On April 17, the International Day of Peasant Struggles, it seems important to emphasize that the demand for social justice also means that those who feed the planet should be able to live in dignity and peace, without fearing either for their own lives or the lives of their family members, without fear of being expelled from their land, nor of being persecuted for the defense of their rights and lands.
In a world in which many communities, some of which are being supported by Development and Peace – Caritas Canada, from Brazil to Sierra Leone, are threatened by extractivism or land grabbing, it is today more than ever necessary for us to mobilize in favour of access to land, respect for the right of conservation and the exchange and use of seeds, and against the murders and human rights violations being suffered by many men and women peasants worldwide.
Development and Peace – Caritas Canada has been supporting women and men small farmers around the world and has carried out a number of campaigns in recent years, particularly in the fall of 2011 on small-scale farming and in the fall of 2014 on seeds, to underscore the importance of these issues and, above all, the importance of standing in solidarity with the struggles of our sisters and brothers in the Global South.
