Why recognize the Colombian peasant as a subject of special constitutional protection?

Colombia lives a revolution. And it is that with Gustavo Petro as president, as from last August, the pieces have moved systematically to compensate the Colombian peasants, who have been historically marginalized and have had their rights violated over and over again.

The week following Petro’s inauguration, his executive branch introduced a draft legislative act to Congress that seeks to recognize the Colombian peasant as a subject of special constitutional protection and, consequently, guarantee their access to a dignified life in the countryside. .

«Let it be known that the peasants have come to Congress and are going to defend the rights of this population», said senator and president of the Colombian Parliament, Roy Barreras, at the time, adding that the initiative is «a priority challenge, because it will benefit more than six million peasants in Colombia”.

The issue did not stop there. A few days later, the House of Representatives opened the Commission for the Colombian Peasantry, to address the historical demands of that population and create a legal framework for their rights.

In parallel, more than 60 peasant organizations delivered a manifesto to Petro with legislative, political and economic proposals for Agrarian Reform, its incorporation into the National Development Plan and the creation of the Peasant Affairs Directorate in State entities.

After almost four months of negotiations, the project filed before Congress by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cecilia López Montaño, obtained the fourth approval, of the eight necessary debates, to recognize the peasant as a subject of special constitutional protection.What does the recognition of the peasant mean?

«This constitutional act imposes on the State the duty to effectively guarantee the full exercise of individual and collective rights to the peasant population», explained López Montaño, who was present at the fourth legislative debate and thanked the progress of the project in the Senate.

The head of Agriculture added that what Parliament and the Executive are doing «is finally accepting the United Nations declaration on the rights of peasants and other people who work in rural areas».

López highlighted that Colombia is taking a step further by incorporating peasant rights into the «constitutionality block», which implies that by being part of the country’s legal system and being incorporated into the Constitution as law, «it becomes binding» and «the State is obliged to apply”, so it is no longer “a bland rule”.

The project also seeks to give farm workers progressive access to land, as well as guarantee their rights to education, health, housing, social security, recreation, credit, communications, product marketing, technical and business assistance, so as to improve their quality of life.

«The peasant population faces serious shortcomings in the guarantee of their fundamental rights, since it faces a gap in access and quality of basic services and has suffered in a special way from the impacts of the armed conflict», commented the minister when the bill was introduced, last August, to Congress.

The initiative also aims to protect women in the countryside, the main victims of «structural and economic violence», which subjects them to abuses for gender reasons, such as unpaid responsibilities, educational restrictions, lack of employment, among others.Why the reform?

The project intends to modify article 64 of the Constitution and is considered necessary due to the difficult situation faced by Colombian peasants, with multidimensional poverty levels of 29.43%, according to the Multidimensional Poverty Index – Global (Global MPI) cited by the Ministry of Agriculture.

In addition, it seeks to change the levels of land concentration, which according to current data, 501 farms (0.01%) concentrate more than 44.52% of the available agricultural area; while 48.5% of rural properties have only 0.5% of the land.

Another point is education, which shows a greater lag in the peasantry, since in most departments, peasants reach a maximum of eight years of formal education, while at the national level the figure is above ten years.

While the Parliament takes steps to achieve the reform of the Constitution, as well as to create an agrarian and rural jurisdiction to resolve conflicts over land tenure – legislative act that also advances within Congress with four approved debates -, the Government has committed itself with the peasantry to carry out various tasks to achieve the necessary changes.

The importance of the peasants in Colombia is of such magnitude that even the Government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) agreed to invite the peasantry to participate in the peace talks that began in Venezuela and will continue in Mexico.What is being done?

At the National Peasants Convention held over the weekend, Minister López announced four commitments that she will lead from the Agriculture office to prioritize the demands of that sector.

The first commitment is about the implementation of the Comprehensive Rural Reform that must have the contribution of the peasants, so that it can be built jointly. Another, is to recognize «the historical debt with the peasantry because of its contribution to society», which has never been compensated by the market.

A third agreement is to grant full rights to peasants in the Constitution, based on the terms of the 2018 UN declaration, which is the work carried out by Parliament. While the fourth commitment is to strengthen and enable the institutional mechanisms of participation, among them the reactivation of the Municipal Councils of Rural Development.

President Petro said in the meeting with the peasants that Colombia requires a national movement that is capable of supporting the fundamental reforms that society needs, and that has as its axes on «land, water, women, democracy, freedom, peace and food production.

«All themes that are related to each other. You cannot talk about peace without talking about the peasant woman, as has been well said here. You cannot talk about peasant women without talking about land or water or food production. Let there be a subject, as sociologists call it, a peasant subject in Colombian political and social life».

To do this – he added – we must build a State that is capable of helping the industrialization process in food production, as well as democratizing land tenure, which for years has been in the hands of a few.

All this, would deepen the fight against drug trafficking, which takes advantage of the «irrational use of land», while in parallel progress is made towards a «peaceful agrarian reform», which proposes buying the land at a commercial price to avoid conflictive legal proceedings as nationalization, concluded Petro.