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  • Publication | 2021

Guide on international and regional instruments to defend and promote the interests and rights of family farmers

Global Food and Nutrition Security

This guide aims to support family farmers, by providing an overview of international and regional instruments that can be used to protect their interests and rights:

  • 2030 Agenda for sustainable development– Sustainable Development Goals;

  • UN Decade of Family Farming (2019-2028);

  • International and regional human rights instruments;

  • The Convention on Biological Diversity and its protocols;

  • FAO instruments;

  • UN Committee on World Food Security instruments.

These instruments can offer a good basis to better protect and promote the interests and rights of family farmers and peasants, who are the first providers of food in the world, and the guardians of agrobiodiversity, but at the same time the first to suffer from hunger and food insecurity.

These instruments recognize and protect, from different angles, family farmers and their vital role in addressing some of today’s most important global challenges, including sustainable and resilient food systems, rural development, climate change, and women’s empowerment. These instruments are interconnected and should be implemented in a mutually reinforcing manner.