Product Description
An idea coming from an Indonesian peasant’s union can go a long way… until the adoption of an international instrument within the UN!
The UN is the place where international standards are developed, and it must be taken up by the people. The peasants have done it, the people can change international law. After 17 years of struggle, the peasants and their allies have been rewarded for their efforts: the UN General Assembly has adopted a UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants.
This book bears witness to this: the important moments, the power relations, the strategies and the stages of this incredible adventure are recounted here.
It also presents the Declaration: an indispensable instrument for healthy food, for peasant seeds, for the preservation of the environment, of biodiversity, for the protection of the producers themselves of what we eat. An instrument for the good of other future common struggles…
“The protection of the rights of peasants has a long and painful history. This struggle hgas been led by the biggest social movement on the plant, La Vía Campesina, now bringing together some 250 million peasants around the world. CETIM has accompanied this struggle from the beginning. Its team is well acquainted not only with many coutnries of the South but also and aboce all with the complicated world of the United Nations, the hidden strategies of member States and the dysfunction of specialized intergovernmental organizations. This book is exciting, full of information and lucid analysis.” Jean Ziegler
