United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP)
The Growing Centrality of UNDROP in the International Governance of the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas
By Raffaele Morgantini
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) is increasingly becoming a key normative and political tool for transforming food and agricultural systems, particularly in the Global South. In a context of growing corporate concentration, commodification, and external dependencies, UNDROP provides a framework for strengthening peasants’ rights, food sovereignty, and democratic control over rural development.
Its growing influence results from both grassroots appropriation by peasant and rural organizations and its progressive integration into international and national legal frameworks. UN human rights mechanisms, courts, legislatures and public institutions are increasingly using UNDROP to interpret rights and develop policies concerning land, seeds, food, health, climate, and rural livelihoods. Recent developments in countries such as Honduras, Colombia, Kenya, Ecuador, and Brazil illustrate this shift towards practical implementation.
For the Global South, UNDROP offers a strategic opportunity to strengthen food and agricultural sovereignty, support agroecological pathways, protect biodiversity and traditional practices, and reduce dependence on concentrated global markets. Its effective implementation requires sustained political mobilization, institutional commitment and greater cooperation among States, human rights bodies, legal practitioners and rights holders.
(more…)
Input for the Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas
Report on Peasant Territories on Land and Sea
South Centre
February 2026
The South Centre has officially submitted its inputs to the UN Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas for their upcoming thematic report on “Peasant Territorialities of Sea and Land.”
Our submission emphasises that realising the rights recognised in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP), particularly Article 17, depends on a fundamental shift in how “territory” is legally understood and economically managed.
The South Centre focuses on:
- How territory must be conceptualised as a socio-ecological space where cultural identity and sustainable production intersect, not merely as a financial asset.
- The dangers of “Blue Economy” industrialisation and “Green Grabbing,” where conservation mechanisms like carbon offsets displace local communities.
- How States should recognise collective tenure rights and protect agrarian reform from Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) challenges.
Climate finance must support peasant agroecology, not displace the very people who steward the land.
(more…)
The Role of Peasant Women
The Function of the UNDROP in the Realization of the Right to Food
Side-Event to the 58th Session of the Human Rights Council
Co-organized by the South Centre
Date & Time: 13 March, 13-14h
Venue: Room XXII, Palais des Nations/United Nations Office in Geneva
(more…)
Conférence, “Reconnaissance du droit aux semences en Afrique”.
Co-organisé par l’Académie de droit international humanitaire et de droits humains de Genève (ADH), SWISSAID, CROPS4HD et le South Centre
20 juin 2023
Genève, Suisse
Lieu : Villa Moynier
(more…)
