UN declaration on peasant rights

The UN  Human Rights Council has passed the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas.

"In a resolution adopted by a vote of 33 in favour, three against and 11 abstentions, the Council adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, and it recommended that the General Assembly adopt the United Nations Declaration. It invited Governments, agencies and organizations of the United Nations system and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to disseminate the Declaration and to promote universal respect and understanding thereof."

The UK has consistently voted against the declaration at previous stages of its evolution. It did so again today. The other two no votes were Hungary and Australia.




It will now go forward to the General Assembly.

Among the key rights are :

The right to land, access, use and management of land, necessary for the realization of the rights to an adequate standard of living, to health and to participate

The right to seeds and biodiversity, includes right to use, grow, reuse, store, develop, exchange, transport, give and sell seeds. By developing their seeds, peasants build more resilient and sustainable farming systems, able to feed others in spite of climate change.

The right of food sovereignty, referring  to the right to a development model in which peasants can not only choose but also develop their own means of production, processing,distribution and consumption, in such a way that it valuesand improves the social and working conditions within agricultural and food systems.

The right to decent income and means of subsistence

Worldwide there are 2 billion peasants and other people working in rural areas who would be coverd by these rights if adopted.

To my mind this declaration is almost diametrically opposed to the  current situation in Jersey. That 1974 law was designed and works to ensure land is available to commercial farmers. Here we have no land occupation  rights.  You can own land, but the right to work agricultural land is  tightly controlled by the States.  To be a bona fide agriculturalist as they put it you have to have a margin profit of £40,000 per year and meet other restrictions.  As a smallholder the amount of land you can occupy is limited but you still have to have £5,000 margin.  The law intentionaly  denies subsistence and self supporting occupation - legally I guess its illegal to be a peasant in Jersey!  A synopsis of the law is at https://www.gov.je/Industry/FarmingFishing/PlantsProduce/Pages/LandControl.aspx

Food soverignty is a concept that seems unknown to Jersey policy makers.  Our approach is to corral all producers into a one managed scheme. You only have to look at the struggle Darren Quenault had to set up his own dairy to see how this right isn't supported locally.

The right to a decent income certainly doesn't exist in Jersey for self employed and seasonal workers. For starters if you own your land, those fields are counted as assets against you for income support.

The States need to do some serious policy revision thinking before this declaration gets to the UN General Assembly if it has any intention to be compliant.