In the lush landscapes and highlands of Sri Lanka, small farmers work hard each day to ensure that the country’s food basket remains well-stocked. However, the country’s laws designed to support peasants and their activities are in dire need of discussion. A recent significant discussion was conducted, where legal practitioners, indigenous groups, civil activists, and peasants got together to discuss an important issue, do national laws sufficiently support and protect peasants, or should new laws be formulated?

The discussion was centered around Sri Lanka’s compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), which is a historic international document that acknowledges the challenges peasants face in rural areas and encourages signatory nations to uphold their dignity and support their rights to land and other resources.

Supporters of the Provincial Planning Forum accompanied legal experts to determine the distance between the current legal framework and the advanced standards set by UNDROP. Legal experts Aramisa Tigel and Nisara Wickramasinghe provided critical legal insights, evaluating if the existing legal framework is sufficiently protective of the rights recognized by UNDROP or if entirely new legislation needs to be formulated to bridge this gap.

A vital component of discussion was added by Sudawannilatto, an indigenous leader of Rathugala. His contribution represented the interests of indigenous rural populations. The rights of peasants cannot be considered independently of the rights of indigenous peoples over their lands and heritage, which is closely interlinked with the agrarian culture of Sri Lanka.

Mr. Chinthaka Rajapaksa, who is the Moderator of the Land and Agricultural Reform Movement(MONLAR), and Mr. Sandun Tudugala, who is the Director of Law and Society, provided further gravitas to this discussion, keeping it firmly rooted in the realities of land reform and grassroots advocacy.

This conversation is a significant milestone in the development of a legal framework that truly supports Sri Lanka’s agricultural population. Whether through bolstering existing statutes or creating new ones, one thing was made abundantly clear the rights of the small farmer could no longer be an afterthought in national policy.