The debate about compensation of former white farmers in Zimbabwe continues to rage. The compensation agreement signed in July agreed a total amount of US$3.5 billion to pay for ‘improvements’ to the land that was expropriated. After 20 years of discussion, this was a major step forward. However, there seem to be multiple positions on the agreement and little consensus, along with much misunderstanding. However, some things are happening, and a joint resource mobilisation committee has been established with technical support from the World Bank and others.

El papel del campesinado, “como siempre”, es el de “producir alimentos sanos para la población del mundo”. En tanto, el rol de los gobiernos es proteger a trabajadores/as”.

  Anderson Amaro, Movimiento de Agricultores de Brasil (MPA)

 Por: Javier Suazo

Por Fernando Eguren

Like many of you, we’re struggling to comprehend the new world we find ourselves in.

(Como muchos de ustedes, estamos luchando por comprender el nuevo mundo en el que nos encontramos)*

Last week the World Cocoa Foundation, a membership organization of more than 100 cocoa companies, held its annual partnership meeting in Berlin, Germany. The aim of the meeting is for governments, cocoa companies and farmers to identify and tackle the sector’s largest sustainability challenges. A 90-minute session was devoted to the topic of land tenure. The prominence of the session, as well as the seniority of the presenters – the Head of Sustainable Sourcing for Hershey’s and the Deputy Director General of Cote d’Ivoire’s Land Agency among them – is a powerful signaling effect.

La aprobación y adopción de la Declaración sobre los Derechos de los Campesinos y Otras Personas que Trabajan en las Zonas Rurales representa un hecho histórico para el propio sistema internacional de derechos humanos, así como para las comunidades campesinas del mundo. Ha sido una lucha de más de 17 años de La Vía Campesina que, junto con aliados, logró impulsar en el seno de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) el debate sobre el rol y situación del campesinado.

Author: Ahmadou Aly Mbaye

Editor's Note: 

por María Alejandra Aguilar/Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad

Con el objetivo es reconocer la necesidad de fortalecer los derechos de los campesinos y hacer un llamado a los estados miembros para que adopten medidas urgentes fue firmada la Declaración sobre los Derechos Humanos para los Campesinos y otros Trabajadores Rurales.

Por: Olivier De Schutter

El próximo 28 de septiembre el Consejo de Derechos Humanos votará el proyecto de Declaración de los derechos de los campesinos

This week in Geneva, the Human Rights Council is expected to take a position on the follow-up to a draft Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other Persons Working in Rural Areas. Five years after the start of the negotiations, we are at a turning point.

The failure to secure the property rights of rural communities shows a clear policy gap between citizens and rights to land as per the Constitution and the attitude and practices of the state, traditional leaders, white farmers and mining companies in relation to such rights. 

Absent from the discourse spurred by the motion passed in the National Assembly on 27 February is what could be achieved in the interim for land reform programme using existing legislation while the country awaits a verdict on the constitutional amendment to determine whether is possible to expropriate land w

Much of the world’s rural landscapes are technically managed by national governments with limited recognition of, or support for, the rights and management responsibilities of the rural poor who live in these areas. In an era of large-scale land acquisitions for global commodity production, this has led, in some cases, to governments allocating vast tracts of land and resources to companies with limited or no consultation of the people affected.

Fernando Eguren, Centro Peruano de Estudios Sociales