FAO, Rome, Italy, 24th to 26th June 2024.

The Fifth meeting of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Farmers’ Rights (AHTEG-FR-5) of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture will be held at the FAO Headquarters in Rome. This is the first of two meetings of AHTEG-FR during this biennium in preparation of the Eleventh Session of the International Treaty. It has two substantial agenda items:

  1. Outline for the assessment of the state of implementation of Article 9 of the International Treaty.
  2. Elements of advice to the Governing Body on how the use of the “Options for encouraging, guiding and promoting the realization of Farmers’ Rights as set out in Article 9 of the International Treaty” can be promoted.

The first agenda item relates to an outline to be finalised as a basis for the Treaty Secretariat to carry out an assessment of the state of implementation of Farmers’ Rights as set out in Article 9 of the International Treaty. The assessment will be reviewed by AHTEG-FR at its sixth meeting in 2025. The second agenda item relates to a comprehensive set of options for the realization of Farmers’ Rights that was developed on the initiative of the Treaty’s Governing Body. The task of AHTEG-FR at its fifth meeting is to provide advice on how the use of these options can be promoted.

The mandate of AHTEG-FR in this biennium was provided by the Treaty’s Governing Body at its Tenth Session. Through Resolution 7/2023, the Governing Body decided to reconvene the Ad Hoc Technical Experts Group on Farmers’ Rights (AHTEG-FR, or Expert Group) with the following terms of reference:

  1. review and agree to the outline for the assessment of the state of implementation of Article 9 of the International Treaty, as contained in Annex 1 to this Resolution, considering the compilation of the submissions;
  1. review the assessment of the state of implementation of Article 9 of the International Treaty, and provide conclusions for the Eleventh Session of the Governing Body; and
  1. provide advice to the Eleventh Session of the Governing Body on how the use of Options, as contained in the Annex to Resolution 7/2022 for the implementation of Article 9 of the International Treaty, can be promoted.

The annotated provisional agenda for AHTEG-FR-5 is available online and other working and information documents can be found at the website of the International Treaty. 

 

Photo credits: Carol Rojas Vargas. Local varieties of beans safeguarded by farmers in Junín-Perú.