RES/21/19 Promotion and protection of the human rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas

GE.A/HRC/19/75, annex. 2-17470

Human Rights Council Twenty-first session

Agenda item 5

Human rights bodies and mechanisms

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council 

21/19.

Promotion and protection of the human rights of peasants and other

people working in rural areas

The Human Rights Council,

Recalling Human Rights Council resolutions 13/4 of 24 March 2010, 16/27 of 25

March 2011 and 19/7 of 22 March 2012,

Determined to foster strict respect for the purposes and principles enshrined in the

Charter of the United Nations,

Underlining the imperative need to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by

2015 in order to contribute to making the right to development a reality for everyone,

Gravely concerned that hunger, like poverty, is still predominantly a rural problem,

and that in the rural population it is those who produce food who suffer disproportionately,

and alarmed that 80 per cent of people suffering from hunger live in rural areas, particularly

in developing countries, and 50 per cent are small-scale and traditional farm holders, and

that these people are especially vulnerable to food insecurity, discrimination and

exploitation,

Recognizing that livelihoods in rural areas are disproportionately affected by

poverty, climate change, lack of development and lack of access to scientific progress,

Taking note of the draft declaration on the rights of peasants and other people

working in rural areas prepared by the Advisory Committee and submitted to the Human

Rights Council,1

Convinced of the need to strengthen the protection and realization of the human

rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas,

 The resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council will be contained in the report of

the Council on its twenty-first session (A/HRC/21/2), chap. I.

1. Decides to establish an open-ended intergovernmental working group with

the mandate of negotiating, finalizing and submitting to the Human Rights Council a draft

United Nations declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural

areas, on the basis of the draft submitted by the Advisory Committee, and without

prejudging relevant past, present and future views and proposals;

2. Also decides that the working group shall hold its first session for five

working days in 2013, before the twenty-third session of the Human Rights Council;

3. Requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human

Rights to provide the working group with the human, technical and financial assistance

necessary for it to fulfil its mandate;

4. Requests the President of the Human Rights Council to invite the Rapporteur

of the Advisory Committee drafting group on the draft declaration to participate in the first

session of the working group;

5. Invites States, civil society, representatives of peasants and other people

working in rural areas and all relevant stakeholders to contribute actively and constructively

to the work of the working group;

6. Requests the working group to submit a report on progress made to the

Human Rights Council for its consideration at its twenty-sixth session.

37th meeting

27 September 2012

[Adopted by a recorded vote of 23 to 9, with 15 abstentions. The voting was as follows:

In favour:

Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, China, Congo,

Costa Rica, Cuba, Djibouti, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Indonesia,

Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Russian Federation, Thailand,

Uganda, Uruguay

Against:

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain,

United States of America

Abstaining:

Botswana, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico,

Nigeria, Norway, Qatar, Republic of Moldova, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,

Switzerland]