Training Brazilian farmers’ organisations on the UNDROP

Since the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), the CETIM – in collaboration with La Via Campesina in particular – has been running training courses for peasant organisation executives.

The goal of this training is not only to familiarise rights-holders with the UNDROP, but also to facilitate and encourage the appropriation by peasants and other rural populations of this Declaration in their political and legal struggles at the local, the national, the regional and the international levels. The aim is also to draw up a strategic plan for lobbying various governmental, judicial and political bodies, in order to achieve the concrete implementation of the Declaration with the active participation of the peasants and other rural populations concerned.

Brazil: building UNDROP capacity, a fundamental political and legal lever

In January and in March 2025, the CETIM organised UNDROP training for the LVC-Brazil organisation’s members, with the support of the human rights organisation “Terra de Direitos” (Land of Rights). It was the first UNDROP coaching for social movements and popular rural organisations in Brazil. This is a practical example of the implementation of the LVC/CETIM strategy of organising training sessions on the Declaration for its members in different countries.

During this first session in Brazil, participants from all 10 social movements that make up LVC-Brazil studied the history of the UNDROP process and the content of the Declaration, emphasising peasants’ rights to land, biodiversity, seeds and food sovereignty. Following that, they discussed case studies on rights’ violations of the UNDROP that occurred nationally. Taking advantage of the political capital of the social movements present, promotion of the implementation of the UNDROP from the grassroots is crucial in the long and difficult work for social justice, access to land and food sovereignty in rural areas in Brazil. In this sense, the strategic plan drawn up collectively during the training helped clarify the way forward for promoting and implementing the UNDROP and for translating its provisions into legal and public policy.

The various initiatives to be implemented also include advocacy at the United Nations, in particular with its Working Group on the Rights of Peasants, set up in 2023.

By participating in the Working Group’s debates and collaborating with its work, peasants’ organisations around the world can use this United Nations mechanism to advance the implementation of the UNDROP in their respective countries. After all, one of the functions of the Working Group is precisely to recommend, support and accompany United Nations Member States in the implementation of the Declaration, so that it can be a practical instrument in the development of public policies, programs and laws that actually correct inequalities in the countryside.