HRC63 - EU Statement - Interactive dialogue with the Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas

UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

63^rd session

Interactive dialogue with the Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas

16 September 2026

EU Statement

Thank you Mr President, 

The EU thanks the Working Group for presenting the report.

Peasants and other rural workers are essential contributors to the overall prosperity and economic strength. The rights of peasants and other rural workers relating to seeds are an integral and indivisible component of the right to adequate food.   

The EU’s approach is grounded in our obligations as a duty-bearer under international human rights law. Farmers and peasants are not merely stakeholders to be consulted, but individual rights-holders entitled to active, free, meaningful and effective participation in decisions that shape the seed systems they depend on. They should benefit from legal certainty and, where their rights are affected, have access to processes and remedies that are transparent, inclusive and accessible. 

The EU explicitly applies Human Rights-Based Approach in its international cooperation and promotes the rights of rural workers by incorporating human rights principles into relevant policies and programmes.

Under its 335 million EUR Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA) initiative in Africa, Asia and Latin America, a key research and policy work tracking seed law harmonisation explicitly backs farmers' rights to save, reuse, exchange, and sell farm-saved seeds.

We would like to ask the distinguished member of the working group, 

What best practices has the Working Group observed in engaging peasants in active, free, transparent and meaningful consultations with on seed‑related research, legislation and policies? 

Thank you.