Article 12- The Right to Effective and Non-Discriminatory Access to Justice of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas

The question of access to effective remedies and justice in the context of peasants and other people working in rural areas is a complex one. While the right to an effective remedy is a cornerstone of international human rights law, recognized successively in different declarations and conventions at the international and regional levels, its understanding and development in the context of the negotiation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas diverged, to some extent, from the general approach in other international instruments. Such recognition, included in article 12 of the Declaration, highlights the vulnerability of peasants in light of certain current phenomena involving land grabbing, dispossession, among other harmful activities, as well as the role of the State in ensuring their protection and their right to an effective remedy when such situations take place, including vis-à-vis business enterprises and other non-State actors, such as organized crime. This chapter traces the genealogy of the article throughout the negotiating history of the Declaration, as well as its content, conceptual understanding and the role of different entities, including national human rights institutions.