Every April 17th – the International Day of Peasant Struggle – with living memory and rebellion inherited from 19 landless Peasants murdered with impunity in the Eldorado do Carajás Massacre in Brazil, Via Campesina call upon their members, friends and allies to come together with strong actions worldwide, affirming that the only way to obtain Peasant Rights is with Agrarian Reform and Social Justice.

On 17 December 2018, the 73rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (RES/73/165). The Declaration is an international legal instrument. Via Campesina wants to mobilize for its real implementation in our territories, and this implies that the State guarantees access to the land, the protection of seeds facing commercialization, putting a stop to evictions and deaths, as well as creating measures against agrochemicals; social justice means that those who feed the world live in dignified conditions and in peace in the countryside, without being prosecuted for defending their rights and territories. In this current context of extractivism and the alarming rate at which lands are forcefully grabbed from the Peasant people, the urgency of Agrarian Reform proves strategic. Particularly so, since the neoliberal offensive in the whole world is accompanied by the loss of the rights of the working class and consequently of the peasantry.

Links:
Day of Peasant Struggles