Part two of the Appeal of the Peasants

Full text @  http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/708316

Gloucester County council made no attempt to assess our beliefs and socio economic rights as defined in the equality act 2006 of which they have a duty to do so.

We have a right to pursue a livelihood that does not contradict our beliefs.

We refuse to participate in a system that is exploitative and unsustainable.

As homeless peasants we re opened the wilderness centre to initiate a movement towards the foundation of home that ensures the conditions of a livelihood in accordance with the principles of economic autonomy and ecological sustainability. We share the struggle for economic autonomy with peasants around the world.

We believe that environmental education is a necessary condition of a society built upon the principle of ecological sustainability.


Our beliefs can be articulated through these principles and the values which inform them. The principle of economic autonomy is that a home should be able to support and maintain all of the relations of production on which that home depends. The value which informs this principle is freedom albeit in its negative sense as a freedom from. The principle of ecological sustainability is that a home should be able to maintain a balance with the resources and relations of forces on which it depends. The value which informs this principle is that of harmony or balance.


The Peasant struggle is fully applicable to the framework of international human rights which includes instruments, and thematic mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, that address the right to food, housing rights, access to water, right to health, human rights defenders, indigenous peoples, racism and racial discrimination, women’s rights. However these international instruments of the UN do not completely cover nor prevent human rights violations, especially the rights of the peasants. We see some limitations in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) as an instrument to protect peasants' right. Also, the Charter of the Peasant produced by the UN in 1978, was not able to protect peasants from international liberalization policies. The other international conventions, which also deal with peasants' rights, can not be implemented either. These conventions include: ILO Convention 169, Clause 8?J Convention on Biodiversity, Point 14.60 Agenda 21, and Cartagena Protocol.



In articulating our rights with reference to and in solidarity with the Peasant struggle we refer to the Declaration of Rights of peasant – women and men proposed by La Via Campesina. the Declaration of the Rights of Peasants was formulated through the process of a series of activities, including the Workshop on Peasants' Rights in Medan North Sumatra in 2000, the Conference of Agrarian Reform in Jakarta April 2001, the Regional conference on Peasants' Rights held in Jakarta in April 2002 and the International Conference of Via Campesina also held in Jakarta, in June 2008. La Via Campesina are calling for this document to form the basis of an International Convention of Peasants Rights, to be elaborated by the United Nations, with the full participation of La Via Campesina and other representatives of civil society.

The full text of the declaration is attached to this document. The following are specific articles that are relevant to our case;



Article I

Definition of peasants: rights holders

A peasant is a man or woman of the land, who has a direct and special relationship with the land and nature through the production of food and/or other agricultural products. Peasants work the land themselves, rely above all on family labour and other small?scale forms of organizing labour. Peasants are traditionally embedded in their local communities and they take care of local landscapes and of agro?ecological systems.

The term peasant can apply to any person engaged in agriculture, cattle?raising, pastoralism, handicrafts?related to agriculture or a related occupation in a rural area. This includes Indigenous people working on the land.

Declaration of Rights of Peasants ? Women and Men

The term peasant also applies to landless. According to the UN Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO 1984) definition[1], the following categories of people are considered to be landless and are likely to face difficulties in ensuring their livelihood:

1.

Agricultural labour households with little or no land;
2.

2. Non?agricultural households in rural areas, with little or no land, whose members are engaged in various activities such as fishing, making crafts for the local market, or providing services;
3.

3. Other rural households of pastoralists, nomads, peasants practicing shifting cultivation, hunters and gatherers, and people with similar livelihoods.



Article II Rights of peasants

3. Peasants (women and men) are free and equal to all other people and individuals and have the right to be free from any kind of discrimination, in the exercise of their rights, in particular to be free from discriminations based on their economic, social and cultural status.

4. Peasants (women and men) have the right to actively participate in policy design, decision making, implementation, and monitoring of any project, program or policy affecting their territories.



Art. III Right to life and to an adequate standard of living



1. Peasants (women and men) have the right to physical integrity, to not be harassed, evicted, persecuted, arbitrarily arrested, and killed for defending their rights.



Article IV

Right to land and territory

3. Peasants (women and men) have the right to toil and own the non?productive state land on which they depend for their livelihood.



8. Peasants (women and men) have the right to manage, conserve, and benefit from the forests.



9. Peasants (women and men) have the right to reject all kinds of land acquisition and conversion for economic purpose.



11. Peasants (women and men) have the right to agricultural land that can be irrigated to ensure food sovereignty for growing population.

Declaration of Rights of Peasants ? W

13. Peasants (women and men) have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State.



Article V Right to seeds and traditional agricultural knowledge and practice



4. Peasants (women and men) have the right to conserve and develop their local

knowledge in agriculture, fishing, livestock rearing.



Article VI Right to means of agricultural production



1. Peasants (women and men) have the right to obtain funds from the State to develop Agriculture

6. Peasants (women and men) have the right to be actively involved in planning,

formulating, and deciding on the budget for national and local agriculture.



Article VII

Right to information and agriculture technology

1. Peasants (women and men) have the right to obtain impartial and balanced

information about capital, market, policies, prices, technology, etc, related to

peasants’ needs.



Article IX

Right to the protection of agriculture values



2. Peasants (women and men) have the right to develop and preserve local knowledge in agriculture.


Article X

Right to biological diversity

1. Peasants (women and men) have the right to the protection and preservation of

biological diversity.



Article XI

Right to preserve the environment

1. Peasants (women and men) have the right to a clean and healthy environment.

2. Peasants (women and men) have the right to preserve the environment according to their knowledge.

3. Peasants (women and men) have the right to reject all forms of exploitation which

cause environmental damage.



Article XII Freedoms of association, opinion and expression



4. Peasants (women and men) have the right not to be criminalized for their claims and struggles.

5. Peasants (women and men) have to right to resist oppression and to resort to

peaceful direct action in order to protect their rights



Article XIII

Right to have access to justice

1. Peasants (women and men) have the right to effective remedies in case of violations of their rights. They have the right to a fair justice system, to have effective and nondiscriminatory access to courts and to have legal aid.

2. Peasants (women and men) have the right not to be criminalized for their claims and struggles.

3. Peasants (women and men) have the right to be informed and to legal assistance.


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