The fourth meeting of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Farmers’ Rights (Expert
Group) was held virtually from 04 to 07 May 2021, due to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.
Excerpts from AHTEG-4 Report
The Secretariat provided a detailed introduction of the document, IT/GB-9/AHTEG4/21/2, Options for encouraging, guiding and promoting the realization of Farmers’ Rights as set out in Article 9 of the International Treaty. It gave an overview of the guidance received from the Governing Body, the work on the Options by the Expert Group to date, the linkages between the Inventory and the Options, the conclusions of the Expert Group at its third meeting, the structure of the document and its main contents.
The Secretariat also explained how the Expert Group may wish to navigate the document by indicating issues that may need further discussion, based on the exchange of views held during the third meeting, and proposals on possible ways to address those issues. Finally, the Secretariat referred to the document, IT/GB-9/AHTEG-FR-4/21/Inf.2, Options for encouraging, guiding and promoting the realization of Farmers’ Rights, as set out in Article 9 of the International Treaty, which had been prepared for the purpose of facilitating a comparison with the main working document of the third meeting of the Expert Group containing the Options (IT/GB-9/AHTEG-FR-3/20/2).
The Expert Group revised the introductory part of the Options as given in Appendix 2, to
be finalised from paragraph 13 at the resumption of this meeting.
The Expert Group recalled that the Inventory is a rolling document, and agreed to
recommend to the Governing Body that the Options be reviewed periodically.
The Expert Group agreed that the Secretariat will include examples of measures for each
option that would reflect the diversity of submitted measures.
The Expert Group noted the relevance of other international agreements to the Options
and advised to keep references to such agreements at a general level, in line with the language of the International Treaty.
The Expert Group revised the titles of most of the options, as provided in Appendix 3, which it will use as the basis for finalising the Options.
Further work will be needed on the Options, especially on the following issues mentioned in the document, IT/GB-9/AHTEG-FR-4/21/2, Options for encouraging, guiding and promoting the realization of Farmers’ Rights as set out in Article 9 of the International Treaty:
— How to highlight gender in the description of the Options (issue B1.3);
— Finalisation of the titles for some of the options in Category 10 (issue D1) due to the
diverse proposals from the experts.
Furthermore, the Expert Group will need to work on the descriptions of the options, as explained in Part D2 of the document, IT/GB-9/AHTEG-FR-4/21/2, Options for encouraging, guiding and promoting the realization of Farmers’ Rights as set out in Article 9 of the International Treaty.
The Expert Group will also need to prepare its report to the Governing Body comprising the Options as well as any recommendations it might have.
See more here.
