PBI-Honduras accompanies National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) in the struggle for the right to land and food sovereignty

On April 17, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“Despite their fundamental role in food production, 90% of rural women do not have land #DïaInternacionalDeLaLuchaCampesina [International Day of Peasant Struggles]. The #ONU [United Nations] invite #Honduras to review reforms of #CódigoPenal [Penal Code] that reduce civic space #criminalización [criminalization].”

The International Day of Peasant Struggles was established in 1996 by the international peasant movement La Via Campesina to commemorate the April 17th massacre of 19 landless Brazilian peasants.

At this time, we recall that Canada abstained in the vote on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas that was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2018.

PBI-Honduras has previously noted that this UN Declaration recognizes key elements such as “the right to land, to natural resources and to food sovereignty, based on the principle of equality between men and women.”

Image showing Canada’s vote on the UN Declaration shared by Andrea Nuila, gender and women’s rights coordinator at FIAN International, at a PBI co-organized webinar.

A 2-minute video produced PBI-Honduras, featuring two speakers from the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC), can be seen here.

PBI Honduras has accompanied the CNTC since May 2018.

It is a small-scale farming and trade union organization that fights for a more just distribution of land in Honduras. Its aim is to support affiliated small-scale farming families so that they have access to land.

PBI-Honduras has noted: “Of the 404 communities that form the National Union of Rural Workers, just 20% have titles to their lands. Many others have worked and lived on their lands for three or four decades and have spent 15 years awaiting the official recognition of their rights that never seems to arrive.”

Overall, land distribution in Honduras is highly unequal.

Just 5% of large-scale farmers control almost two thirds of all cultivable land, while 71% of small-scale farmers have access to just 5% of it.

#DïaInternacionalDeLaLuchaCampesina