International Human Rights – The Rights of Peasants and Rural People

22 September 2026 · 5:30–8:15 PM  

Roosevelt House, Hunter College, New York City

As part of RIPESS’ agenda in New York during the week of 21–26 September, Sandra Moreno Cadena, Executive Secretary of RIPESS Intercontinental, will participate in the International Human Rights seminar at Hunter College’s Department of Anthropology. The session, led by Professor Marc Edelman, focuses on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) and the broader human rights debates addressed throughout the course.

Sandra Moreno will contribute a dedicated segment on the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and its intersections with UNDROP, highlighting how collective economic practices and democratic governance can strengthen the rights, autonomy and resilience of rural and urban communities.

Connecting SSE and UNDROP: advancing collective rights and democratic economies

UNDROP recognizes the rights of peasants, rural workers, small-scale food producers and communities whose livelihoods depend on land, territories, seeds, biodiversity and collective forms of organization. RIPESS’ intervention will explore how the SSE provides concrete pathways to realize these rights through:

  • collective ownership and cooperative structures,
  • territorial food systems and agroecology,
  • solidarity-based markets and fair distribution,
  • community-led governance of land, resources and care,
  • economic democracy and protection of common goods.

By linking SSE practices with UNDROP’s rights framework, the session will show how grassroots economic alternatives contribute to dignity, autonomy, social justice and ecological sustainability.

A dialogue between academia, movements and global policy processes

Hunter College’s seminar examines human rights from historical, legal, political and movement-based perspectives. RIPESS’ participation brings an international movement lens to the discussion, connecting:

  • global SSE networks,
  • agrarian and food sovereignty movements,
  • rights-based approaches to land, work and livelihoods,
  • ongoing multilateral processes on SSE, including UNGA resolutions 77/281 and 79/213.

This dialogue reinforces the importance of grounding human rights in lived experience and collective action, and of recognizing the role of SSE in advancing economic, social and cultural rights.

Part of RIPESS’ broader engagement in New York

This session at Roosevelt House is one of several activities in which RIPESS will participate in New York during Climate Week NYC and UNGA 2026. A separate web note will present the full agenda of RIPESS’ engagements between 21 and 26 September, including movement dialogues, climate action roundtables and high-level UN discussions on the Social and Solidarity Economy.