170 Giulia Sajeva
related directly with the land (including costs, waters, sea, etc.) and is on a smallscale (subsistence or little more). The Declaration reaffirms the special relationship with the environment that peasants and other people working in rural areas
have and recognizes their contribution to conserving and improving biodiversity. In order to promote and protect this special interaction, it contains a long list
of very diverse rights. Grounded on the importance of non-discrimination, these
rights partially reaffirm human rights (Paoloni & Vezzani, 2019, p. 24) already
included in international human rights law,
18 or are still under debate (such as the
right to a safe, clean, and healthy environment and right to water; see Boyd, 2019;
Knox, 2017), expanding (or narrowing?
19 ) them onto local communities. A second category of rights partially overlaps with indigenous peoples’ rights, focusing
on issues mostly related to traditional practices and legal systems, and collective
rights related to access and use of natural resources. Furthermore, UNDROP
recognizes more specific collective rights, whose origins can be traced through
the struggle for adequate recognition of farmers’ rights, and that may be considered as new rights in international human rights law (Golay, 2015, p. 24). Among
these, there is the right to food produced and consumed sustainably and equitably
respecting their cultures; the right to food sovereignty as a right to determine
their food and agriculture systems; the right to engage in traditional ways of
farming, fishing, livestock rearing, and forestry; the freedom to determine prices
and markets for agricultural production and access to markets; the right to the
protection of traditional knowledge, innovation, and practices, including traditional agrarian, pastoral, forestry, fisheries, livestock, and agroecological systems
relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity; the right
to save, use, exchange, and sell their farm-saved seed or propagating material; the
rights to rely either on their own seeds or on other locally available seeds of their
choice, and to decide on the crops and species that they wish to grow; the support
to seed systems, and promotion of the use of peasant seeds and agrobiodiversity;
the right to maintain, control, protect, and develop seeds and their traditional
knowledge; and the right to biological diversity.
The above list of rights was approved with the favorable vote of 122 states
20 at
the UN General Assembly; however, its legal force is limited to that of a simple
recommendation with no legally binding force.
21
UNDROP aligns with other non-binding instruments that may be relevant to understand the rights (and at least their current process of evolution)
of local communities: the FAO 2012 Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible
Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food
Security directed toward very diverse local communities sharing special relationships with lands and natural resources and contributing to their conservation and sustainable use, and followed by the 2016 Governing Tenure Rights
to Commons. A guide to support the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on
the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security aimed at protecting tenure rights to commons
and community-based governance structures; the 2013 Voluntary Guidelines
related directly with the land (including costs, waters, sea, etc.) and is on a smallscale (subsistence or little more). The Declaration reaffirms the special relationship with the environment that peasants and other people working in rural areas
have and recognizes their contribution to conserving and improving biodiversity. In order to promote and protect this special interaction, it contains a long list
of very diverse rights. Grounded on the importance of non-discrimination, these
rights partially reaffirm human rights (Paoloni & Vezzani, 2019, p. 24) already
included in international human rights law,
18 or are still under debate (such as the
right to a safe, clean, and healthy environment and right to water; see Boyd, 2019;
Knox, 2017), expanding (or narrowing?
19 ) them onto local communities. A second category of rights partially overlaps with indigenous peoples’ rights, focusing
on issues mostly related to traditional practices and legal systems, and collective
rights related to access and use of natural resources. Furthermore, UNDROP
recognizes more specific collective rights, whose origins can be traced through
the struggle for adequate recognition of farmers’ rights, and that may be considered as new rights in international human rights law (Golay, 2015, p. 24). Among
these, there is the right to food produced and consumed sustainably and equitably
respecting their cultures; the right to food sovereignty as a right to determine
their food and agriculture systems; the right to engage in traditional ways of
farming, fishing, livestock rearing, and forestry; the freedom to determine prices
and markets for agricultural production and access to markets; the right to the
protection of traditional knowledge, innovation, and practices, including traditional agrarian, pastoral, forestry, fisheries, livestock, and agroecological systems
relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity; the right
to save, use, exchange, and sell their farm-saved seed or propagating material; the
rights to rely either on their own seeds or on other locally available seeds of their
choice, and to decide on the crops and species that they wish to grow; the support
to seed systems, and promotion of the use of peasant seeds and agrobiodiversity;
the right to maintain, control, protect, and develop seeds and their traditional
knowledge; and the right to biological diversity.
The above list of rights was approved with the favorable vote of 122 states
20 at
the UN General Assembly; however, its legal force is limited to that of a simple
recommendation with no legally binding force.
21
UNDROP aligns with other non-binding instruments that may be relevant to understand the rights (and at least their current process of evolution)
of local communities: the FAO 2012 Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible
Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food
Security directed toward very diverse local communities sharing special relationships with lands and natural resources and contributing to their conservation and sustainable use, and followed by the 2016 Governing Tenure Rights
to Commons. A guide to support the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on
the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security aimed at protecting tenure rights to commons
and community-based governance structures; the 2013 Voluntary Guidelines