Declaration of Solidarity and Commitment to the rights of Migrants and Refugees around the world

By staff - La Via Campesina, December 18, 2023

#18D23 On the International Day of Migrants and Refugees, La Via Campesina calls on states to ratify and implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Migrants and their Families. LVC rejects the proposed EU agreement on migration and proposes a Global Solidarity Pact for the rights of migrants and refugees.

The situation of millions of migrant people and families around the world continues to worsen. Every day, the grabbing and plundering of resources and the destruction of local economies, mainly by transnational economic powers, in addition to wars, terrorism, and environmental and climate disasters, are increasing. All of this is made worse by global capitalism and colonialism, forcing people from their territories. Authoritarian governments and international institutions are complicit, putting in place a regulatory and military structure that stigmatizes, represses, and murders those who decide to migrate at the borders. Once they reach their destination, these people (many of whom are in the agricultural sector) suffer exploitation, discrimination, and racism. In economies that take advantage of migrant labor, such as Europe or the United States, and in countries through which migration passes, the segregation and oppression these people face are made worse by policies of hate and violence against the most vulnerable. This is promoted by the extreme right and fascism, playing into the political and economic power of those who already own our planet.

La Via Campesina includes many organizations of migrants and rural waged workers. The movement continues to demand the recognition and support of both the peasants who remain and fight in their territories and those who decide to migrate to improve their lives and their communities.

Both forms of resistance fit into the framework of defending peasants’ rights to land, food sovereignty, freedom of movement, and equality of civil, labor, social, and political rights for all migrants. Through the UN Global Compact, the EU Migration Pact, and the United States’ xenophobic policies, we see that the control, vulnerability, and repression of migrants are increased, in a systematic violation of their most basic human rights that is unacceptable and intolerable for our movements.

At the VIII International Conference of La Via Campesina in Bogotá (1-8 December 2023), LVC reiterated its unwavering commitment to the most vulnerable sector of peasant society, calling for, together with our allies, a Global Pact of Solidarity on the Rights of Migrants and Refugees. Peasants across the globe, including young people, women, children, and rural workers, will continue to resist and fight against all wars, dictatorships, and a trade and agri-food system that destroys our planet and all living populations. Through our peasant unity, we will continue to sow agrarian reform, agroecology, food sovereignty, union organization, and mobilization for peasant rights to build a new society in which no one is forced to migrate, and full rights are guaranteed to whoever decides to do so.

If we fight together, from the bottom up, we can do away with capitalism, borders, and racism. Support and solidarity to migrants and long live peasant farmers across the world!

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author.