{"id":9823,"date":"2025-04-27T13:16:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T13:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hrcp-web.org\/hrcpweb\/?p=9823"},"modified":"2025-04-28T09:55:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T09:55:16","slug":"hrcp-kissan-convention-demands-land-rights-climate-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrcp-web.org\/hrcpweb\/hrcp-kissan-convention-demands-land-rights-climate-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"HRCP Kissan Convention demands land rights, climate justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Press release<\/p>\n

HRCP Kissan Convention demands land rights, climate justice<\/strong><\/p>\n

Multan, 27 April 2025<\/em>. At the Kissan Convention held earlier today by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, agricultural workers, farmers and rights activists from across South Punjab gathered to voice their urgent concerns around climate change, land rights, corporate farming, and the systemic exclusion of women and minority communities from agricultural policymaking.<\/p>\n

Speakers highlighted the devastating impacts of climate change on Pakistan\u2019s agricultural heartland, emphasizing that shifting seasons and drying canals were severely affecting crop cycles and yields. HRCP Council member Lubna Nadeem emphasized that women agricultural workers remained invisible under Punjab\u2019s labour laws, even as they bore the brunt of climate-driven hardship.<\/p>\n

A central theme of the convention was land rights. President of the Cholistan Bachao Tehreek, Allah Rakha, condemned the alleged dispossession of Cholistan\u2019s indigenous farmers by outsiders despite an earlier HRCP fact-finding mission led by former chairperson Hina Jilani that played a role in securing land allotments for over 27,000 people. Speakers from Kot Addu, including rights activist Rafi Shankar and Karitas executive officer Saleem Channan, decried eviction threats against families whom they said had cultivated these lands for generations.<\/p>\n

Participants strongly denounced corporate farming schemes that displace local farmers and devastate ecosystems. President of Anjuman Tehreek Kissan, Bhakkar, Mahar Ghulam Abbas Sial, criticized the leasing of \u2018ancestral lands\u2019 to large corporations, saying that \u2018Food security must be prioritized over corporate greed.\u2019 Rana Muhammad Saleem, president of Anjuman Tehreek Kissan, Arif Wala, underscored the extent of illegal deforestation for such projects, adding that they had generated large profits for corporations at the cost of local livelihoods.<\/p>\n

Women and minorities also raised pressing concerns. Rights activist Alisha Nayab called for labour rights and land benefits to be extended to women and Christian workers, pointing out that while \u2018Women sow, cultivate and harvest, they remain invisible in the eyes of the law. Members of the transgender community also demanded inclusion in agricultural policymaking. President of Anjuman Muzaraeen, Khanewal, Aqeela Naz, urged the government to officially observe \u2018Women Agricultural Workers’ Day\u2019 and called for women farmers to be given a central role in policymaking.<\/p>\n

The convention concluded with a charter of demands calling for the enforcement of minimum wage laws for agricultural workers at par with industrial workers, formal recognition of women and minorities as agricultural workers, a halt to corporate land takeover, and proprietary land rights for long-term cultivators. Participants also called for the redistribution of state land among landless farmers, ensuring that women receive equal ownership rights. HRCP Punjab vice-chair Raja Ashraf gave a vote of thanks.<\/p>\n

Rights activist Father Maqsood summed up participants\u2019 collective resolve: \u2018We are not seeking sympathy. We are demanding justice.\u2019<\/p>\n

Asad Iqbal Butt
\nChairperson<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>