for life in all its expressions. This crisis is exacerbated in the midst of the rains, droughts and floods that rural towns are suffering. At the same time, the grabbing of our lands, territories and common goods continue. As a result, we are forced to migrate, leaving our families, being robbed of our right to a dignified life and exposed to abuses as cheap labor force.
During these days, we have put together our proposals, studying the implications of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People who Work in Rural Areas (UNDROP for its acronym in English) in the defense of the rights of mirgant and wage workers; international labor and social regulations in the field; and the situation of wage work in Central America and the World. We also established action plans with the political tools built by our own movement, such as the Global Solidarity Pact for Migrants’ and Refugees‘ Rights, as a people’s alternative to confront the Global Pact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration promoted by rich countries to criminalize migration, violate the rights and exploit the labor of people who have had to leave their towns and territories of origin.
We chose Honduras as the location for our meeting because of its geographical position in the middle of the migratory routes to North America, from where the caravans of denunciation and resistance against colonialism, racism and border repression depart. This is also a territory where rural labor is historically exploited in agricultural plantations, mostly in the hands of transnational capital. We are promoting conditions for a global strategy of struggle against the labour and social exploitation of wage workers currently imposed by transnational corporations.
From our movement, we come to defend the public policies promoted by the peoples in favor of Food Sovereignty, Farmers’ Rights and Agrarian Reform, in the framework of the new political process of the Honduran people. Peasant agroecology is our political tool and the common effort that peasants are building to resist against expulsion from our homes, territories and countries. We need to highlight the local transition processes that we are already working on in our political training and action processes. We need to promote the unionization and solidarity support for agricultural workers who are currently struggling in many parts of the world. With the help of society and social movements, we must organize awareness raising campaigns about the rights of migrant and agricultural workers; but within the context of a great campaign of actions in the borders themselves and in the media.
Out of respect for the full rights of rural and migrant workers ¡Peasant Rights NOW!
Long Live the Global Meeting of La Via Campesina for the Rights of Agricultural Workers and Migrants!
International Collective of Migrant and Rural Workers
Honduras October 25-28, 2022
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