Humans rights as a systemic approach

In this short interview, Jonathan Peuch, Advocacy Officer and Policy Coordinator at FIAN Belgium, shares his impressions of the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum for Food Sovereignty, held in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in September 2025.

Jonathan explains why FIAN Belgium’s struggles are deeply connected to global food systems, from land grabbing and speculation in Belgium to the structural dependence on imports and exports through the Port of Antwerp. He also highlights two urgent challenges at home: young farmers’ lack of access to land and the difficulty of ensuring fair prices for healthy, sustainable food.

He insists on the importance of framing these struggles within a human rights approach— particularly the right to food — to hold governments accountable and to empower people to feed themselves with dignity.

The Nyéléni Global Forum for Food Sovereignty

The Nyéléni Global Forum for Food Sovereignty is the world’s largest gathering dedicated to transforming food systems. In September 2025, over 700 participants – peasants, fishers, artisans, researchers, activists, interpreters, and eaters – convened in Kandy, Sri Lanka, for this third global edition.
Building on the landmark forums of Mali (2007) and Mali (2015), this year’s gathering focused on convergence: uniting struggles around agroecology, social and climate justice, indigenous rights, feminism, and economic alternatives.
For FIAN, the key objective was to bring the human rights perspective into these debates, reinforcing that the right to food is not just an agricultural or economic issue, but a fundamental right of peoples everywhere.
Beyond debates, the forum served as a space of resistance and solidarity, confronting the global debt crisis, land privatization, and the commodification of natural resources, while amplifying grassroots alternatives for food sovereignty.