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Women's Declaration on Food Sovereignty
We, women of 86 countries and diverse Indigenous peoples, from Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania and various sectors and social movements, are gathered at Nyeleni 2007 in Sélingué, Mali, to work together on the construction of a new right—the right to food sovereignty. We reaffirm our will to act together to change the capitalist and patriarchal world that prioritizes market interests at the expense of human rights.
Women, who have historically held the knowledge about agriculture and food, who continue to produce up to 80% of the food in the poorest countries, and who today are the principal custodians of biodiversity and seeds for farming, are particularly affected by neoliberal and sexist policies.
We suffer the grave consequences of these policies: poverty, inadequate access to resources, patents on life, rural exodus and forced migration, war and all forms of physical and sexual violence. Monocultures, including those used to produce agro-fuel, and the massive use of chemicals and genetically modified organisms, have a negative impact on the environment and human health, particularly reproductive health.
The industrial model and transnational companies threaten the existence of peasant agriculture, artisanal fisheries, pastoralism, artisanal production, and local food businesses in urban and rural areas—all sectors in which women play a major role.
We want to remove food and agriculture from the WTO and free trade treaties. More than that, we reject the capitalist and patriarchal institutions that consider food, water, land, people's knowledge and women's bodies simply as merchandise.
In our struggle for equality between the sexes, we want an end to the oppression we face in both traditional and modern societies and the market system. We want to use this opportunity to put sexist prejudice behind us and develop a new vision of the world based on the principles of respect, equality, justice, solidarity, peace and freedom.
Under the eye of Nyeleni, an African woman who defied discriminatory regulations and burned with creativity and agricultural prowess, we will find the energy to transform the right to food sovereignty into a beacon for the construction of another world.
We will find this energy in our solidarity.We will bear this message to women across the world.
Nyeleni, February 27, 2007
