United Nations

Farmer access to seeds is vital for healthy local food systems

On February 19, IATP submitted comments to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Peasants, emphasizing the importance of protecting farmers’ Right to Seeds including the right to save, use, exchange, and sell farm-saved seeds.

IATP comments on Right to Seeds for UNHRC Working Group on Peasants

IATP submitted the following comments on February 19 to the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Peasants, in response to a call for submissions to clarify the content and scope of the Right to Seeds for a report that will be presented to the Human Rights Council in October 2026.

UN committee creates space for collaborative responses in support of just food system transitions

Against the backdrop of multilateralism facing multiple challenges, and the UN remaining a spectator to unprecedented levels of unilateral coercive measures that are suffocating economies, obliterating communities, and impacting millions of lives in the Global South, Ukraine, and the Middle East, it was a relief to see governments coming together last week to adopt 

Removing trade policy obstacles to agroecology and seed sovereignty

Central to the survival of small and mid-scale farmers is their right to save, use, exchange and sell their own seeds — that is, what agroecology advocates have come to recognize as their seed sovereignty.

Battling for Farmers' Seed Systems: UPOV 91 and Trade Agreements

This memo is an attempt to draw attention to the international policy-level challenges impacting Farmers’ Seed Systems broadly, but with a focus on communities in the Global South, and on how the U.S. and its seeds companies use free-trade agreements to undermine the policy space available for farmers to save, use, exchange, and sell farm-saved seeds.

New ideas on addressing the concentration of corporate power in global food systems

Earlier this month, IATP and allies responded to a call for input by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food on Concentration of corporate power in global food systems and its implications for the realization of the right to food.

COP16: The Convention on Biodiversity goes to Cali

On Oct. 21, representatives of the world’s governments will gather in Cali, Colombia for two weeks of negotiations, side events and maybe some big announcements, too. They will meet as the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD).

Balancing Power in the Summit of the Future

The world’s leaders meet early next week at the United Nations (U.N.) headquarters in New York to adopt the Pact for the Future at the Summit of the Future, Sept. 22-23, 2024.

Tracking climate accountability

The pressure is mounting for corporations to be transparent about their contribution to the climate crisis. Legal actions against major livestock companies for false climate claims are on the rise, with the New York Attorney General suing the world’s largest meat producer JBS for misleading consumers about the company’s net-zero plans as the most recent example.

Five tests for the FAO’s plan to end hunger and slash greenhouse gas emissions

The following opinion by Emile Frison, panel expert with the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), and Sophia Murphy, executive director of IATP was originally published by Future World News on February 28. 