Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment
SEARICE celebrates the UNDROP for enduring enforcement of farmers’ right to seeds
MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 29 September 2023 – SEARICE acknowledged on September 11, 2023 the enduring contribution of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) to peasants’ rights to seeds.
UNDROP, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2018, is the most comprehensive international instrument relating to the rights of peasants.
In a single instrument, the UNDROP recognizes the rights of peasants, farmers, local communities, indigenous peoples, fisher people, pastoralists, nomads, hunters, gatherers, landless people, rural women and rural workers.
Importantly, says SEARICE executive director Normita Ignacio, “The adoption of UNDROP by the UN General Assembly is a powerful reminder that the human rights to seeds and food must prevail over intellectual property and seed marketing laws and regulations.”
Aside from UNDROP’s guarantees of peasants’ political, cultural and socio-economic rights, Article 19 of this treaty provides for peasants’ right to seeds, including: the right to maintain, control, protect, and develop their own seeds and traditional knowledge; the right to the protection of traditional knowledge, innovation and practices relevant to seeds; The right to participate in decision-making on matters relating to seeds; the right to equitably participate in the sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of their seeds; and the right to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed or propagating material.
The UNDROP likewise defines the obligations of States to enforce these rights, and in a way that is more precise than in other international instruments.
Says Ignacio, “The comprehensive and inalienable nature of the rights enshrined in UNDROP
makes it a powerful tool to better protect peasants’ right to seeds and peasant seed systems – not only in the interest of peasants and farmers, but of society at large.”