PBI-Honduras accompanies the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) in their work on land title and gender equality

On November 18, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“This week, together with CNTC La Paz, we visited some communities in the department that have been fighting for years to obtain title to the land they work. We highlight the efforts of the Gender Committee of CNTC La Paz to improve the conditions of women in rural areas.”

PBI-Honduras further explained on Facebook:

“This week we met with the members of CNTC La Paz and visited some communities in the department that have been fighting for several years to obtain title to the land they work.

The CNTC since 1985 supports affiliated peasant families so that they have land and resources to develop productive activities, offers them legal support and executes profitable productive projects with a gender approach and sustainable agriculture.

Despite the high rate of cases of gender-based violence, we want to congratulate the CNTC La Paz Gender Committee for their constant efforts to counteract them and for their commitment to improving the condition of women in rural areas.”

Earlier this year, PBI-Honduras also 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.

PBI-Honduras has also noted:

“Agrarian laws initially designed to benefit the peasantry (passed in 1962 and 1975) had legally defined land ownership as eligible only to “men over 16 years of age”, effectively invisibilizing rural women.

It was only in 1992, with the Law for the Modernization and Development of the Agricultural Sector, that the legislation even contemplated the registration of property titles for spouses or common-law partners, opening new spaces for women.

Despite these legal advances, there continues to exist serious inequity in terms of access to land. In the last decade, Honduras’ National Agrarian Institute (INA) granted almost 79,000 land titles nationwide, of which only 37% correspond to women, and currently only 14% of all rural women have a land title.”

At this time, we also 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 (in Spanish) produced PBI-Honduras, featuring two speakers from the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC), can be seen here.

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) since May 2018.

The CNTC is affiliated with the Unified Confederation of Honduran Workers (CUTH) which in turn is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), along with 150+ labour organizations including the Canadian Labour Congress.