The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) has a comprehensive scope and comprises many more rights than those related to seed and genetic resources. Also, the rights related to seed and genetic resourse are much more far reaching than those provided on Farmers’ Rights in the Plant Treaty. As a declaration, however, this is not a legally binding instrument, and even if the majority of countries supported the declaration, many countries have not. Nevertheless, UNDROP establishes important international norms shared by the majority of states, which may also affect the implementation of Farmers’ Rights under the Plant Treaty.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is relevant for the realization of Farmers’ Rights for two quite different reasons. On one hand, the Patent Cooperation Treaty under WIPO enables patents related to plants to be granted simultaneously in a large number of countries, which may heavily affect any rights that farmers’ have to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed of the plants affected by such patents. On the other hand, the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Resources and Folklore (IGC) under WIPO seeks to negotiate one or more international legal instruments to protect traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources.

The Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is particularly relevant for the realization of Farmers’ Rights with respect to its provisions on requirements for national legislation on plant breeders’ rights. Dependent on how such legislation is formulated, it may to various degrees limit farmers practices of saving, using, exchanging and selling farm-saved seed of protected varieties.

The Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is particularly relevant for the realization of Farmers’ Rights due to its provisions requiring national legislation on patents and plant variety protection. Despite different opinions on how these provisions shall be interpreted, experience shows that there is much flexibility with regard to Farmers’ Rights.

The Convention on Biological Diversity CBD is closely interconnected with the Plant Treaty. Its provisions on traditional knowledge and access and benefit sharing are particularly relevant for the realization of Farmers’ Rights. However, there are different approaches to these issues, dependent on whether the aim is primarily to develop stewardship or ownership. Thus, it is useful to reflect the relevant provisions of the CBD through the Plant Treaty with its provisions and options for realization of Farmers’ Rights.

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The most important event during the intersessional period 2015 – 2017 was the Bali Global Consultation on Farmers’ Rights. Gathering 95 participants from all regions and major stakeholder groups taking stock and discussing future action, it represented a milestone in the international work for Farmers’ Rights. The consultation resulted in recommendations presented to the Governing Body of the Plant Treaty at its Seventh Session in 2017 and was instrumental to the breakthrough for the negotiations on the implementation of Article 9 at that session. There were also several other consultations, including a symposium on interrelations with UPOV.

The biennium 2013 – 2015 was characterized by the comprehensive compilation of submissions that the Secretariat of the Plant Treaty had been requested to do by the Governing Body, and by dialogues within the FAO and regarding the interrelations between the Plant Treaty and the Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) relating to Farmers’ Rights.

In the biennium leading to the Fifth Session of the Governing Body of the Plant Treaty (GB5), there were lots of activities, even though no global or regional events took place. Many of these activities were reflected in the compilation of submissions to the Secretariat of the Plant Treaty for GB5. Among the contributions was a new book on success stories from the realization of Farmers’ Rights.

In this biennium, the most important activities were the Global Consultations on Farmers’ Rights. These consultations were organized in two parts. The first part was an e-mail-based consultation, reaching out to all regions and stakeholder groups. The results fed into the second part, which was a global consultation conference in Addis Ababa, with regional elements. Altogether 160 stakeholders were consulted.

An informal international consultation on Farmers’ Rights was held in Lusaka, Zambia, from 18 to 20 September 2007, jointly organized and co-hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, both from Norway; and the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries.