February 19, 2025
As part of our special February series dedicated to food and human rights, we interviewed Geneviève Savigny, a peasant and the president of the UN Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. In this conversation, we discuss the recent formation of this working group and its role in implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). In this interview, Geneviève Savigny highlights the importance of the new UN working group, the challenges in implementing UNDROP, and the role that peasant movements and the Nyéléni Forum can play in this process.
In April 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Council officially appointed the experts who will be part of the Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. What is the significance of this event, and what opportunities does it offer to peasant movements?
Following the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) by the UN General Assembly in 2018, it was essential to establish a “special procedure” for monitoring its implementation. This was confirmed by a resolution of the Human Rights Council in October 2023, led by Bolivia and supported by advocacy efforts from peasant organizations and allies engaged in the process, particularly La Vía Campesina.
This human rights mechanism is designed to appoint independent experts tasked with ensuring the implementation and dissemination of information on specific themes or countries. Special rapporteurs are often selected from academia or the legal field, but in the case of working groups—composed of five experts from the five UN regions—there is room for more diversity. The Peasants’ Rights Working Group includes two legal experts, an NGO leader, an anthropologist, and a peasant representative.
The experts are responsible for informing states, sharing best practices, investigating rights violations, and making recommendations, and states are expected to engage with them. The group is also mandated to interact with UN institutions, treaty bodies, and other relevant international mechanisms, all while adhering to diplomatic procedures. Their work includes annual reports to the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly, country visits, and “communications”—a tool for holding states or private entities accountable when allegations of rights violations are raised by affected individuals or supporting organizations.
The rights of peasants and rural workers remain a relatively new issue for many countries, making this an unprecedented opportunity to highlight the essential role this often-invisible population plays in food production, the preservation of natural and cultivated biodiversity, cultural diversity, and rural vitality. States must understand the needs of peasants, as outlined in the 28 articles of UNDROP, and ensure they are respected, protected, and fulfilled—just as they would with other human rights.
In these first years, the Working Group aims to prioritize awareness-raising and the dissemination of best practices to all countries, as well as to organizations defending the rights of small-scale food producers, farmers, livestock keepers, gatherers, agricultural workers, and landless people, as described in Article 1 of the declaration.
UNDROP is one of the most radical texts adopted by the United Nations. Yet, it remains largely unimplemented at the national level. Which countries are seriously working on its implementation, and which are obstructing it?
One of our main tasks in the coming months is to analyze national laws, regulations, and policies affecting peasant populations and to assess how UNDROP is being communicated to those concerned and put into practice.
UNDROP defends peasants’ ability to produce food, but at the same time, the industrial agri-food system continues to expand and consolidate, aided by the current digitalization and financialization of the sector. Many governments are drawn to this vision of agricultural development in the name of modernization and competitiveness, and we must make visible its impacts on human rights.
How was this process set up, and what have been the main challenges and successes?
As a group working on a new subject, we first needed to meet, define our objectives, and establish our working methods. However, funding constraints—unlikely to improve—limit our ability to convene, conduct country visits, and access sufficient staff support. To overcome these obstacles, we complement our three planned in-person working sessions per year (in Geneva and New York) with virtual meetings.
We presented our initial reports in fall 2024 and are now actively working on the next ones, which focus on the evolution of the peasant situation and the implementation of the right to participation. In February, we launched a call for contributions on these topics, and it is crucial that all rights-holders respond.
One of the biggest challenges today is reaching peasants, who are often geographically isolated, dispersed, and lack access to communication tools.
What role can the Nyéléni Global Forum play in accelerating the implementation of UNDROP at the national level?
UNDROP is a tool in the struggle for food sovereignty, a central theme of the Nyéléni Forum. It is essential that all participants familiarize themselves with this legal instrument, discuss how to use it, and explore ways to implement it in different contexts worldwide, making it an effective tool in their hands.
If members of our Working Group have the opportunity to attend the Forum, it will also be a precious occasion to hear directly from peasant voices from around the world—an opportunity not to be missed!
Geneviève Savigny
President (2024-25), Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas
Working Group website (including the call for contributions at the bottom of the page):
https://www.ohchr.org/fr/specialprocedures/wg-peasants
Resource site:
https://defendingpeasantsrights.org/fr/accueil/