EU Food Justice Forum declaration
As the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council meets on 28 and 29 September to discuss progress made on the Post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), CIDSE, together with more than 70 civil society organisations and partners, stands united in calling for a transformation of food systems that is grounded in human rights, food sovereignty, and social, gender, and environmental justice. The European Union has both the responsibility and the opportunity to lead this transformation within Europe and globally, in partnership with civil society, food producers and communities most affected by hunger and malnutrition.
The signatories call on the EU to make the right to food a lived reality by:
- Supporting democratic and participatory governance
- Ensuring adequate resources to realise the right to food
- Promoting small-scale producers, agroecology, territorial food systems, and decent work
- Regulating food environments to protect consumers’ health
- Implementing social protection measures to realise the right to food
- Prioritising the right to food and policy coherence over competitiveness
- Addressing the drivers of undernutrition and ending the use of hunger in conflict
Food is not a privilege.
Food is not just another commodity.
Food is a Human Right.
The EU must act now to make this right a reality for everyone, everywhere, at all time.
Endorsing Partners
Additional information
The EU Food Justice Forum “Global Crises, Rights & Policies” was held on 9 June 2026 in Brussels. The objective was to strengthen the Right to Food within the European Union’s political agenda through inclusive dialogue with key stakeholders. It brought together representatives of EU institutions, civil society organisations, academia, farmers’ organisations, workers’ unions and international partners.
As an organising partner, CIDSE co-organised a workshop on seed diversity and farmers’ rights together with its members: Broederlijk Delen and Misereor, partners: Justice and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Harare, MASIPAG, and allies: ECVC (European coordination of La Via Campesina) and AFSA (Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa).
CIDSE is particularly concerned about the European Union’s practice of incorporating UPOV 1991 obligations into bilateral trade agreements with developing countries, notwithstanding longstanding concerns expressed by United Nations human rights mechanisms regarding the implications of such commitments for farmers’ rights, biodiversity and the right to food. This is the case for the EU-Philippines Free Trade Agreement but also for negotiations on an enhanced Economic Partnership Agreement with the Eastern and Southern African States and in other ongoing trade negotiations.
Joint letters by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and the Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) to the EU and the government of the Philippines, 21 July 2026.
Contact persons:
-CIDSE: Emmanuel Yap, Food and Land Policy Officer (yap(at)cidse.org)
-Action contre la Faim: Margherita Dacquino (mdacquino(at)actioncontrelafaim.org)
Cover photo: A farmer pushes a wheelbarrow through a thriving vegetable garden. Credit: Maria Daniela Varela. www.pexels.com