Colombia has recently taken a step that many rural youth had been awaiting for years: the approval of Law 2539 of 2025.
This law recognizes —for the first time— rural youth from campesino, Indigenous, Afro-descendant, Palenquero, Raizal, and other peoples as key actors in agrarian development and territorial life. Very few laws in the world have gone this far: explicitly integrating youth into a national land system.
What is this law about?
The law guarantees rural youth access to land, education, technical training, productive projects, and comprehensive support to sustain life in the countryside. It also establishes mechanisms to monitor public investment directed at young people, ensuring that resources reach them transparently and effectively.
By incorporating rural youth into the National System for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, the law ensures that they become part of the core decision-making processes on land and rural development in the country. In other words, young people are no longer seen as passive beneficiaries but as full actors in agrarian policy.
Why is it important?
In Colombia, nearly a quarter of the youth population lives in rural areas, often in contexts of inequality, limited opportunities, and violence. This law opens the possibility of changing that reality by placing youth at the center of agrarian policies.
It also responds to a strategic challenge: if young people cannot envision a future in the countryside, migration to cities will continue to grow, with negative consequences for food sovereignty and inclusive land governance. Recognizing their rights is, fundamentally, an investment in the country’s future.
A law built with youth and from the territories
This achievement is the result of a long process of mobilization and collective action, in which diverse youth organizations have pushed for their voices and rights to be recognized.
It is also connected to global processes that place youth at the heart of the land agenda, showing that youth-led agendas can influence high-level decision-making. During the Global Land Forum Youth (GLFY) held in Ocaña, Colombia last June, young people from several countries highlighted the urgency of ensuring access to land, participation, and development opportunities. The Forum fostered coordination among various rural youth organizations, which are now engaged in dialogue around the design of the participation mechanism promoted by the Ministry.
Similarly, the political objectives outlined within the Global Land Forum emphasized the importance of creating space for youth in land governance agendas and of promoting a special land access program for rural youth. The approval of the law aligns with this direction, demonstrating that demands raised in these spaces can contribute to concrete changes in public policy.
Young people from various organizations participating in the Global Land Forum Youth (GLFY) in Colombia
Similarly, the political objectives outlined within the Global Land Forum emphasized the importance of creating space for youth in land governance agendas and of promoting a special land access program for rural youth. The approval of the law aligns with this direction, demonstrating that demands raised in these spaces can contribute to concrete changes in public policy.
The challenge ahead
The approval of Law 2539 is a major achievement to celebrate. The challenge now is to ensure that it translates into real transformations in the territories, with adequate budgets and active participation of youth in its regulation and implementation.
To address this challenge, NLC Colombia, together with FAO and rural youth organizations such as YPARD, MEERJ, ASOJE, and the Youth Network of Catatumbo, are engaging in dialogue with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Their contributions aim to ensure that the implementation of the law is representative and inclusive, and that rural youth are represented in the Agrarian Reform Conference of 2026. Because building a just and sustainable agrarian reform is not possible without youth.
Law 2539 of 2025 was enacted on August 27