[E-rundbrief] Info 1081 - Land grabbing endangers rural people

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 1081 - La Via Campesina: Land grabbing shows the 
urgent need to protect peasants' rights.

Bad Ischl, 14.3.2012

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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Land   grabbing   shows   the   urgent   need   to   protect 
peasants'   rights

(Geneva, 11 March 2012)

It's a red alert now.

The government of Saudi Arabia currently owns 1.6 million hectares 
(ha) of land in Sudan and Indonesia. In Madagascar around 1.3 million 
ha were leased, bought or transferred to private corporations of South 
Korea.

The High Level Group of Experts of the Committee on World Food 
Security (CFS) estimates that between 50 and 80 million ha of land in 
poor and developing countries have been negotiated, acquired or leased 
by international investors.

Large-scale land transactions are undermining food security, 
livelihoods and the environment of local populations. Along with a 
history-long discrimination against rural people, this wildly 
spreading global phenomenon has been the reason why there have been so 
many reports of human rights violations in rural areas recently, 
especially with regards to land rights.

While the United Nations Human rights Council is planning to discuss a 
declaration of the rights of peasants in the coming days, FIAN 
International together with La Via Campesina has organised a parallel 
event to the 19 th session of the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday 
(8/3).

The event, entitled "Land Grabbing and the Urgent Need to Protect the 
Rights of Peasants", is acting as a warm up event for the current 
session of UN Human Rights Council. The objective is to lobby and 
connect parties who are supportive to the peasants´ rights initiative. 
State members, Advisory Committee members, as well as experts and NGOs 
are invited to participate in the event.

" Land grabbing is clearly a gross violation of the rights of 
peasants," said Jean Ziegler, former special rapporteur on the right 
to food. "Most of these land grabs are not even for food production 
but for agrofuels, which are destroying our land, society, environment 
and our food sovereignty. ”

"We have to forbid land grabbing, if we want to protect our food 
system," concluded Mr. Ziegler, currently a UN Human Rights Council 
Advisory Committee member.

Henry Saraigh from La Via Campesina argued, " We have been saying this 
for 11 years already; land grabbing is not a new phenomenon, however 
it is getting worse. ”

"If t his trend continues, it will not only affect rural people in 
Southern countries, but it will also affect Northern countries, as 
land grabs will undermine the whole food system," the General 
Coordinator of La Via Campesina emphasized.

Angelica Navarro, Ambassador of Bolivia to the United Nations has an 
interesting perspective: "States have an obligation to protect the 
rights of rural people and peasants.  These efforts in Bolivia can act 
like best practices and the initiative [on the rights of peasants and 
other people working in rural areas] is complementary to our national 
efforts," she continued.

In this 19 th session, the Advisory Committee will present final 
report on the advancement of the rights of peasants and other people 
working in rural areas (document A/HRC/19/75).

Besides the focus on the rights of the most vulnerable people working 
in rural areas, the study discusses the need to create a new special 
procedure to improve the promotion and protection of the rights of 
peasants and develop a new international human rights instrument for 
these rights. A declaration, based on the La Via Campesina Declaration 
of the Rights of Peasants Women and Men is attached to the study and 
could serve as a model.

" The inequalities in land tenure as well as for other productive 
resources, discrimination against rural women peasants, the increase 
in hunger and malnutrition, and the difficulties in meeting the 
Millennium Development Goals are all very good reasons why we need a 
breakthrough in dealing with the food situation," said Jean Feyder, 
Ambassador of Luxembourg. The recommendations in the final study are 
meant to serve this objective; business as usual definitely will not 
solve the problem.

" Food is not a commodity, food has cultural and social dimensions 
too, ” Ana Maria Suarez Franco from FIAN International said. 
"Therefore, our food, our culture, and our social cohesion will be 
destroyed should the land grabbing phenomenon persist."

Ana Maria further explained, "Food produced by peasants is as 
important as peace and security in the world."

" Peasants and other rural people are now claiming their rights and 
offer real alternatives to improve the food system and human rights 
mechanisms. It is about time for the international community to 
respond to this," she concluded.

The final study will be discussed with states on March 13 and 14 on 
item 5 in the 19 th session of UN Human Rights Council.

Via Campesina News
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La Via Campesina
Via Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and 
medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, 
rural youth and agricultural workers. We are an autonomous, pluralist 
and multicultural movement, independent of any political, economic, or 
other type of affiliation. Born in 1993, La Via Campesina now gathers 
about 150 organisations in 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and 
the Americas.

International Operational Secretariat:
Jln. Mampang Prapatan XIV no 5 Jakarta Selatan 12790, Indonesia
Tel/fax: +62-21-7991890/+62-21-7993426
Email: viacampesina at viacampesina.org

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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
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