Projects per year
Personal profile
Vision Statement
After several years working for human rights organizations and development NGOs, I decided to become a scholar to better understand the challenges facing social movements and human rights activists working towards more equitable and sustainable food systems. As a PhD researcher, I analyzed the contribution of peasant movements to the emergence of an alternative conception of human rights. I looked at the creation and institutionalization of new human rights by the transnational agrarian movement La Via Campesina, with a focus on the right of peoples to food sovereignty, and the rights of peasants (to land, seeds, water, biodiversity, remunerative prices and participation in decision-making). At the time, I was working as Senior Advisory to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter (2008-2014).
My approach is multidisciplinary, empirical and inductive. In my research, I mobilize concepts from the socio-anthropology of rights, the sociology of social movements, rural sociology, international human rights law and development studies. My areas of thematic expertise are: human rights, food sovereignty, the right to food, land rights, peasant and social movements, agricultural trade and global governance, agricultural policy and food security.
Biography
I received my PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the University of Louvain (UCL) in 2013. While doing research on legal mobilizations within the transnational agrarian movement La Via Campesina, I worked as a Special Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, from 2008 to 2014. I also worked closely with Geoffrey Pleyers and was very involved in his research group on social movements in the global age (SMAG).
After completing my PhD, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Collège d’Etudes Mondiales in Paris (2014-2015) and at the French Institute of Pondicherry in India (2015-2016).
Since 2012, I have been following and actively supporting the process of negotiation of a new UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas, at the Human Rights Council. This process led to the recognition, with the adoption of the Declaration in 2018 by the UN Genera Assembly, of new human rights to land, seeds, biodiversity and food sovereignty, vested in individuals but also in groups and communities. I am fascinated by the engagement of agrarian movement in global norm-setting processes, and have explored, in different ways, their contributions but also the challenges that they face as makers of law.
Prior to becoming an academic, I worked for a number of human rights organizations and development NGOs, including FIAN in Belgium, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in France, and the Maquila Solidarity Network, Rights & Democracy, and Oxfam in Canada. I am now the President of FIAN Belgium and on the board of the FIAN International.
I hold a MA in business administration from the Louvain School of Management (UCL) and a MA in environmental management from the Free University of Brussels (ULB).
External positions
Member of the International Board, FIAN International
Nov 2017 → …Keywords
- H Social Sciences (General)
- GN Anthropology
- JX International law
Fingerprint
- 4 Similar Profiles
Network
Projects
- 1 Active
-
WCLR: Collaborative research on Women's Communal Land Rights in Africa
1/09/20 → 28/02/22
Project: Research
Research output
-
The right to seeds and legal mobilisation for the protection of peasant seed systems in Mali
Coulibaly, M., Claeys, P. & Berson, A., 4 Feb 2021, In: The Journal of Human Rights Practice. (In-Press), p. (In-Press)Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Absent voices- Women and Youth in Communal Land Governance. Reflections on Methods and Process from Exploratory Research in West and East Africa
Lemke, S. & Claeys, P., 10 Aug 2020, In: Land. 9, 8, 14 p., 266.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Citation (Scopus)3 Downloads (Pure) -
Agroecology now - connecting the dots to enable agroecology transformations
Anderson, C. R., Pimbert, M. P., Chappell, M. J., Brem-Wilson, J., Claeys, P., Kiss, C., Maughan, C., Milgroom, J., McAllister, G., Moeller, N. & Singh, J., 27 May 2020, In: Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. 44, 5, p. 561-565 5 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Editorial › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Citation (Scopus)23 Downloads (Pure) -
The rights of indigenous peoples and local communities that conflict with mitigation initiatives such as reforestation/afforestation, and other aspects that are linked to climate change
Claeys, P. & Delgado Pugley, D., 2020, (Submitted)Research output: Book/Report › Commissioned report › peer-review
-
The Right to Land and Territory: New Human Right and Collective Action Frame
Claeys, P., Jan 2020, Property Rights from Below: Commodification of Land and the Counter-Movement. de Schutter, O. & Rajagopal, B. (eds.). Routledge, Vol. (In-press). p. (In-press) 25 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Activities
- 1 Participation in workshop, seminar, course
-
The Oxford Handbook of Law and AnthropologyEditors: Marie-Claire Foblets, Mark Goodale, Maria Sapignoli, Olaf Zenker
Priscilla Claeys (Speaker) & Karine Peschard (Speaker)
30 Nov 2018 → 2 Dec 2018Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Prizes
-
Doctoral thesis HERA Award
Claeys, Priscilla (Recipient), 25 Apr 2017
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Press / Media
-
Recognition of the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas at the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC).
Kroff Florence & Priscilla Claeys
1/03/18
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
-
-
Ensuring the right to food for rural working people
10/02/17
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities