Prof. Marc Edelman addresses UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on a UN Declaration on Peasants' Rights
Prof. Marc Edelman (Anthropology) addressed the UN Human Rights Council's Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group on a United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, which held its first session in Geneva on July 15-19, 2013. At the request of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Edelman presented a briefing paper on the question of how to define "peasants," since the first article of most international human rights instruments is used to define the rights holders. The Working Group heard from panelists who included past and present UN special rapporteurs, academic specialists on agrarian studies, and representatives of civil society organizations, including transnational movements of peasants and fisherfolk. Edelman's paper and other information on the session are available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RuralAreas/Pages/FirstSession.aspx