The rights of peasants are a historic choice of Ukraine with support all over the world!

On 28 September 2018 in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas: 33 votes in favour, 3 against and 11 abstentions. Ukraine has voted for the rights of peasants!

This was the result of the hard work of civil society, governments, rural families and farmers from all over the world. Work continues around the world to protect the rights of peasants to land, social security, including for rural migrants, food sovereignty, traditional knowledge, seeds and technologies, biodiversity, etc.

This vote in the UN Human Rights Council was a significant success for all peasant organisations, pastoralists, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, rural workers and migrants who have worked together to create and defend this declaration in their countries and around the world. Ukraine, which became a member of the UN Human Rights Council for the first time, along with Switzerland and Portugal, which have long made significant efforts to coordinate the EU’s position on the Declaration, expressed support for the protection of the rights of vulnerable rural communities. In 2017, our country joined the international initiative to protect the rights of peasants, which was a clear signal of recognition in Ukraine of the irreplaceable role of small producers in the production of agricultural products and food, the preservation of rural communities and the development of territories.

The Ukrainian Rural Development Network, on behalf of the civil society representatives involved in supporting the Declaration, expresses its deep respect and sincere gratitude to the authorities for supporting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas: The Presidential Administration of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and all others who have made great efforts to ensure that Ukraine is at the forefront of the global peasant movement for the rights of peasants and rural migrants! Such cooperation and your attention and support for the aspirations of the progressive Ukrainian community to protect the dignity of peasants and rural communities and their efforts to obtain decent livelihoods in their places of residence are very important to us.

We sincerely hope that in December 2018, Ukraine will confirm its course of support for the peasantry and the principles of rural development at the international level by voting at the UN General Assembly in New York for the final adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas.

Source: Ukrainian Rural Development Network