A delegation of La Via Campesina peasant men and women from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe have come to Geneva for the 30th session of the Human Rights Council, which is soon to vote on continuing its work to complete an "international declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas".
For many years, La Via Campesina, with the support of NGOs, has called on this UN body, denouncing the fact that peasants and rural populations are victims of human rights violations on every continent, though exclusion, land grabbing, repression of peasant leaders and the effects of agrochemicals on health. Since the Office’s decision in 2012, which created the mandate for an open-ended intergovernmental working group to draft a declaration on the rights of peasants, the process has received growing support from the 47 states in the Human Rights Council.