At a side event organized by the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Network; the Climate and Development Knowledge Network; the Forests, Climate and Livelihood; Soka Gakkai International Action for Peace; and the SwedBio at COP16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, held on October 22, 2024 in Cali, Colombia, SEARICE Executive Director Normita Ignacio stressed that the only way smallholder food producers can continue sustaining biodiversity is when their rights are protected and upheld.
She said that a smallholder food producer, regardless of whether he or she belongs to an indigenous group, or a local community -- regardless of whether that small farmer is a woman, young or old, has dignity and should be treated with fairness and respect and should be given autonomy to make decisions on matters that affect them. She lobbied strongly for the mainstreaming and implementation of the human rights-based approach as reflected in the KMGBF and all climate and biodiversity actions.
The SEARICE chief highlighted the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) among the many other international tools and instruments that are available and should be used to implement farmer's rights. She mentioned that UNDROP encompasses both individual and collective rights and so far the most comprehensive instrument at the international level, covering State obligations concerning respecting, protecting, and fulfilling peasants' rights.
She ended her message with a call to recognize farmers' rights as human rights, explaining that implementing farmers' rights means fulfilling the right to food of humanity.