And Against Transnational Corporations.
From the global peasantry and the global movement for Food Sovereignty, we firmly believe in the need for a systemic transformation that protects our symbiotic relationship with Mother Earth, guarantees social justice, peace, and a comprehensive agrarian reform that ensures we can live with dignity, free from poverty and hunger.
We, the global peasantry of diverse rural peoples, Indigenous and migrant communities, women and children in rural areas, fisherfolk, pastoralists, and all other small-scale food producers, once again unite to amplify our struggles for the Food Sovereignty of Our Peoples.
Every day, the world wakes up to news of worsening environmental degradation across various regions, while corporate elites continue to profit from the crises they have created. Life is constantly at risk, and many public policies are being eroded of basic rights like healthcare, housing, and food, as well as collective and peasant rights. This has led to the deterioration of social justice and the monopolization of common goods.
The global peasantry, along with other vulnerable populations, faces constant dispossession of their livelihoods and means of survival. To add to it, war and military occupation continue to destroy biodiversity and Food Sovereignty, while spreading terror and claiming lives in various regions like Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, Yemen, and Haiti. The criminalization and oppression of struggles for land and territory continues to take the lives of defenders, as seen in countries like Honduras, the Philippines, Colombia, and Brazil, to name a few.
Global warming, primarily driven by agribusiness, extractivism, and mining, exacerbates these crises and endangers our peoples’ right to food. Over two billion people– that is nearly a third of the world’s population – struggle to access adequate food regularly. Hunger and severe food insecurity now affects 864 million people, particularly children and women. Malnutrition is a reality for many, and more countries are reporting its rise.
So, What Is To Be Done In A World That Is In The Grip Of A Systemic Crisis?
From the global peasantry and the global movement for Food Sovereignty, we firmly believe in the need for a systemic transformation that protects our symbiotic relationship with Mother Earth, guarantees social justice, peace, and a comprehensive agrarian reform that ensures we can live with dignity, free from poverty and hunger.
To start, we DEMAND an agroecological transition that safeguards local food systems and promotes a new trade framework based on the principles of Food Sovereignty.
We URGENTLY NEED public policies that support and implement such a transition that prioritizes models of peasant production, social, and solidarity economies.
We also DEMAND the protection of peasants and human rights defenders of our territories against the violence that undermines human rights, stigmatization, and criminalization, through actions that defend and reclaim our rights as stipulated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas.
Corporate-driven agricultural policies only worsen the climate crisis, and the emphasis on imported agricultural products is causing growing despair among the peasantry. We DEMAND measures to curb the growing power of corporations in the political spaces of our countries and in multilateral forums.
We CALL FOR a Binding UN treaty to regulate transnational corporations (TNCs), end human rights violations, end corporate impunity, and guarantee access to justice for affected communities, in line with the UNDROP and other legal instruments.
It is urgent to establish a climate change response system that RECOGNIZES the peasantry as a key actor, particularly peasant women. However, in many countries and cultures, peasant women and diversities still lack legal recognition. It is essential to amend laws and public policies to guarantee property rights, recognizing their historic role in agriculture.
For all these reasons, on this October 16, 2024, the International Day of Action for People’s Food Sovereignty and Against Transnational Corporations, we call on our regional and local organizations, allies, social movements, and collectives to mobilize together in defense of life, healthy and sovereign food for the people, and the rights of millions of peasants.
We demand policy changes that move away from dependence on carbon-emitting imported agricultural products and corporate-driven agriculture. We need sustainable agriculture based on Food Sovereignty, which is why agrarian reforms, as guided by UNDROP, are essential.
A global delegation representing our member organizations will participate in various activities, including mobilizations to defend biodiversity at COP 16 in Cali, Colombia, the sessions to mark the Decade of Family Farming in Rome, the Plenary Session of the Committee on World Food Security and so forth. We will also be joining and supporting the preparations for the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum for Food Sovereignty, Global Justice, and Systemic Change – planned for 2025.
We appeal to you to join these mobilizations and activities, support us, and help amplify our voices.
Let’s Do It Together!
Throughout October, we invite you to self-organize and share your local actions for Food Sovereignty with us. We also invite you to build alliances with our national and regional organizations and echo their struggles. We will do this by building unity from our diversity.
For Biodiversity and Food Sovereignty! Enough of Corporate Power and Impunity in Our Territories!
Send the details of your planned actions (invitation, photo, or video) to communications@viacampesina.org.
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