Food Sovereingty


“We have to change the UN”

“There is a common assessment, not only by civil society, social movements or the people, that the multilateral system has failed, and is not delivering solutions to global and common problems,” said Gonzalo Berrón, representative of the Transnational Institute (TNI). “We have to reform the UN,” he added in an interview with Real World Radio. A group of several social…

Global government under dispute

An encounter of social movements and organisations calling for a new multilateralism at the service of the peoples and the planet began on Thursday in New York, United States, ahead of the United Nations (UN) Summit of the Future to be held in that same city on 22 and 23 September. The encounter*, which will be held until Saturday at…

Justicia Alirio Uribe

‘Limited justice’: the Chiquita Brands case in Colombia

A judge in Florida, United States, found banana transnational Chiquita Brands International liable for the murder of eight people, committed between 1997 and 2004 by paramilitaries of the right-wing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) in the regions of Urabá Antioquia and Magdalena Medio. The US court, where Chiquita Brands is based, ordered the company to pay 38.3 million dollars…

UN Conference in Nairobi ignores agreements ahead of Summit of the Future

The United Nations Civil Society Conference, taking place this Wednesday and Thursday in Nairobi, Kenya, ahead of the Summit of the Future to be held in September in New York (United States), ‘seeks to reinstate a corporate-driven agenda rejected by States and social organisations in the Summit process.’ ‘It is a crude attempt by the Office of the Secretary General…

Darwin Torres

Building the region from the bottom-up

More than 3000 people from 26 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean gathered in the city of Foz de Iguazú, just a few steps from the triple border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay,  to participate in the Conference for the Integration of the Peoples.  From 22-23 February,  organisations and grassroots movements of the region: peasants, trade unions, students, feminists,…

Climate politics, carbon offsets and green minerals

Climate politics, carbon offsets and green minerals *

What is the relationship between climate change and agrarian struggles? As world leaders, and fossil fuel lobbyists, convene for climate negotiations at COP28 (the Conference of the Parties) in Dubai, we talk with Kirtana Chandrasekaran from Friends of the Earth International (India/Scotland) and Emilinah Namaganda of Utrecht University (Uganda/Netherlands) about their work on the political economy of global climate responses.…

Spotlight Philippines: A Year into the Marcos 2.0 Regime

June 30th marks the full circle of the first year under Philippine president Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr., son of previously deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. The Philippines is both a globally critical hotspot of biodiversity and natural resources, and a historic beacon of democracy and people power in Asia. But the environmental and human rights situation has deteriorated over the…

Waters of March: Action for Rivers in the Philippines

The Philippines has 421 principal rivers spread across 119 proclaimed watersheds. Aside from providing water to drink for 110 million Filipinos, these are also the source of irrigation for almost a million hectares of agricultural lands across the nation, and a significant source of electricity, comprising 10% of the current power mix. But the Philippine government’s emphasis on big dam…

Protecting life in all its different forms

In a context where scientists state that the natural world is in a dire situation and that “human actions threaten more species with global extinction now than ever before,” the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is taking place in Montreal, Canada, from 7-19 December. There, governments will seek to agree…