Right to food

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes the "right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food", as well as the "fundamental right to be free from hunger". The relationship between the two concepts is not straightforward. For example, "freedom from hunger" (which General Comment 12 designates as more pressing and immediate) could be measured by the number of people suffering from malnutrition and at the extreme, dying of starvation. The "right to adequate food" is a much higher standard, including not only absence of malnutrition, but to the full range of qualities associated with food, including safety, variety and dignity, in short all those elements needed to enable an active and healthy life. Inspired by the above definition, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food in 2002 defined it as follows: The right to have regular, permanent and unrestricted access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer belongs, and which ensure a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and dignified life free of fear. This definition entails all normative elements explained in detail in the General Comment 12 of the ICESCR, which states: the right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, have the physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement. Dimensions The former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, defined three dimensions to the right to food. == History ==

Negative or positive right There is a traditional distinction between two types of human rights. On the one hand, negative or abstract rights that are respected by non-intervention. On the other hand, positive or concrete rights that require resources for its realisation. However, it is nowadays contested whether it is possible to clearly distinguish between these two types of rights. The right to food can accordingly be divided into the negative right to obtain food by one's own actions, and the positive right to be supplied with food if one is unable to access it. The negative right to food was recognised as early as in England's 1215 Magna Carta which reads that: "no one shall be 'amerced' (fined) to the extent that they are deprived of their means of living." • 1941 – In his Four Freedoms speech, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt includes as one of the freedoms:"The freedom from want." Later this freedom formed part of the 1945 United Nations Charter (Article 1(3)). • 1988 – Adoption of the right to food in the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the area of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (the "Protocol of San Salvador"). • 1996 – The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) organises the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome, resulting in the Rome Declaration on World Food Security. • 2000 – Adoption of the Millennium Development Goals, including Goal 1: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. • 2012 – The Food Assistance Convention is adopted as a result of the Food Aid Convention (1985?), making it the first legally binding international treaty on food aid. Amartya Sen won his 1998 Nobel Prize in part for his work in demonstrating that famine and mass starvation in modern times was not typically the product of a lack of food; rather, it usually arose from problems in food distribution networks or from government policies. == Legal basis ==

The right to food is protected under international human rights and humanitarian law. Within the U.N.'s human rights system, it has been presented consistently as a basic human right. International law The right to food is recognized in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25) as part of the right to an adequate standard of living, and is enshrined in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Article 11). • The right has also been reaffirmed in numerous international and regional human-rights, humanitarian, and social-rights instruments. • Interpretative guidance: General Comment 12 (1999) by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) provides authoritative clarification of what the right entails. • Non-binding but influential instruments: e.g. the voluntary guidelines adopted by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to support progressive realization of the right to adequate food. International instruments It is also recognized in many specific international instruments as varied as the 1948 Genocide Convention (Article 2), the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (Articles 20 and 23), the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (Articles 24(2)(c) and 27(3)), the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Articles 12(2)), or the 2007 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Articles 25(f) and 28(1)). • the 2003 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or "Maputo Protocol" (Article 15); • the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (Article 28). • neither the European Convention on Human Rights nor the European Social Charter mentions a right to food. There are also such instruments in many national constitutions. In 1998, a Conference on Consensus Strategy on the Right To Food was held in Santa Barbara, California, US with anti-hunger experts from five continents. In 2010, a group of national and international organisations created a proposal to replace the European Union Common Agricultural Policy, which was due for change in 2013. The first article of The New Common Food and Agriculture Policy "considers food as a universal human right, not merely a commodity." == State obligations ==

State obligations related to the right to food are well-established under international law. This obligation was reaffirmed by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). • Respect implies that states must never arbitrarily prevent people from having access to food. • Protect means that states should take measures to ensure that enterprises or individuals do not deprive individuals of their access to adequate food. • Fulfil (facilitate and provide) entails that governments must pro-actively engage in activities intended to strengthen people's access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure their livelihood, including food security. If, for reasons beyond their control such as at times of war or after a natural disaster, groups or individuals are unable to enjoy their right to food, then states have the obligation to provide that right directly. == Implementation, enforcement and monitoring ==

States are encouraged to adopt national legislation, policies, and strategies to ensure food access for all, including vulnerable and marginalized populations. International monitoring through treaty bodies (like CESCR), UN procedures, and periodic reporting supports oversight. The right to food can be invoked through domestic courts or institutional mechanisms (e.g. ombuds, human rights commissions) especially where constitutions or national laws incorporate the right == Adoption around the world ==

Framework law ) and Nicaragua (as freedom from hunger). 2. For a specific segment of the population the right to food is recognised in ten countries. Provisions regarding the right to food of children are present in the constitutions of: Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, and South Africa. The right to food of indigenous children is protected in the constitution of Costa Rica. Finally, the right to food of detainees and prisoners is additionally recognised in the constitution of South Africa. Implicit or as directive principle Secondly, the following 31 countries implicitly recognise the right to food in broader human rights: Thirdly, the following thirteen countries explicitly recognise the right to food within the constitution as a directive principle or goal: Commitment via ICESCR ;ICESCR Parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have to do everything to guarantee adequate nutrition, including legislating to that effect. The Covenant has become part of national legislation in over 77 countries. In these countries the provision for the right to food in the Covenant can be cited in a court. This has happened in Argentina (in the case of the right to health). ", in the case of grave or systematic violations of the Covenant, it can "invite that State Party to cooperate" and, finally, could "include a summary account of the results of the proceedings in its annual report". The following seven countries have ratified the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mongolia, Slovakia, and Spain. A further 32 countries have signed the optional protocol. == Mechanisms to achieve the right to food ==

The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, De Schutter, urged the establishment in law of the right to food, so that it can be translated into national strategies and institutions. Furthermore, he recommended emerging economies to protect the rights of land users, in particular of minority and vulnerable groups. He also advised to support smallholder agriculture in the face of mega-development projects, and to stop soil and water degradation through massive shifts to agroecological practices. Finally, the UN expert suggested adopting a strategy to tackle rising obesity. The United Nations' Article 11 on the Right to Adequate Food suggests several implementation mechanisms. The idea of the interdependence and indivisibility of all human rights was a founding principle of the United Nations. This was recognised in the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action which reads "all human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated." The right to food is considered interlinked with the following human rights in particular: right to life, right to livelihood, right to health, right to property, freedom of expression, freedom of information, right to education, freedom of association, and the right to water. Other relevant rights include: the right to work, the right to social security, the right to social welfare, and the right to an adequate standard of living. For example, according to the Committee overseeing the implementation of the ICESCR, "the right to water is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights." The need to have adequate water in order to have adequate food is in particular evident in the case of peasant farmers. Access to sustainable water resources for agriculture needs to be ensured to realise the right to food. This applies even more strongly to subsistence agriculture. Violations of the right to food often exacerbate inequalities, hunger, malnutrition, and social instability, affecting health, education, and other human rights. == Contemporary challenges and emerging issues ==

Climate change, environmental degradation, resource depletion, land grabs, and displacement threaten food availability, sustainability, and access affecting realization of the right to food. Economic inequalities, global supply chains, market volatility, and structural poverty limit equitable access which often leading to food insecurity and hunger. Recognition of food as a human right sometimes conflicts with political, economic, and policy priorities; progressive realization depends on political will and resources. The concept of “adequacy” is evolving: beyond calories to nutrition, food safety, cultural acceptability, and sustainability. Some legal scholars call for stronger recognition of “consumer acceptability” and environmental sustainability in definitions. == See also ==