Excerpts from statements made by CETIM to the UN during the first half of 2023

Systemic violence in agrifood systems
The systemic violence that takes place in today’s agrifood systems directly affects small farmers and other people working in rural areas. This violence is specific to the prevailing system and is not inevitable; it results from the imposition of a model of production, exchange and marketing based on the unbridled pursuit of profit and on the monopoly of agribusiness on food chains. Solutions exist to deal with it, such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants. CETIM thus urged all States and all authorities concerned to promote the implementation of this Declaration.
Read the statement made to the Human Rights Council in French www.cetim.ch/wp-content/uploads/Dec-o-alimentation-LVC-1.pdf 

Drafting a binding treaty on transnational corporations: opaque negotiations and attempts to evict civil society 

CETIM shared its concerns about the opacity of the negotiations and the attempts to oust civil society from the process of drawing up a binding treaty on TNCs. 

Read the statement made to the Human Rights Council in French

Obstacles to the realization of the Right to Development
Since the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development (1986), no real progress has been made in this area. Despite a consensus reached in Vienna in 1993, the dominant powers are even putting this right into question although it is fundamental for the enjoyment of all rights for everyone. Among the main obstacles to the realization of the right to development, we note in
particular: the inequitable distribution of wealth; failure to respect the right to self-determination of peoples; the external debt burden; the lack of international cooperation and the militarization of society accompanied by exorbitant military spending.

Read the statement made to the Human Rights Council in French

Turkish military occupation in North and East Syria
CETIM intervened during a debate with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry into the Syrian Arab Republic (the Commission of investigation) to raise the issue of violence and policies aimed at changing the ethnic composition within the framework of the military occupation of the northern and eastern region of Syria by Turkey and its militias. This is a worrying process, which exacerbates ethnic and political tensions in the region. CETIM demands an end to the illegal military occupation in this country by Turkey.
Read the statement made to the Human Rights Council