The Human Rights Framework in Contemporary Agrarian Struggles

Suárez, Sofía Monsalve

doi:10.1080/03066150.2011.652950

Cited by 67 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Under these circumstances, the land-based movement now combines advocacy of national food security policies with advocacy for human rights, concretized as collective rights for territorial land-users with social purpose in general and women's rights in particular (McKeon 2009;Edelman and James 2011;Claeys 2013;Monsalve Suárez 2013;cf Borras and Franco 2012). Now, in addition to the right to food, as enshrined in the International Convention on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the agrarian movements advocate the right to produce food, using their own distinctive production and distribution systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

A comment on Henry Bernstein's way with peasants, and food sovereignty

McMichael¹

2014

The Journal of Peasant Studies

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Food sovereignty, as a counter-movement to the food regime, includes a range of struggles, and is evidently quite elastic as a discourse and practice. Because the food regime itself is evolving and restructuring, food sovereignty embodies movement. In its 'second generation' phase it operates on both rural and urban fronts, separately and together, connecting producers, workers, consumers and various activist organizations. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize food sovereignty's origins in the global agrarian crisis of the last three decades. Small producers (peasants, farmers, pastoralists, fishers, forest-dwellers) continue to experience massive displacement by World Trade Organization (WTO)-style 'free trade', overlaid with new displacements by fiat, force and finance as land grabbing in various forms proceeds apace. This is a key theme in a response to Henry Bernstein's questions about the character of the food sovereignty movement.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

A comment on Henry Bernstein's way with peasants, and food sovereignty

McMichael¹

2014

The Journal of Peasant Studies

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“…Food sovereignty, food security and the right to food are increasingly the subjects of international debates, scholarship and media attention (Dreze, 2013;Monsalve Suarez, 2012;Lappé, 2011;Giménez and Shattuck, 2011;Patel, 2009;Rosset, 2008). Despite the current interest in these issues, gaps remain in related literature.…”

Section: Valuing Coal Versus Agriculturementioning

confidence: 97%

Right to food, right to mine? Competing human rights claims in Bangladesh

Bedi

2015

Geoforum

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a b s t r a c tThe right to food is increasingly evoked by a range of actors, but there is not sufficient critical analysis of distinct interpretations of what this right means in practice. Through examination of a mineral extraction project with agricultural implications, this article explores diverse human rights narratives and illuminates associated corporate efforts to minimize recognition of food as a fundamental right. A British mining company proposes the Phulbari open pit coal mine in an agriculturally important region of Bangladesh. Highly contested by affected populations, clashes in 2006 between the police and protestors turned deadly in the area. In February 2012, a group of UN Special Rapporteurs cautioned the Government of Bangladesh regarding human rights violations associated with the planned mine. They warned that the project would displace hundreds of thousands of people, while destroying fertile agricultural land. In contrast, an ongoing publicity campaign by the corporation attempts to promote their intervention as a positive step, fully compliant with international human rights and corporate social responsibility standards. Taking this case as an exemplar, the article illuminates the pursuit of mining profit and the distinct use of human rights narratives by corporations and UN Special Rapporteurs. These diverse actors represent the layering of voices weighing in on mineral extraction and associated right to food concerns. Collectively, these layered narratives represent a new terrain for the promotion and contestation of mining and highlight the need to scrutinize mining practices in light of social responsibility and human rights claims being voluntary and self-regulated.

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“…Better linkages between the CFS and other global forums like the UN Human Rights Council are also needed. The UN Human Rights Council has succeeded in getting processes underway to defend peasants' right and regulate transnational corporations (Claeys, 2014;Monsalve Suárez, 2013). Outreach to less congenial forums is equally important.…”

Section: Lessonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

GFG - Global food governance in an era of crisis: Lessons from the United Nations Committee on World Food Security

McKeon

2015

CanFoodStudies

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The increasingly destructive impacts that today's global food system visits upon local food provision, biodiversity, and the environment have been highlighted by a number of contributors in this special issue. Viewed through a global governance lens, public responsibility has been progressively sold out to markets and corporations while the front-line actors of food provision-families, communities, and small-scale producers-have been disempowered. Decisions that affect food security are most often taken at tables located behind closed doors, from which the vulnerable are excluded. The global food system is largely orchestrated by powerful corporate, financial, and political actors to serve their own interests. Now is the time to build better food governance, not only because we are getting very close to the absolute ecological, socio-economic, and political limits of today's dominant system, but also because alternatives do exist. As articles in Section 5 of this issue have illustrated, a diversified and articulated network of different ways of thinking and going about food provision has sprung up, rooted in territories and cultures throughout the world. These solutions are practiced and advocated by increasingly authoritative organizations of peasant farmers, artisanal fisherfolk, pastoralists, indigenous peoples, urban poor, and other constituencies, many of whom recognize themselves in the food sovereignty movement. They are mobilizing around their common experiences at all levels including the global, where they have been instrumental in establishing a unique governance site.1 Issues raised in this article are addressed in detail in McKeon (2015).

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The Human Rights Framework in Contemporary Agrarian Struggles

Cited by 67 publications

References 12 publications

A comment on Henry Bernstein's way with peasants, and food sovereignty

A comment on Henry Bernstein's way with peasants, and food sovereignty

Right to food, right to mine? Competing human rights claims in Bangladesh

GFG - Global food governance in an era of crisis: Lessons from the United Nations Committee on World Food Security

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