The Rights of Peasants: Achieving Environmental Justice in the Age of Pesticide Use and Digitalization

Abstract

Peasants are a distinct sociocultural group that face a myriad of threats to their human rights. Peasants’ dependency on land makes them especially vulnerable to environmentally-related rights abuses. This research focused on two areas that are highly susceptible to abuses: pesticide use and digitalization of rural processes. By reviewing various scholarly papers, non-scholarly papers, and UN documents, we found that peasants are severely neglected in discussions surrounding pesticides and digitalization, despite the fact that such issues threaten their food sovereignty, cultural, health, and various other human rights. We hope that such findings will encourage further study and worldly attention on the unique rights of peasants.