Food, Land, and Agrarian Reform: ICARRD+20 Outcomes and the Case for Redistribution | HRC61 Side Event

About the Event

Inequality of access to and control over land, fisheries, forests and water has reached alarming levels, driven by transnational corporate expansion, financialization, and digitalization of land and natural resources. These dynamics undermine human rights, deepen hunger and malnutrition, accelerate environmental degradation, and exacerbate gender inequalities. The Second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD+20), organized by Colombia, from 24 to 28 February 2026, comes at a pivotal moment, underscoring that redistributive agrarian reform offers a vital opportunity to reverse these trends and advance the right to food and just transitions, as well as environmental, climate, social, gender, and intergenerational justice.  

This side event situated the ICARRD+20 outcomes within Geneva’s human rights space, emphasizing that equitable access to, control over and use of land, forests, fisheries and water is fundamental to human dignity and to the fulfillment of human rights. It highlighted that redistributive agrarian reform is key for food systems transformation and one of the most effective social and climate policies. The side event took place on the day after which the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food presents his latest report, Land and the Right to Food, to the HRC. This report highlights the severe consequences of the growing concentration of land in the hands of corporate actors, and argues that land and other natural common goods should not be considered merely as commodities and resources.  

The event also brought forward the voices of rural women, peasants and small-scale fishers. These are the groups most affected by land inequality and dispossession, while being the main stewards of land, oceans, water, territories and food systems, preserving ecosystems and biodiversity through holistic and collective management approaches. Yet their decades-long struggle for agrarian, social and environmental justice has often been met with criminalization, intimidation, and violence against human rights defenders – especially community leaders.  

The event provided concrete proposals on how the UN human rights system can contribute to strengthening the realization of the right to land and territories and supporting the implementation of the ICARRD+20 outcomes, aligned with UNDROP, UNDRIP, CEDAW and the Tenure Guidelines. 

Speakers

H.E. Amb. Gustavo GALLÓN

Permanent Representative of Colombia to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva

Michael FAKHRI

UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food

Elisa MORGERA

UN Special Rapporteur on climate change and human rights

Pradeep WAGLE

Chief, ESCR Section, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Raquel SILVA

Unión Tierra y Vida, Rural Women’s Network, Ecuador

Carmen MANNARINO

Masifundise Development Trust | Member of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP), South Africa

Morgan ODY

General Coordinator of La Via Campesina

Ana Maria SUAREZ FRANCO

Secretary General, FIAN International

Highlights

A summary of the event was provided by FIAN International. Kindly consult this page.