UN General Assembly adopts peasant rights declaration

Following the adoption of the Declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas by the UN Human Rights Council in September 2018, the 3rd Committee session of the UN General Assembly adopted the declaration in November by a large majority. 119 states voted for it, seven against it and 49 states abstained. 
 
After adoption of the declaration in the 3rd Committee, the declaration must be formally ratified by the General Assembly. This is expected to take place before the end of the year.
 
As part of the efforts to eradicate global hunger, the UN Human Rights Council resolved in 2012 to start work on a declaration on human rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas.
 
This decision was based on the study by its Advisory Committee, which had identified five main reasons for the disproportionately high share of hunger in rural populations:
1) expropriation of land, forced evictions and displacement,
2) gender discrimination,
3) absence of agrarian reform and rural development policies,
4) lack of minimum wages and social protection, and
5) criminalisation of movements defending the rights of people working in rural areas.

(INKOTA/ile)

More information: Resolution on the UN Declaration by the 3rd Committee for the UN General Assembly: undocs.org/A/C.3/73/L.30