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1、The Right to Food Theory and PracticeTable of contentThe Right to Food Theory and Practice1Foreword1Introduction2The human right to adequate food and freedom from hunger3NGOs and the right to adequate food6The right to food in emergencies10Investing in the right to food12Implementation of the World
2、Food Summit Plan of Action13Identifying the hungry16Special Programme for Food Security18Rural women and the right to food19Implementation of the right to food in national legislation22The right to food in national constitutions23ForewordIn November 1996 the worlds leaders gathered in Rome for the W
3、orld Food Summit. They considered it intolerable that more than 800 million people in the world do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs and pledged their political will and their commitment to achieving food security for all and to an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all c
4、ountries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half its 1996 level no later than 2015.The World Food Summit Plan of Action spells out the various objectives and actions to guide countries in achieving the aims of the Summit. One of these objectives is to improve
5、the definition and implementation of the rights related to food. The High Commissioner for Human Rights was given special responsibility for this objective, and has already made considerable progress.The fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the cornerstone document for
6、all those aspiring to establish human rights and human dignity, is on 10 December 1998. It is my pleasure to present this special publication by FAO in commemoration of that anniversary. One of the rights spelled out in the Universal Declaration is the right to an adequate standard of living, includ
7、ing food. The Preamble to the FAO Constitution sets ensuring humanitys freedom from hunger as one of the basic purposes of the Organization. The rights related to food are therefore of special concern to FAO and other agencies involved in food, agriculture and rural development.In this publication,
8、the rights related to food are examined from both the human rights and the operational points of view. Distinguished human rights expert A. Eide provides an insight into the meaning of the right to adequate food; FoodFirst International Action Network, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that spec
9、ializes in the right to food, presents an overview of NGO action in the field; the World Food Programme discusses the right to food in emergencies, with special emphasis on the plight of internally displaced persons; P. Spitz of the International Fund for Agricultural Development explains the vision
10、s of his organization for the rural poor; and FAO itself has contributed various articles about womens right to food, hunger mapping, follow-up action to the World Food Summit, the Special Programme for Food Security, and the importance of national legislation in implementing the rights related to f
11、ood.Jacques DioufDirector-General,Food and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsIntroductionThe World Food Summit decided in November 1996 to entrust the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights with the mandate of better defining the rights related to food, as set out in Article 1
12、1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This included the responsibility to propose ways to implement and realize these rights as a means of achieving the commitments and objectives of the World Food Summit, taking into account the possibility of formulating voluntar
13、y guidelines for food security for all. The Commission on Human Rights and the Economic and Social Council endorsed this mandate.Hunger is an outrageous violation of human dignity that requires urgent measures for its elimination.My first substantive step in the implementation of this important task
14、 was to convene a two-day consultation in Geneva on 1 and 2 December 1997. Representatives of the United Nations system, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and experts participated in the Consultation. The first day was devoted to a general discussion within the Committee on Economic, Social and
15、Cultural Rights on the normative content of the right to food as set out in Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The second day was an expert meeting, which focused on the implementation of the right to food, that is the practical steps to be taken at nat
16、ional and international levels for the full enjoyment of that right. The Commission on Human Rights discussed the report of this consultation and, on 1l April 1998, adopted resolution 1998/23 on the right to food. By this resolution, the Commission reaffirmed that hunger constitutes an outrage and a
17、 violation of human dignity and, therefore, requires the adoption of urgent measures at national, regional and international levels for its elimination. The Commission also reaffirmed the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the
18、 fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger so as to be able to develop fully and maintain their physical and mental capacities.The Commission therefore considered it intolerable that more than 800 million people throughout the world, especially women and children and those living in devel
19、oping countries, do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs, which infringes their fundamental human rights.The Commission also welcomed the initiative undertaken by my Office to convene the Consultation on the Right to Adequate Food, as a concrete and practical response to Object
20、ive 7.4 of the Rome Declaration and Plan of Action. The meeting concluded that the human right to adequate food is firmly established in international law, but its operational content and means of application are generally little understood.A human rights approach to food and nutrition problems is f
21、undamentally different from basic needs-oriented approaches to development. It introduces a normative basis, which is obligatory at the state level. It also implies that the beneficiaries of development are active subjects and claim holders and stipulates the duties or obligations of those against w
22、hom such claims can be held. Finally, such an approach introduces an accountability dimension not present in basic needs strategies.A fundamental misunderstanding in the implementation of the right to food, has been the notion that the principal obligation is for the state to feed the citizens under
23、 its jurisdiction (fulfilling the right to food), rather than respecting and protecting the rights related to food, as well as emphasizing the obligations of individuals and civil society in this regard.The Consultation therefore recommended that a follow-up meeting should take place to complete the
24、 discussions on the content and means for implementation of the right to adequate food. The Commission on Human Rights endorsed the proposal to have a follow-up meeting before the end of 1998 to pursue the discussions on the contents and means of implementation of the rights related to adequate food
25、.Everyone has the right to safe and nutritious food.In addition, the Commission requested that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights draft, discuss and adopt a general comment on the rights related to food. Such a general comment would greatly enhance the common understanding of what
26、 the right to food means and give greater guidance for the States Parties to the Covenant in their reporting obligations on how they are implementing this right.My Office is therefore convening a second round of consultations, hosted by FAO in Rome on 18 and 19 November 1998. It is my hope that this
27、 venue will facilitate an even stronger participation from the Rome-based food agencies; they are the ones in constant touch with the practical realities of the right to food, and the lack of it.I would like to see FAO, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Devel
28、opment (IFAD) becoming more institutionally sensitive to the fact that aspects of the right to food are their main purpose, and more willing to take a rights approach in their work, as well as taking part in the effort of the United Nations to integrate human rights in general into all aspects of it
29、s work.Many actors are relevant to the right to food. Apart from the Rome agencies already mentioned, the right to food is relevant to the mandate of the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), the Office of the United
30、 Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and many others. I would like these organizations to achieve a common understanding and common direction for eliminating hunger and malnutrition, and I attach great importance to the dial
31、ogue between them and my own Office.The right to food is supported by international law, but effective means of putting it into practice have still to be established.There is a clear division of labour between human rights institutions and development actors. At the international level this means th
32、at the United Nations human rights machinery is charged with monitoring the realization - and violation - of the right to adequate food, while the development agencies provide technical, financial and food assistance.For the food and development agencies, clarification of the right to food is essent
33、ial for the putting into practice of food security objectives. In this connection, the Maastricht Guidelines interpret the Covenants call for the progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights as requiring states to achieve specific targets to satisfy a normative standard (the oblig
34、ation of result).The state should be seen as the protector of rights relating to food, rather than merely being the direct supplier of food in emergencies.The global development conferences of the 1990s have provided important guidance in this regard, by providing quantitative, time-frame developmen
35、t targets, including food and nutrition. Within this framework, states can now set their own country-specific targets as a means for realizing the right to adequate food.Of equal importance to the actors of the United Nations and intergovernmental system are NGOs. The human rights agenda is very muc
36、h influenced by NGOs and civil society in general. NGOs are often able to be ahead of intergovernmental bodies in policies because of their different nature. For instance, a network of NGOs is already lobbying for its own draft Code of Conduct on the Human Right to Adequate Food, which would be a gr
37、eat working tool, even if it is not immediately adopted by the international community.Let me state my approach. I am committed to giving equal importance to all human rights - civil, cultural, economic, political and social. Economic, social and cultural rights have received too little attention in
38、 the past but, as was reconfirmed by the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993, all human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated.In practice, we have not yet achieved the universal, interdependent and interrelated protection and promotion of civil and poli
39、tical, economic, social and cultural rights. Whereas clear standards have been set as to the contents of civil and political rights, the precise meaning of economic, social and cultural rights remains vague. If all human rights are to be treated on an equal footing, more attention needs to be paid t
40、o clarifying the universal minimum core contents of economic, social and cultural rights. In this respect, the World Food Summit Plan of Action must be very warmly welcomed. Objective 7.4 of the Plan of Action creates the possibility for a substantive strengthening of the right to food as contained
41、in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.For the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which constitutes a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, it is my pleasure to introduce FAOs publication on The
42、right to food in theory and practice, which throws light on the different but complementary approaches of the many actors involved. Mary RobinsonUnited Nations High Commissionerfor Human RightsThe human right to adequate food and freedom from hungerAsbjrn EideSenior Fellow and former Director, Norwe
43、gian Institute of Human Rights; Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Food as a Human Right, the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of MinoritiesThe right to food means access to enough food to meet the basic nutritional needs of everyone.The Heads of
44、State and Government gathered in Rome at the World Food Summit at the invitation of FAO, reaffirmed on November 13 1996 the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger. They cons
45、idered it intolerable that more than 800 million people throughout the world, and particularly in developing countries, do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs, and pledged their political will and their common and national commitment to achieving food security for all and to a
46、n ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries. They formally renewed their commitment to the right to adequate food and recommended that the content of this right be defined more clearly and ways to implement it be identified. The international human rights systemThe contemporary internation
47、al human rights system was born in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as . a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration const
48、antly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance.The Four Freedoms address of United States President Roosevelt, in Januar
49、y 1941, was of special importance in the preparation of the Declaration, which included freedom from want as one of those rights.1 In the negotiations for the UDHR in 1947-1948, the United States delegation played a major role, emphasizing that economic and social rights should be included as well as the civil rights that set out the fundamental freedoms, since - in the words of the United States delegation - a man in need
