In Sri Lanka, MONLAR joined the National Collective of Community-Based Savings and Credit Services Providers in denouncing the newly proposed Regulatory Authority for Microfinance and Credit, alleging that its over-reaching mandates would criminalize community savings and credit initiatives—with catastrophic consequences for rural women, fishing communities, and peasants.
The EU Mercosur trade agreement tailor-made for financial capital and transnational corporations, will lead to the destruction of peasant food systems that currently supply food to people in each region. We call on all social movements and civil society organizations to oppose it and demand that our governments halt this agreement.
As the Israeli genocide war reaches Day 113, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza intensifies with each passing day. The toll on human life and well-being is devastating and continues to grow daily. The Union of Agricultural Work Committees urgently calls for heightened global support. The dire situation, marked by widespread hunger, relentless blockade, and continuous bombardment, has led to a catastrophic scenario.
On December 18, 2023, the Indonesian Peasants Union (SPI) commemorated the fifth anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). The event shed light on the ongoing struggles faced by peasants globally.
European Coordination Via Campesina calls for a European mobilisation on 1 February 2024 in Brussels to express its discontent and call for a paradigm change. Europe’s neo-liberal policies are overwhelmingly responsible for farmers’ distress. ECVC has been calling for a change of direction and is therefore taking to the streets demanding suspension of FTAs and for fair prices.
While the Member States of the European Union may wish to ban the patentability of GMOs obtained using NTGs, the ability to call into question the European Patent Convention or the rules for its application lies beyond the European Union, as this is defined by the European Patent Office, to which non-EU countries belong.
The newly-formed International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine (ICSGP) issued a sign-on letter* on January 3, 2024 that garnered over 800 organizational endorsements from around the world in less than one week. The coalition letter urges all signing organizations to press their governments to immediately file a Declaration of Intervention in support of the South African case.
We, the peasants, rural workers, landless, indigenous peoples, pastoralists, artisanal fisherfolk, forest dwellers, rural women, youth and diversities and other peoples who work in the countryside around the world and united within La Via Campesina, declare that “Faced with global crises, we build food sovereignty to ensure a future for humanity!” towards a just and decent food system for all, recognizing peoples’ needs, respecting nature, putting people before profit and resisting corporate capture.
As delegates converge in Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia, to partake in the 8th International Conference of La Via Campesina, leaders of the international peasant movement who have already arrived in the city participated in the Bogotá march, commemorating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people. Summoned by Colombian labor movements, the march was attended by nearly two thousand people.
On the 11th of October, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution to establish a Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas. The Working Group, over the next three years of its tenure, is expected to identify challenges and gaps in its implementation at all levels of governance.
