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Right to food for food system recovery and transformation
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2023
- Document code
- A/78/202
Document
Conflict and the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2022
- Document code
- A/HRC/52/40
Document
Right to food and the COVID-19 pandemic
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2022
- Document code
- A/77/177
Document
Food systems and human rights
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2021
- Document code
- A/76/237
Document
Seeds, right to life and farmers’ rights
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2021
- Document code
- A/HRC/49/43
Document
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food to the Human Rights Council on Critical perspective on food systems, food crises and the future of the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2020
- Document code
- A/HRC/43/44
Document
The right to food in the context of international trade law and policy
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2020
- Document code
- A/75/219
Document
Addendum - Mission to Zimbabwe: comments by the State on the report of the Special Rapporteur
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2020
- Document code
- A/HRC/43/44/ADD.4
Document
Addendum - Mission to Azerbaijan: comments by the State on the report of the Special Rapporteur
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2020
- Document code
- A/HRC/43/44/ADD.3
Document
Vision of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2020
- Document code
- A/HRC/46/33
Document
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food to the Human Rights Council on Fishery Workers
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2019
- Document code
- A/HRC/40/56
Document
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food to the United General Assembly on the Sustainable Development Goals
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2019
- Document code
- A/74/164
Document
Addendum- Report on mission to Zambia
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2018
- Document code
- A/HRC/37/61/Add.1
Document
Report to the Human Rights Council (Right to food in the context of natural disasters)
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2018
- Document code
- A/HRC/37/61
Document
Report to the General Assembly (Agricultural Workers and the Right to food)
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2018
- Document code
- A/73/164
Document
Interim report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2017
- Document code
- A/72/188
Document
Effects of pesticides on the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2017
- Document code
- A/HRC/34/48
Document
Right to food and nutrition
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2016
- Document code
- A/71/282
Document
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2016
- Document code
- A/HRC/31/51
Document
Impact of climate change on the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2015
- Document code
- A/70/287
Document
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2015
- Document code
- A/HRC/28/65
Document
The transformative potential of the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2014
- Document code
- A/HRC/25/57
Document
Vision of the mandate
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2014
- Document code
- A/69/275
Document
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2013
- Document code
- A/68/288
Document
Women’s right and the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2013
- Document code
- A/HRC/22/50
Document
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2012
- Document code
- A/HRC/19/59
Document
Fisheries and the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2012
- Document code
- A/67/268
Document
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2011
- Document code
- A/66/262
Document
Acroecology and the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2011
- Document code
- A/HRC/16/49
Document
Access to land and the right to food
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Year
- 2010
- Document code
- A/65/281
Document
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- For some of the groups that are the most vulnerable today, this means protecting existing access to land, water, grazing or fishing grounds, or forests, all of which may be productive resources essential for a decent livelihood. In such cases, as detailed below, the right to food may complement the protection of the right to property or of indigenous peoples' relationship with their lands, territories, and resources. In other cases, because landlessness is a cause of particular vulnerability, the obligation of the State goes further: it is to strengthen such access or make it possible - for example, through redistributive programmes that may in turn result in restrictions on others' right to property. This obligation of States is especially clear in cases in which the members of such groups have no alternative means of producing food or gaining sufficient income to purchase food that is sufficient, adequate and culturally acceptable.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The pressures on land are increasing dramatically. As rural populations grow, plots cultivated are becoming smaller per capita and per household. In India, the average landholding size fell from 2.6 hectares in 1960 to 1.4 hectares in 2000 and continues to decline; similar evolutions have been documented in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Thailand, where the decline in the average farm size is combined with an increase in landlessness. The trend is not limited to the Asian region. In Eastern and Southern Africa, the amount of cultivated land per capita declined by half over the past generation, and in a number of countries the average cultivated area now amounts to less than 0.3 hectares per capita. This phenomenon is compounded by erosion and soil depletion: worldwide, 5 million to 10 million hectares of agricultural land are being lost annually to severe degradation. And it would be difficult to expand the areas under cultivation to the degree required to accommodate the growth of rural populations, since forests have a major role in storing carbon and deforestation is already a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- These long-term trends have been exacerbated in recent years by policies that have further increased the pressures on farmland. In many regions, under export-driven agricultural policies, large-scale plantations have developed for the production of food, energy or cash crops. While the tendency towards land concentration has resulted primarily from a dominant model of agricultural development that rewards the most mechanized and capital-intensive farms, it has also been encouraged by the expansion of long supply chains. This has generally favoured large agricultural producers, which are better connected to markets and can more easily produce the volumes and meet the standards required for export. The competition among various uses of farmland has recently been increased by policies favouring the switch to biofuels in transport, which leads to competing resource claims on the part of local resource users, Governments and incoming agrofuel producers, creating the risk that poorer groups will lose access to the land on which they depend. A recent inventory by the World Bank listing 389 large-scale acquisitions or long-term leases of land in 80 countries shows that, while 37 per cent of the so-called investment projects are intended to produce food (crops and livestock), agrofuels represent 35 per cent of such projects. For all these reasons, the Special Rapporteur has insisted that investments implying a shift in land rights should be treated with great caution. At the thirty-sixth session of the Committee on World Food Security, he will detail both the risks of large-scale land investments and possible alternative business models.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- The protection of land-users' rights should not be limited to improving farmers' security of tenure. Fisherfolk need access to fishing grounds and may be severely affected by the fencing-off of land that provides access to the sea or to rivers. Pastoralists need grazing grounds for the animals that they raise. For these groups, as well as those practicing itinerant forms of agriculture, the formalization of property rights and the establishment of land registries may be the problem, not the solution: it may cause them to be fenced off from the resources on which they depend, making them victims of the vast enclosure movement that may result from titling. In Kenya, pastoralists whose rights were ignored in the formalization process have reportedly been the victims of violent land-grabbing by ranchers and others seeking scarce resources. Since they have no legal claim to the land, they cannot seek redress. In the United Republic of Tanzania, five years after a major titling effort had begun, pastoralists reported their eviction from multiple common grazing areas and were under threat of losing other grazing lands because those lands had been classified as "unused".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 40c
- Paragraph text
- [In order to respect the right to food, States should:] Respect the needs of special groups. States should implement the specific rights of indigenous peoples by demarcating their lands and territories and by providing them with specific protection. States should also protect access to fishing grounds, grazing grounds and water points for fisherfolk, herders and pastoralists, for whom the protection of commons is vital. The recognition of communal rights should extend beyond indigenous communities, at least to certain communities that entertain a similar relationship with the land, centred on the community rather than on the individual;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 40d
- Paragraph text
- [In order to respect the right to food, States should:] Prioritize development models that do not lead to evictions, disruptive shifts in land rights and increased land concentration. States should carefully consider the development models that they follow, as the mainstream agro-export-led model has major detrimental impacts on the access to land of vulnerable groups, disproportionately favouring the largest producers and landowners. Land investments implying an important shift in land rights should represent the last and least desirable option, acceptable only if no other investment model can achieve a similar contribution to local development and improve the livelihoods within the local communities concerned.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- International human rights law protects the relationship of indigenous communities with their lands, territories and resources by requiring States to demarcate such land, protect it from encroachment and respect the right of the communities concerned to manage it according to their internal modes of organization. Although sometimes those guarantees seem to be honoured more in the breach than in the observance, case law shows that use rights derived from customary tenure can be recognized and protected by the legal system; it also shows that the right to communal property - a right of the community rather than of the individual - is an alternative to individual property rights. On both counts, it can serve as a source of inspiration, in order to enhance the protection of the rights of other users of natural resources.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 40a
- Paragraph text
- [In order to respect the right to food, States should:] Ensure security of tenure. States should take measures to confer legal security of tenure upon those persons, households and communities currently lacking such protection, including all those who do not have formal titles to home and land. The adoption of anti-eviction laws imposing strict conditions for interference with the rights of land users should be seen as a priority. This should supplement any strengthening of the regulatory framework concerning expropriation, which itself should provide clear procedural safeguards for landowners while, at the same time, providing for the possibility of agrarian reform where land concentration is excessive;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- More generally, contract farming can lead to a loss of control over production, including which crops to produce and how to produce them. Contract farming can thus cause farmers to become essentially wage-earning agricultural labourers on their own land, but without the benefits associated with paid labour, such as minimum wages, sick leave and other legislated benefits. Contracted small farmers are then seen by the buyer as labour market intermediaries. This is particularly clear after plantations are broken up by owners to create small-scale farms, possibly to break the power of unions or divest firms of their responsibilities, with negative effects on former labourers. Seen in this light, contract farming raises a number of questions that concern the right to work and the conditions of employment on family farms. Contract farmers often rely on family labour to fulfil work requirements. While this may be seen as leading to greater employment opportunities, it often simply results in more family members working without pay because that may be the only way to cut costs and to make the contractual arrangement profitable. In such contexts, child labour can become a problem in contract farming arrangements. Article 10 of the International Covenant on Social and Cultural Rights and article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child impose on States the obligation to protect children and young persons from economic and social exploitation and to punish their employment in work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, spiritual, moral or social development. States must adopt effective measures to ensure that the prohibition of child labour is fully respected (see E/C.12/GC/18, para. 24). It is also relevant to note that in accordance with article 9 of the Covenant, States must guarantee the right to social security, which must also be accessible to independent producers (see E/C.12/GC/19).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- By enhancing on-farm fertility production, agroecology reduces farmers' reliance on external inputs and state subsidies. This, in turn, makes vulnerable smallholders less dependent on local retailers and moneylenders. One key reason why agroecology helps to support incomes in rural areas is because it promotes on-farm fertility generation. Indeed, supplying nutrients to the soil does not necessarily require adding mineral fertilizers. It can be done by applying livestock manure or by growing green manures. Farmers can also establish a "fertilizer factory in the fields" by planting trees that take nitrogen out of the air and "fix" it in their leaves, which are subsequently incorporated into the soil. That, in essence, is the result of planting Faidherbia albida, a nitrogen-fixing acacia species indigenous to Africa and widespread throughout the continent. Since this tree goes dormant and sheds its foliage during the early rainy season at the time when field crops are being established, it does not compete significantly with them for light, nutrients or water during the growing season; yet it allows a significant increase in yields of the maize with which it is combined, particularly in conditions of low soil fertility. In Zambia, unfertilized maize yields in the vicinity of Faidherbia trees averaged 4.1 t/ha, compared to 1.3 t/ha nearby, but beyond the tree canopy. Similar results were observed in Malawi, where this tree was also widely used. The use of such nitrogen-fixing trees avoids dependence on synthetic fertilizers, the price of which has been increasingly high and volatile over the past few years, exceeding food commodity prices, even when the latter reached a peak in July 2008. In this way, whatever financial assets the household has can be used on other essentials, such as education or medicine.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Agroforestry or comparable techniques such as the use of leguminous-cover crops to fix nitrogen also have a huge potential. This matters particularly to the poorest farmers, who are least likely to be able to afford to buy inorganic fertilizers, and whom fertilizer distribution systems often do not reach, particularly since the private sector is unlikely to invest into the most remote areas where communication routes are poor and few economies of scale can be achieved. But it is also of great importance to low-income countries, which import to meet their inorganic fertilizer needs. In sub-Saharan Africa, part of the reason why the use of fertilizers is very low (average 13 kilograms (kg) of fertilizer nutrients per hectare) is because of the considerable fiscal costs involved in the import and distribution of fertilizers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- In Burkina Faso, rather than migrating, work groups of young men specialized in land rehabilitation techniques, such as tassas and zai planting pits, go from village to village to satisfy farmers' growing interest in improving their own lands. Farmers are now buying degraded land for improvement and paying these labourers to dig zai pits and construct the rock walls and half-moon structures which can transform yields. This is one of the reasons why more than 3 million hectares of land in Burkina Faso are now rehabilitated and productive.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- Youth
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Women have less access to contract farming than men. A study found that in the Kenyan horticulture export industry, women comprised fewer than 10 per cent of contracted farmers, and in a sample of 59 contract farmers for French beans exported from Senegal, only one was a woman. The ability of women to benefit from contract farming is determined by their rights over land and by the power relationships both within households or, when the contract is negotiated through representatives of the community or the farmers' organizations, within those groups. Indeed, even where most of the work is in fact performed by the wife and other family members, it is not unusual for the contract to be signed by the husband, as head of the household, as is seen in sugar contract farming in South Africa or in vegetable contract farming in the Indian Punjab. In addition, studies suggest that women lose control over decision-making when crops are produced for cash rather than for local consumption. While women decide about the use of food produced for self-consumption, they do not decide how the income of the household is spent. Therefore, unless the framework for contract farming respects women's rights and is gender sensitive, it will undermine gender equality. Research done on bean contract farming in Kenya shows, for instance, that while women performed most of the work, they received a limited portion of the revenues from the contract. In addition, where they did receive cash, they were expected to contribute to household expenditures even when this would have been the husband's responsibility. Strengthening the position of women is not only a matter of guaranteeing the right to equality of treatment, but also a means of improving productivity, since women receiving a greater proportion of the crop income will have a greater incentive to increase production. Moreover, household food security and children's health, nutrition and education all gain from improved income for women, in comparison to the gains that result from improved income for men. The more women decide on how to spend household income, the more it is usually spent on children's needs; a child's chance of survival increases by 20 per cent when the mother controls the household budget (see A/HRC/13/32, para. 58).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 53a
- Paragraph text
- [National food security institutions should monitor and assess the contribution of the various business models explored in the present report to the realization of the right to food. These institutions could build on the work of the National Council on Food and Nutrition Security in Brazil or the specific work of the South African Human Rights Commission on food security issues. Governments should also set up forums in which the fairness of food chains could be discussed among producers, processors, retailers and consumers to ensure that farmers are paid fair prices for the food they produce. Such forums could examine:] How the farm gate price relates to the retail price and whether the wedge between the two remains within a reasonable margin;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Under such clauses, firms may reject delivered products by stating falsely that they do not conform to quality regulations, thus transferring financial losses to farmers when market prices are low. Firms can manipulate prices when the price mechanism specified by the contract is not transparent, using complex price formulas, quantity measurements or price measurements. They also can manipulate delivery schedules to benefit from market price changes or from changes in a product's qualities upon which prices are based (for example, delaying the purchase of sugar cane when prices are based on sucrose levels because sucrose levels decline rapidly after harvest).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Since the 1950s, there has been tremendous growth in fishing capacity worldwide, with the number and power of fishing vessels increasing dramatically. Between 1970 and 1990, global fish harvesting capacity grew eight times faster than the rate of growth in landings. Although this trend may have slowed, technological improvements in fishing (including the use of spotter planes, sonar devices and underwater mapping technology, in addition to new fishing gears and improvements in refrigeration and navigation) mean that fishing capacity is bound to continue to grow. It has been estimated that, because of overcapacity and technology creep, the capacity of the global aggregate fishing fleet is at least double that which is needed to exploit the oceans sustainably. Fishing sector subsidies may be contributing to this problem: each year, fisheries subsidies amount to between $30 billion and $34 billion, with $20 billion used to directly support improved fishing capacity, such as fuel and boatbuilding subsidies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Agroecology is both a science and a set of practices. It was created by the convergence of two scientific disciplines: agronomy and ecology. As a science, agroecology is the "application of ecological science to the study, design and management of sustainable agroecosystems." As a set of agricultural practices, agroecology seeks ways to enhance agricultural systems by mimicking natural processes, thus creating beneficial biological interactions and synergies among the components of the agroecosystem. It provides the most favourable soil conditions for plant growth, particularly by managing organic matter and by raising soil biotic activity. The core principles of agroecology include recycling nutrients and energy on the farm, rather than introducing external inputs; integrating crops and livestock; diversifying species and genetic resources in agroecosystems over time and space; and focusing on interactions and productivity across the agricultural system, rather than focusing on individual species. Agroecology is highly knowledge-intensive, based on techniques that are not delivered top-down but developed on the basis of farmers' knowledge and experimentation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- These direct threats to the sustainability of fish production systems are magnified by the impacts of climate change. The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to increased sea temperatures and ocean acidification, threatening many calcifying organisms such as molluscs, plankton and coral reefs. This reduces dependent fish populations and is exacerbated by unsustainable fishing practices. Warmer sea temperatures may lead to more frequent and severe outbreaks of algal blooms, which can have a devastating impact on fish populations. Extreme climate-related events may destroy coastal habitats. Marine species respond to the warming of oceans by moving to colder waters, which includes shifting their latitudinal range or moving to greater depths. Some fish will gradually move away from rich tropical waters, resulting in localized extinctions and the invasion of some species into waters where they were previously not found.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Oil spills, agricultural and industrial run-off, pollution from aquaculture and the enormous accumulation of plastic debris in water will have lasting effects on marine wildlife. Both climate change and pollution have contributed to dead zones in the ocean, where oxygen levels in surface water are extremely low and can no longer support wildlife. Dead zones are linked with increasingly frequent outbreaks of red tides, where mass mortality events of fish and marine mammals are caused by toxin build-ups owing to lower oxygen levels in their environment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- Two interesting attempts to link small-scale farmers to local consumers through a redefinition of local food systems are found in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Durban, South Africa. Both examples were studied closely by the Special Rapporteur when he conducted official missions to those countries in 2009 and 2011. In 1993, Belo Horizonte adopted a municipal law, setting out a policy framework based on the concept of food sovereignty and established a secretariat for food policy and supply. Under this framework, it sought to create various channels of affordable access to healthy food. Because conventional markets were often found to be too expensive for low-income groups and because the poorest parts of the city, the favelas, were usually not well served with respect to food distribution, the secretariat established mobile food distribution services. It sought to support family agriculture through government food purchases and incentives prioritizing local producers, seeing such support as a key to reducing migration to the cities and encouraging organic production methods. The local food system of the city was rethought by integrating the logistics and supply chains of the entire food system and by tying local producers directly to consumers to reduce prices. In 2008, 34 producers from eight rural municipalities of Belo Horizonte, selected through a public process, were assigned fixed sale points throughout the city, and the price and quality of their produce were regulated to ensure that the food would be affordable and healthy. In the same year, the city operated 49 conventional and 7 organic markets, benefiting 97 small producers from surrounding areas.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- The quality of working conditions in the fish-processing industry also raises concerns, although conditions have improved since developed countries imposed higher sanitation and hygiene standards. In a 2004 study, FAO showed that, for 9 of the 11 countries surveyed, fish workers were paid close to the minimum wage and often received much lower than the average per capita income for the country. In Chile, for example, the area home to most fish processing factories was also the area with the lowest per capita income levels. Moreover, high levels of seasonal and informal work exist in the processing sector, meaning that many workers are not employed on full-time contracts with basic labour benefits, such as sick pay, pension or maternity leave. In part owing to the many fish-processing firms in the sector, workers often fail to unionize and to enter into collective bargaining.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- Progress in providing exclusive fishing zones for small-scale fishers notwithstanding, there are persistent and widespread complaints of violations, such as prohibited fishing by industrial boats and the damaging effects of other industries, including mining, port development, fish processing, coastal aquaculture and real estate development, especially linked to the tourism sector. There is growing conflict over the use of marine and aquatic resources, in particular owing to insecure land tenure for the members of small-scale fishing communities. This underscores the important need for States to fully implement the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. It also highlights the need for programmes in which fishers collaborate with the authorities to monitor infringements of their exclusive fishing zones. Such programmes have been initiated in some countries with varying degrees of success.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Increased trade and licence-related and access-related payments can generate revenue for the developing countries concerned. The benefits, however, often continue to be shared unequally. Among the island nations in the western and central Pacific Ocean, for example, most commercial tuna fishing is managed through bilateral agreements with distant-water fishing fleets. The tuna fisheries are estimated to be worth $3 billion annually, yet local countries receive only some 6 per cent of that amount. Research into European Union fisheries agreements conducted in the late 1990s also showed that benefits were unevenly shared. Overall, Union agreements generated more than seven times as much value to European countries (mostly France and Spain) than they did for the host countries.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 50a
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur has previously described the role that human rights impact assessments of trade and investment agreements can play in allowing countries to discharge their human rights obligations (see A/HRC/19/59/Add.5). Trade and access agreements in fisheries provide another such illustration. The above assessment of the potential opportunities and risks of such agreements (see paras. 29-32) may serve to identify the questions that should be asked in any impact assessment before the conclusion of an agreement by the coastal State. These are, for example:] Will the agreement increase or decrease food availability in the coastal State? If food availability increases, either because of improved fishing capacity or because of the imports made possible by export revenue, is this sustainable in the long term to protect the coastal State from potential shocks?
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 61d (iii)
- Paragraph text
- [Coastal States and landlocked States with inland fisheries should:] Consistent with the pledge made at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (see para. 175 of the outcome document), strengthen access to fishery resources and improve the incomes of small-scale fishing communities by: Strengthening the position of small-scale fishers in the production chain, for example by supporting the formation of cooperatives and assisting them to expand into the high-added-value stages of the industry;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- First, the right to food requires that States respect existing access to adequate food and abstain from taking measures that result in reducing such access. To fully discharge this obligation, States should refrain from adopting any policy that affects the territories and activities of small-scale, artisanal and indigenous fishers unless their free, prior and informed consent is obtained. National and local courts may play a significant role in this regard. Courts should be empowered, in particular, to adjudicate claims from small-scale fishers whose livelihoods are threatened by measures that infringe on their ability to fish so as to provide sufficient income to ensure an adequate standard of living.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Lastly, States have an obligation to fulfil the right to food, which requires them to act proactively to strengthen people's access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure their livelihoods. The search for arrangements that preserve the long-term (environmental) sustainability of fishing, including by reducing overfishing and conserving fish habitats, while concurrently improving the incomes of small-scale fishing communities, is the key challenge facing Governments in developing strategies that progressively realize the right to food. The example of the work carried out by a group of organizations, led by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, to identify current per capita fish consumption in the Pacific island countries and territories in order to project future scenarios of fish food security and to develop plans to tackle the key challenges, may serve as a source of inspiration.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- As awareness has grown of the threat posed by overfishing, international agreements and guidelines have been drawn up to address various dimensions of the problem. These include the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks (the 1995 Fish Stocks Agreement) and the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, which adopt precautionary and ecosystem approaches to fisheries. Arguably the most ambitious is the Plan of Action of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which includes actions to reduce overcapacity in the global fishing fleet, a commitment to expand the total coverage of marine protected areas to 10 per cent of the world's oceans by 2012 (later deferred to 2020 in the light of the slow progress) and to rebuild fish stocks by 2015. At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Governments pledged to intensify their efforts in that regard (see para. 168 of the outcome document).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- Progress is also being made in managing coastal and inshore areas fished predominantly by small-scale fishers. The limitations of top-down management strategies are now better appreciated and the participation of fishing communities is seen as paramount, as is the integration of local fishers' knowledge of fish and marine habitat changes. The need for community co-management arrangements in fisheries is reinforced in the draft FAO guidelines for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries, which are being finalized through extensive stakeholder consultations at the time of writing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Although success in some countries to restore fish stocks to healthy levels has been achieved, global progress in implementing the various commitments remains disappointing, as confirmed in studies of fisheries management effectiveness. Other targets in the Plan of Action of the World Summit on Sustainable Development have largely been missed. Although fishing capacity has declined in some countries since 2002, it has increased globally from about 4.02 billion kilowatt-days in 2002 to 4.35 billion kilowatt-days in 2010. The total coverage of marine protected areas is estimated at less than 2 per cent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The world is now paying a high price for having focused almost exclusively on increasing production over the past half-century. Undernutrition remains considerable, largely because agrifood systems have not contributed to the alleviation of rural poverty. One in seven people on a global level are still hungry. About 34 per cent of children in developing countries, 186 million children in total, have a low height for age, the most common symptom of chronic undernutrition. Although the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Food Price Index, adjusted for inflation, indicates that food costs declined from the early 1960s until 2002 (apart from a peak in 1973-1974), the poorest are still too poor to feed themselves in dignity because agriculture has not been designed to support the livelihoods of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Additionally, a large number of people (with children and women being affected disproportionately) suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Vitamin A deficiency affects at least 100 million children, limiting their growth, weakening their immunity and, in cases of acute deficiency, leading to blindness and to increased mortality. Between four billion and five billion people suffer from iron deficiency, including half of the pregnant women and children under 5 in developing countries, and an estimated two billion are anaemic. Iron deficiency impairs growth, cognitive development and immune function, and it leads children to perform less well in school and adults to be less productive. Iodine and zinc deficiencies also have adverse impacts on health and reduce the chances of child survival. About 30 per cent of households in the developing world do not consume iodized salt, and children born to highly iodine-deficient mothers are likely to experience learning disabilities or cretinism. Finally, lack of certain vitamins and minerals may also affect physical and mental development and the immune system.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Like undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency or "hidden hunger" is a violation of a child's right to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical and mental development, and to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, recognized under article 6, paragraph 2, and article 24, paragraph 2 (c), of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The environment, not genetics, explains differences in child development between regions. The WHO Child Growth Standards demonstrate that infants and children from geographically diverse regions of the world experience very similar growth patterns when their health and nutrition needs are met, so that all children have in principle the same development potential. States, therefore, have a duty to support exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continued breastfeeding, combined with adequate complementary foods, until the second birthday of the child; and to establish food systems that can ensure each individual's access not only to sufficient caloric intake, but also to sufficiently diverse diets, providing the full range of micronutrients required.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- First, it is troubling that the 1981 International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and subsequent World Health Assembly (WHA) resolutions remain under-enforced, despite the wide recognition that exclusive breastfeeding for the six first months and continued breastfeeding, combined with safe and adequate complementary foods, up to 2 years old or beyond is the optimal way of feeding infants, and reduces the risk of obesity and NCDs later in life. Countries committed to scaling up nutrition should begin by regulating the marketing of commercial infant formula and other breast-milk substitutes, in accordance with WHA resolution 63.23, and by implementing the full set of WHO recommendations on the marketing of breast-milk substitutes and of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children, in accordance with WHA resolution 63.14.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Second, the focus on pregnant and lactating women and infants in some recent nutrition initiatives, while understandable, should not lessen the need to address the nutritional needs of others, including children, women who are not pregnant or lactating, adolescents and older persons. The right to adequate food, which includes adequate nutrition, is a universal right guaranteed to all. This pleads in favour of broad-based national strategies for the realization of the right to food that address the full range of factors causing malnutrition, rather than narrowly focused initiatives that address the specific needs of a child's development between conception and the second birthday.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Infants
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Third, interventions aimed at improving nutrition and targeting pregnant or lactating women and children under 2 years old, while vital, do not substitute for addressing the structural causes of undernutrition or inadequate diets. The Special Rapporteur noted previously that chief among these structural causes are inequitable food systems that are not sufficiently inclusive of the poorest, small-scale farmers and that do not reduce rural poverty; and the priority given to monocropping of certain staples over more diverse farming systems that would help to ensure more adequate diets. The violations of women's rights, gender inequality and the lack of women's empowerment are another major factor explaining poor nutritional outcomes. Improving women's access to productive resources, allowing women to make decisions regarding the household budget and protecting women from pressure, including economic pressure, to renounce optimal breastfeeding practices would contribute significantly to positive nutritional outcomes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- The efforts on these fronts must continue. Nutrition interventions should be but one part of broader-based strategies for the realization of the right to adequate food. For example, the provision of fortified foods (enriched to improve nutritional content) may be necessary, where local production is insufficiently diversified and incapable of supplying the full range of foods required for adequate diets. Rebuilding and strengthening local food systems through diversified farming systems to ensure the availability of and accessibility to adequate diets will be more sustainable in the long term. Food systems based on local knowledge and conditions, such as homestead or community gardens, can be a cost-effective way to combat micronutrient deficiency, as demonstrated by examples in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, the Niger and South Africa; such alternative food systems present the additional advantage of increasing local incomes and resilience to price shocks, another pathway through which positive nutritional outcomes can be achieved.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Fourth, potential concerns exist regarding the relationship between solutions that rely on imported technologies and products and the local contexts in which these solutions are applied. Technology has a key role to play in improved nutrition. For instance, the iodization of salt is a cost-effective way to reduce iodine deficiency. Biofortification-the improvement at crop level of the micronutrient content of staples-can provide important benefits for rural populations, improving their access to micronutrient-rich foods produced locally at more affordable prices, as illustrated by the adoption of the orange-fleshed sweet potato in Mozambique that reduced vitamin A deficiency significantly. But such technologies could result in long-term dependency for the communities concerned if protected by intellectual property rights. Moreover, opportunities and market access for local farmers could be reduced if they result in the creation of new markets that are captured by the economic actors introducing such technologies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- The requirement of participation, consistent with guideline 10.3 of the Right to Food Guidelines, ensures that local agricultural and nutrition contexts be considered. It also means that solutions will be demand-driven, that local partners will be identified, and that country-led action will not be equated with government-led action. It also allows identifying alternative solutions based on local knowledge and conditions, such as homestead or community gardens. Participation requires that beneficiaries take part in the process of evaluation, and co-design the solutions that could benefit them most. This is not only empowering, but also enhances the effectiveness of interventions because it builds a feedback loop to facilitate ongoing learning and improvement of policies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- In addition to expanding their economic opportunities in later life, higher enrolment rates for girls delay marriage and can thus lower the number of children a woman has, therefore enabling more women to seek employment with higher incomes. Low levels of education and early marriage create a vicious cycle in which women have many children and thus reduced opportunities for improving their education and seeking employment outside the home. Higher levels of education means women can take control over their fertility and be able to make informed decisions in terms of their sexual health and family planning, resulting in fewer children and improved economic opportunities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Policies aimed at eradicating hunger and malnutrition that are grounded in the right to food shall redefine as legal entitlements benefits that have traditionally been seen as voluntary handouts from States. The right to food requires that schemes providing benefits, whether guaranteeing access to food or promoting agricultural and rural development and national social protection floors, be consolidated into legal entitlements, clearly identifying the beneficiaries and providing them with access to redress mechanisms if they are excluded. In the same spirit, paragraph 7 of International Labour Organization (ILO) Recommendation No. 202 concerning national floors of social protection provides that "national laws and regulations [establishing basic social security guarantees] should specify the range, qualifying conditions and levels of the benefits giving effect to these guarantees. Impartial, transparent, effective, simple, rapid, accessible and inexpensive complaint and appeal procedures should also be specified. Access to complaint and appeal procedures should be free of charge to the applicant. Systems should be in place that enhance compliance with national legal frameworks".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- The right to food seeks to ensure access to adequate diets. Although access is necessary for individuals to be adequately nourished, it is not the only requirement. Obviously, food availability is also required (which necessitates appropriate functioning of markets to ensure that foodstuffs can travel from the producers to the markets and from food-surplus regions to food-deficit regions). Access to health-care services and sanitation, as well as adequate feeding practices, are also essential. In this regard, the right to food is also closely connected to the right to health and to what is described as adequate "utilization".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- The contribution of the right to adequate food to the eradication of hunger and malnutrition operates at three levels. First, as a self-standing right recognized in international law and in a range of domestic constitutions, it imposes on States obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate food. Second, the right to food encourages the transformation into legal entitlements of social welfare benefits that individuals or households receive under governmental food security schemes. Third, the right to food requires that States adopt national strategies to progressively realize the components of the right to food that cannot be immediately guaranteed. The significant progress achieved at each of these levels in recent years has been brought about by the interplay of different actors, including courts, parliaments, governments, national human rights institutions, civil society and social movements.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Second, the globalization of food chains leads to a shift from diets high in complex carbohydrates and fibre to diets with a higher proportion of fats and sugars. As a result of this "nutrition transition," disease patterns shift away from infectious and nutrient-deficiency diseases toward higher rates of coronary heart disease, non-insulin dependent diabetes, some types of cancer and obesity. This trend is particularly noticeable in emerging economies, and the Special Rapporteur studied the mechanisms at work closely in his missions to Brazil, China, South Africa and Mexico. Nutrition transition is accelerated by the expansion of trade in food commodities and by the acceleration of vertical integration in food chains, both of which increase the availability of processed foods.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- The impacts of increasingly globalized food chains and the uniformization of diets across the globe have disparate impacts across population groups. As a country transitions towards higher income levels, the burden of overweight and obesity shifts. The poorest segment of the population is at low risk of obesity in poor countries, but in upper-middle income developing economies (with a gross national product per capita of over about US$ 2,500) and in high-income countries, it is the poorest who are most negatively affected. In high-income countries, while the poor bear a disproportionate burden of overweight or obesity, women are particularly at risk because their incomes are on average lower than those of men, and because men in the low-income group often are employed on tasks that are physically demanding and require large expenses of energy. Overweight or obese women tend to give birth to children who themselves tend to be overweight or obese, resulting in lower productivity and discrimination. Thus, socio-economic disadvantage is perpetuated across generations by the channel of overweight or obesity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Significant concerns are expressed today about the marketing practices of the agrifood industry, particularly as regards marketing to children. The range of practices is wide: they include television advertising, product placement, promotional partnerships, sales promotions, and direct marketing in schools, among others. Most advertisements promote unhealthy foods, high in total energy, sugars and fats, and low in nutrients. A recent study covering television advertising in Australia, Asia, Western Europe, and North and South America, found that in all sampled countries, children were exposed to high volumes of television advertising for unhealthy foods, featuring child-oriented persuasive techniques, leading the authors to call for regulation of food advertising during children's peak viewing times. The ability of these marketing practices to change consumer behaviour is remarkable in developing countries, in part because brands of North-based global companies carry positive connotations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Certain investments can significantly reduce the burden that household chores impose on women. In rural areas, such measures include the provision of water services and afforestation projects to reduce the time spent fetching water and fuelwood. In both rural and urban areas, measures would include the establishment or strengthening of child-care services and care for the elderly or persons with illness/disability. By reducing the time poverty of women, their economic opportunities would expand, since it would be easier for them to seek employment outside the household; access incomes and increase their economic independence, which, in turn, would strengthen their bargaining position within the household. In order for such opportunities to be seized, access to education for girls and life-long training must be improved and societal perceptions of gender roles which discriminate against women must be changed. Improved education and employment prospects are mutually reinforcing, as the demand for education (investment in human capital) will increase in proportion to increase in the demand for a qualified female workforce.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- This wave of legislative reforms is continent-wide. Similar laws are currently being considered in Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Panama, Paraguay and Peru. To further promote these developments, the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO), of which 23 Latin American countries are members, adopted a model Framework Law on the Right to Food, Food Security and Food Sovereignty on 1 December 2012 at its XVIIIth General Assembly. The Framework Law underlines the duty of the State to respect, protect and promote the enjoyment of the human right to food and to guarantee the mechanisms to make the right justiciable.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Involving women in the design, implementation and assessment of all these policies, could therefore have deeply transformative effects on how we conceive of the role of small-scale farming itself. This is why participation matters: it is to ensure that women have real choices. The strengthening of women's cooperatives or encouraging group farming by women's collectives are also important for that reason. Not only should women be able to overcome the obstacles that obstruct their ability to be as productive as men, they should also be able to redefine the priorities of the small-scale farming system, of which they are becoming the main actors.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur will examine the impact of climate change and environmental degradation as a growing source of food shortages and food insecurity, particularly in countries that are faced with imminent risks due to economic, geographic and climatic conditions. In this context, she will also address the need to review international food systems, as a means of improving sustainable consumption and reducing food waste. In so doing, the Special Rapporteur will engage with the specific policy recommendations of the post-2015 sustainable development goals concerning the eradication of poverty and hunger, food security and the empowerment of women. The adoption of those goals is currently being negotiated by the United Nations, civil society and the relevant organizations with respect to their precise language.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- While there has been considerable legislative and judicial progress in many countries throughout the world since the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines a decade ago, many challenges remain. In order to ensure the progressive realization of the right to food at the domestic level, it is imperative that constitutional principles and framework laws are established as a means of providing an appropriate institutional structure. The adoption of sectoral legislation will ensure that States adequately address various sectors that impact significantly on levels of food security.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- While the right to food may once have been a controversial "positive" right, it is now enshrined in international law and States are obliged to ensure its progressive realization through ratification of international treaties and the development of supportive domestic and national legislation. However, many countries have failed to develop a judicial culture of recognition in practice, or the necessary legal frameworks required to ensure that the rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are justiciable. Accountability at both international and national levels is paramount to ensuring that the right to food and its correlative obligations are being implemented.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recommends that States parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights work towards "the adoption of a national strategy to ensure food and nutrition security for all, based on human rights principles that define the objectives, and the formulation of policies and corresponding benchmarks" (see general comment No. 12, para. 21). Similarly, Guideline 3 of the FAO Right to Food Guidelines encourages the adoption of "a national human-rights based strategy for the progressive realization of the right to adequate food … [which] could include objectives, targets, benchmarks and time frames; and actions to formulate policies, identify and mobilize resources, define institutional mechanisms, allocate responsibilities, coordinate the activities of different actors, and provide for monitoring mechanisms".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Despite the scepticism that persists in a number of States, courts in several countries have been proactive in stepping in to prevent situations in which survival was threatened due to government inaction or inefficiency in realizing the right to food. The majority of cases relate to failures by authorities to provide minimum levels of subsistence for affected individuals or communities. The right to food is now enshrined in the constitutions of more than 20 countries, together with legal provisions that allow for judicial protection by invoking the right to life, respect for human dignity, the right to health, the right to land, respect for ethnic and cultural rights, the right to housing and consumer rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Investing in rural women has been shown to increase productivity significantly and reduce hunger and malnutrition.8 According to FAO, women are responsible for 50 per cent of world food production, mainly for family consumption. The majority of rural women are "invisible" field workers on family plots. As a result, they have no recognized independent status as farmers and their work is considered as secondary both in the family and in society. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 15 per cent of landholders are women and they account for less than 10 per cent of credit and 7 per cent of extension services. According to estimates, policies that address gender inequalities could, conservatively, increase yields on women's farms by 2.5 to 4 per cent. Those statistics emphasize women's key role in agriculture, not only in ensuring the well-being of individuals, families and rural communities, but also in relation to overall economic productivity and sustainable development.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Article 14 of the Convention on the All Forms of Elimination of Discrimination against Women should be used as a guiding tool by States. In the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security in May 2012, it is noted that gender equality is at the core of all reform efforts. The Voluntary Tenure Guidelines also contain special provisions for improving gender equality in both formal and customary systems, for instance through amending discriminatory inheritance and property laws. The Special Rapporteur will review State policies with reference to the Guidelines, highlighting examples of good practices that encourage access to land for women and other vulnerable groups.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Women in many parts of the world are confronted with other discriminatory policies and societal norms that prevent them from accessing their fundamental right to adequate food and nutrition. Limited access to education and adequate public health care, as well as early marriage and pregnancy, domestic violence and unequal employment opportunities impose restrictions on women's mobility, decision-making power and control over the family income. Migration as a result of natural disasters, climate change and conflict has also had a disproportionate effect on women, particularly those living in rural areas and among the urban poor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- The fact that women are also considered as the primary caregivers, in both rural and urban settings, adds an extra dimension to their responsibilities within the household. While rural women often shoulder the burden of a heavy workload in addition to their care duties, urban poor woman face different challenges relating to assuring adequate food and nutrition for their family. For a range of economic reasons, poor urban women are increasingly relying on less nutritious processed foods. The Special Rapporteur intends to work with relevant stakeholders to address concerns related to the food issues facing different countries as a result of a dietary transition from traditional diets to processed foods high in fat and sugar, including the concerns addressed by her predecessor (see A/HRC/19/59).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- States must recognize the need to accommodate the specific time and mobility constraints on women, given their role in the "care" economy, while at the same time reconstituting gender roles by adopting a transformative approach to employment and social protection (see A/HRC/22/50). The Special Rapporteur will endeavour to promote greater awareness of the guidance provided by general comments No. 16 (2005) on the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights and No. 20 (2009) on non-discrimination in economic, social and cultural rights of the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, which relate to discriminatory practices against women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- The first five years of life are the most important period of human development, with the first 1,000 days requiring special attention. Ensuring that a child receives adequate nutrition during that window of 1,000 days can have a profound impact on his or her ability to grow. It can also shape the long-term health, stability and prosperity of a society. Stunting, caused by chronic undernutrition early in a child's life, affects some 165 million children around the world. It was estimated that in 2011 more than one in every four children under five years of age in the developing world was stunted. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the two regions where stunting continues to be highly prevalent, with low-income countries experiencing the highest levels. Undernutrition magnifies the effects of every disease, including measles and malaria, while malnutrition can also be caused by certain illnesses which reduce the ability of the body to convert food into usable nutrients.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Although issues of undernutrition are often framed in terms of disability prevention, good nutrition is also vital for those who already live with a disability. Infants and children with disabilities suffer the same ill-effects of undernutrition as those without: poorer health outcomes; missing or delayed developmental milestones; avoidable secondary impairments; and, in extreme circumstances, premature death. The exclusion of children and adults with disabilities from nutritional outreach efforts on the basis of the incorrect belief that preserving the life of a child or adult with a disability is of lower priority than preserving the life of someone who is not disabled must be addressed by tackling such discriminatory social and cultural norms which advocate this.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Maintaining breast-feeding programmes, especially in countries experiencing the HIV epidemic poses a major challenge. The Special Rapporteur intends to coordinate with the United Nations Children's Fund the World Health Organization and other relevant stakeholders to help develop policies for strengthening specific programmes for young children. She also encourages States to fully implement the Global Strategy on Infant and Young Child Feeding, to position breastfeeding as the norm and to respect and promote community-based food sovereignty approaches to complementary feeding. The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, adopted by the World Health Assembly at its thirty-fourth session in 1981 as a minimum requirement to protect and promote appropriate infant and young child feeding, should also be supplemented by further monitoring and regulation to ensure that companies responsible for the production of baby food follow similar quality control regulations for domestic use to those for export products.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- A right-to-food approach requires that States fulfil their obligation to ensure that safe, nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable food is available; they must also respect and protect consumers and promote good nutrition for all. The Voluntary Guidelines, in particular Guidelines 9, on food safety and consumer protection, and 10, on nutrition, can guide States in the establishment and maintenance of effective food and nutrition policies, thereby increasing the protection of the most vulnerable from unsafe food and inadequate diets, while helping to combat overweight and obesity. The Convention on the Rights of the Child indicates that access to adequate nutrition, including family support for optimal feeding practices, is a right that should be supported for every child. The Special Rapporteur believes that increased focus must be placed on mother and child nutrition as the core of a healthy start in life, with the correlation between infant and young child feeding and food security being treated as a priority in all global food and nutrition security programmes and with formal recognition at the international and national level, including in legal frameworks.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Climate change, sustainable resource management and food security are now widely considered among the most complex, interdependent and urgent global policy challenges. With average temperatures predicted by the world scientific community to rise by 2-4° C by the end of the century, the ability of entire regions to maintain current levels of agricultural production is being threatened and many of the adverse effects of climate change are now acutely felt. Individuals and communities already in vulnerable situations and at risk of discrimination due to geography, poverty, gender, age, indigenous or minority status and disability are often disproportionately affected.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Climate change is already having a significant impact on approximately 1 billion of the world's poor. In achieving the target set out in Millennium Development Goal 1, poverty rates have been halved, with 700 million fewer people living in extreme poverty in 2010 than in 1990. In the Human Development Report 2013, however, the United Nations Development Programme warns that if environmental degradation continues at the current rate, the gains in poverty reduction will be reversed, plunging over 3 billion people into extreme poverty and hunger. Without the implementation of serious measures to combat climate change, the number of people at risk of hunger is projected to increase by 10-20 per cent by 2050.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- There is a danger that emergency situations resulting from vulnerable livelihood systems (with their multiple underlying causes), such as natural disasters, climate change, violent conflict, occupation and insecurity, could become long-term, chronic crises. Key characteristics of such situations, which are defined by the Committee on World Food Security as "protracted crises" include severe malnutrition, high rates of food insecurity and vulnerable livelihood systems. The Committee is in the process of drafting a framework for action for addressing food insecurity and malnutrition in protracted crises. The Special Rapporteur hopes to contribute to the articulation of the principles for action in the framework and to promote the final document in discussions around the world.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- With the Millennium Development Goals reaching their target date in 2015, the international community is currently reflecting on the progress made to date. The establishment of the Goals reflects the most significant collective effort ever made at the international level to tackle extreme poverty and hunger. While significant progress has been made over the past 14 years, much remains to be done. As mentioned above, the international community is discussing the possible successor framework in the form of the sustainable development goals, which are currently under negotiation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- The proposed sustainable development goals should adopt a rights-based approach and include mechanisms for establishing a transparent participatory process in decision-making, involving people directly affected by hunger, extreme poverty and injustice. Vulnerable groups, in particular, must be afforded the same rights as others in that process. Efforts must also be made to ensure that accountability mechanisms are in place to allow victims and organizations representing them to hold Governments to account for failure to comply with their international responsibilities in relation to the right to food. Women's equal access to land and resources should also be included, along with specific targets to ensure asset redistribution among different social groups in relation to the use of land, the oceans, credit, technology and intellectual and cultural property.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- The Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security must also be used as a key reference tool for the implementation of effective models of governance concerning food, agriculture and nutrition for States, intergovernmental actors and the corporate private sector. Although it is not a legally binding document, it constitutes a commitment for countries to adopt its principles, options and policy base, as suited to their local needs and circumstances. The document includes provision for the rights of women and children in relation to food security and recognizes the central role played by smallholder farmers, agricultural workers, artisanal fisher folk, pastoralists and indigenous peoples. The primacy of food security and nutrition as a basic human right is the primary responsibility of the State and should be given priority over any other government policy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Ethnic minorities
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- The year 2014 is one of reflection for global food policymakers as they take stock of the progress made following the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security a decade ago. The Guidelines have provided a concrete tool with which to evaluate whether the principles set forth in human rights instruments and hortatory principles are having a practical impact on people's lives, especially the most vulnerable. The Special Rapporteur intends to work closely with FAO, the Committee on World Food Security and other relevant stakeholders to evaluate progress made to date, by taking into consideration examples of good practice as a means of promoting the Guidelines.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- The strengthening of local food systems would also improve the resilience of cities. By 2050, when the world population will have reached 9.3 billion, about 6.3 billion of these inhabitants, more than two in three, will be urban, at current rates of rural-to-urban migration. Under a business-as-usual scenario, the rural population is expected to decline globally after 2020: there will be 300 million fewer rural inhabitants in 2050 than there were in 2010. As the competition increases between putting land to urban or to industrial use in the urban and peri-urban perimeter, and as increased food supplies create unprecedented logistical challenges for food distribution and transport systems, it is vital that cities assess their food dependencies, identify weaknesses and potential pressure points and, where possible, develop a variety of channels through which they can procure their food. Urban and peri-urban agriculture, as well as the development of short food chains connecting cities to their local foodshed, will therefore play an increasingly important role.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- A wide range of social innovations have emerged in recent years to support the rebuilding of local food systems, primarily by reconnecting urban consumers with local food producers. In Canada, the Special Rapporteur learned about a number of initiatives that seek to support relocalized food systems (A/HRC/22/50/Add.1, paras. 17 and 26-32). In Montreal, for instance, urban agriculture initiatives include a community gardening programme managed by the City, and collective gardens managed by community organizations, with impacts that go beyond improved food security and nutrition, contributing also to educational and empowerment goals. In November 2013, the province of Ontario adopted a Local Food Act (Bill 36), establishing a local food fund and aiming to increase awareness of, access to and demand for local food in the province, as well as supporting local food procurement in public sector institutions (schools, municipalities, hospitals and cafeterias). Meanwhile, Toronto's food strategy includes the Toronto Agricultural Program in support of urban agriculture, and support to a Mobile Good Food Market initiative serving low-income communities. In South Africa, the Special Rapporteur noted with interest the City of Durban/eThekwini Municipality's Agroecology Delivery Programme (A/HRC/19/59/Add.3, paras. 48 and 49). In Brazil, he was impressed by the achievements of the Zero Hunger strategy launched in 2003 (A/HRC/13/33/Add.6, para. 33). Following the example of Belo Horizonte a decade earlier, this strategy includes a range of programmes that are territory-based and seek to support the ability of "family farmers" to feed the cities: among the innovations are the institutional recognition of family farming and the establishment of a ministry specifically dedicated to meeting their needs (the Ministry for Agrarian Development), a low-income restaurant programme, food banks, community kitchens, cisterns, and the improvement of facilities for the storage of food in rural areas, as well as encouragement of the "social solidarity" economy. Zero Hunger was further strengthened in 2008 with the introduction of the Territories of Citizenship programme, focused on least developed rural territories and including a strong social participation component. Mexico is also stepping up its efforts with the National Crusade against Hunger, which includes a strongly participatory dimension, as the Special Rapporteur could witness first-hand during a visit to the country on 14 and 15 November 2013.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Subsistence farmers often inhabit the most exposed and marginal landscapes, such as hillsides, deserts and flood plains, and may already suffer from chronic food insecurity. Other factors contributing to their food insecurity may include insecure land tenure and lack of crop insurance and irrigation options. They may also lack access to formal social safety nets and have unpredictable and uneven exposure to markets and finance. They often have no access to information and technology to explain how the local climate is changing and how to adjust their farming strategies accordingly. Despite being skilful and resilient in dealing with nature, the current speed and intensity of climate change is outpacing their capacity to adapt.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Firstly, certain types of agricultural development can combine increased production, a concern for sustainability, the adoption of robust measures to tackle unsustainable consumption patterns, and strong poverty-reducing impacts. Governments could achieve this by providing strong support to small-scale food producers, based on the provision of public goods for training, storage and connection to markets, and on the dissemination of agroecological modes of production. In addition, measures should be taken to develop local markets and local food processing facilities, combined with trade policies that support such efforts and at the same time reduce the competition between the luxury tastes of some and the basic needs of the others.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Secondly, just as multiple food systems must be combined to improve resilience through enhanced diversity, different forms of farming can coexist, each fulfilling a different function. The example of Brazil suggests that family farms can be supported even in the vicinity of highly competitive, large-scale agricultural producers and that such coexistence can be viable, provided the government is aware of the different functions that different agricultural models serve to fulfil, and adopts a balanced approach towards them (A/HRC/13/33/Add.6, paras. 43 and 44). In many countries, however, this coexistence has failed, and the balance has shifted almost entirely in favour of the large-scale export-led agricultural sector. The lesson that emerges is that the transition to agrifood policies that support the realization of the right to food requires major political efforts to restructure support around agroecological, labour-intensive, poverty-reducing forms of agriculture.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- The gradual substitution of policies focused on low prices of foodstuffs by rights-based social protection, as a means of ensuring access to adequate food for the poorest groups of the population, again illustrates the importance of a careful sequencing of reforms. Today, 75 to 80 per cent of the world population still does not have access to social security to shield them from the effects of unemployment, illness or disability - not to mention crop failure or soaring food costs. There is now an international consensus in favour of making the full realization of the right to social security a priority. On 12 June 2012, the International Labour Conference adopted Recommendation No. 202 concerning national floors for social protection, with 453 votes in favour and 1 abstention. The G-20 has subsequently acknowledged the importance of this objective. In the long run, the establishment of robust social protection schemes in line with this recommendation should protect not only poor households but also vulnerable households against the risk of falling into poverty. Thus, governments would shift away from their exclusive focus on maintaining low prices of food items, a focus that has often come at the expense of food producers, particularly the least competitive among them. Cash transfers to poor families, such as the Oportunidades programme in Mexico (A/HRC/19/59/Add.2, paras. 21-27), the Bolsa Família in Brazil (A/HRC/13/33/Add.6, para. 33) or the Child Support Grant in South Africa (A/HRC/19/59/Add.3, para. 39), have shown their effectiveness in reducing child poverty, and hunger. As long as gaps remain in social protection, however, food price inflation will continue to be a serious threat to the right to food of low-income households. Thus, while low food prices may not be a long-term solution - both because of the fiscal cost of subsidies to farmers and because a policy focused on keeping prices low may ultimately harm the least competitive food producers - they remain, in the short term, vital. Social protection schemes should be strengthened in all countries, and the social protection agenda and the agricultural agenda should be better aligned with each other, to gradually succeed in making the transition.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- Projections indicate that most climate-related changes are associated with animal deaths. Experts suggest that creative solutions must be sought to mitigate the impact of climate change on livestock, and vice versa. For example, research from Chile, the Netherlands and New Zealand has revealed that the intensification of grassland and forage use may lead to more efficient, more profitable and more sustainable ecosystems that can meet demands for increased dairy and beef production. Nations with emerging economies must increase awareness of the implications of meat consumption, while developed countries should demonstrate a willingness to modify consumption behaviour and avoid food waste.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- The United Nations Framework Convention requires States to adopt national and regional programmes and policies to mitigate and adapt to climate change (art. 4 (1) (b)) and calls on them to take precautionary measures to anticipate, prevent or minimize its causes (art. 3 (3)). It recognizes that climate change is fundamentally an intergenerational problem and refers to the protection of future generations (art. 3 (1)). Articles 3 and 4 recognize the specific needs of developing countries, especially those that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Finally, because global food systems have been shaped to maximize efficiency gains and produce large volumes of commodities, they have failed to take distributional concerns into account. The increases in production far outstripped population growth during the period from 1960 to 2000. But these increases went hand in hand with regional specialization in a relatively narrow range of products, a process encouraged by the growth of international trade in agricultural products. The associated technological and policy choices concentrated benefits in the hands of large production units and landholders at the expense of smaller-scale producers and landless workers, resulting in the growth of inequality in rural areas and a failure to address the root causes of poverty. Of course, there were important evolutions throughout the period. The 1960s and 1970s were characterized by a State-led type of agricultural development, under which governments, eager to provide urban populations with affordable food or to export raw commodities in order to finance import substitution policies, either paid farmers very low prices for the crops produced or supported only the largest producers who could be competitive on global markets, thus accelerating rural migration. In the 1980s, the introduction in most low-income countries of structural adjustment policies resulted in a retreat of the State from agricultural development. It was anticipated that trade liberalization and the removal of price controls would encourage private investment, making up for the reduction of State support. Overproduction in the highly subsidized farming sectors of rich countries put downward pressure on agricultural prices, however, discouraging the entry of private investors into agriculture in developing countries. If there was private investment at all, it went to a narrow range of cash crops grown for export markets.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 81
- Paragraph text
- Food security involves much more than just food production. However, agribusiness investment is increasingly being seen as the only way to address hunger and poverty in a time of climate change. Within this context, "climate-smart agriculture" was introduced as a series of adaptation policies that sustainably increase productivity and resilience, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing the achievement of national food security and development goals. These claims are questioned by several non-governmental and peasant organizations on basis of the absence of criteria to assess sustainability; the absence of a right to food concept; a limited conception of resilience; the misplaced focus on climate change mitigation; and the failure to recognize the historical responsibility of the developed countries for producing greenhouse gas emissions. More importantly, there is a lack of clarity around the concept of climate-smart agriculture that could be misleading, offering leeway for socially and environmentally detrimental practices to be pursued under the guise of climate-smart agriculture.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 82
- Paragraph text
- Climate change poses unique and distinct threats to all aspects of food security, including availability, accessibility, adequacy and sustainability. Moreover, these threats are poised to affect a huge number of people, with 600 million additional people potentially vulnerable to malnutrition by 2080. Manifestations of climate change, such as an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, global warming, a rise in sea levels and a decrease in the availability of water, have significant impacts on food security. As a result, crop failures and adverse impacts on livestock, fisheries and aquaculture will have an overall negative effect on people's livelihoods, with climate-induced food price volatility, nutritional deficiencies and diminishing quality of land and soil suitable for agricultural production a daunting reality. The consequences of failing to enact appropriate policies will pose a threat to global peace and security. As we are all living ever more interconnected lives, climate change should not be considered as affecting only those living in remote places.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Ensuring sustainable livelihoods is a crucial aspect of food security and one that is also threatened by climate change. FAO notes the dual role played by agricultural production in relation to food security: it not only produces the food that people eat, but also provides the primary source of employment for 36 per cent of the world's workforce. In some regions, including Asia and the Pacific, 40-50 per cent of the workforce is engaged in agriculture; in sub-Saharan Africa; two thirds of the working population is employed in agricultural labour. Thus, if agricultural production is adversely affected by climate change, so too are the livelihoods of significant numbers of rural workers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- States should ensure that their policies and practices do not lead to violations of the right to food, either directly or indirectly, for people living in other countries, as well as their own citizens. This obligation is simply the extension of the "no harm" principle of States in international law. The extraterritorial obligations of States in relation to the right to food are referred to in general comment No. 12 which notes that "food should never be used as an instrument of political and economic pressure". States should therefore refrain from implementing food embargoes or similar measures that endanger conditions for food production and water supply, and access to goods and services essential for securing the right to food. Similarly IFIs should also refrain from taking decisions that could lead to potential violations of the right to food in other countries. As multi-State actors, IFIs should be held accountable for human rights violations by other member States that have ratified the Covenant.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- The majority of extraterritorial cases derive from the host States failure to fulfil its obligation to protect where private companies are impacting upon human rights. While home States of companies operating abroad have an obligation to clearly set out the expectation that such companies respect human rights throughout their operations, it is the host States which have the primary responsibility to prevent human rights violations, including by TNCs operating within its jurisdiction. However, agreements between TNCs and host governments often limit the host State's ability to perform these duties. Indeed some States have even taken retrogressive steps in this regard. A recent study indicates that some jurisdictions have formulated laws that effectively shield business from being held accountable for human rights violation and make it difficult for victims to obtain an effective remedy. In some instances, States themselves may have been complicit in perpetrating violations. In many cases, however, TNCs also impact positively on a country's development, the political relevance of which can significantly influence the judicial process.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Implementing national legislation is essential to ensuring that States hold TNCs accountable abroad. Indeed, member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have already made voluntary commitments in this regard by developing a code of conduct. The European Union has also developed a resolution for European corporations operating in developing countries. Under international law, however, States are generally not liable for the conduct of non-State actors, unless the non-State actors are de facto agents of the State, or were acting "on the instructions of, or under the direction or control of, that State in carrying out the [wrongful] conduct". To date, there is no international jurisprudence on the issue of home State accountability for TNC actions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- International obligations with extraterritorial dimensions are enunciated in a number of international treaties that emphasize the importance of international cooperation among States to ensure the protection of human rights. At the same time, international human rights instruments refer to how non-State actors have duties to uphold human rights standards. For example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in its preamble - and binding provisions in universal and regional human rights documents also indicate - duties for private actors, while the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (A/HRC/17/31), endorsed by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 17/4 in 2011, elaborate on the responsibility of business enterprises to respect human rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- There are a number of cases involving TNCs and right to food violations at the domestic level; however, in many of these cases, claims are either based on tort or criminal law rather than human rights legislation, or decisions focus on the involvement of the Government in the violation of rights, and not the company. The case against Nigeria submitted through the African Commission on Human Rights is an example thereof. Another example is the case brought to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of indigenous Guarani people living in the Oriente region in Ecuador against the oil exploitation activities by their own Government and Texaco.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- Those efforts indicate that business has a responsibility to protect the right to adequate food and nutrition, especially with regard to children. Yet in practice it can be difficult to hold companies to account, especially in cross-border cases involving complex corporate structures. In this regard, home States have extraterritorial obligations to seek to prevent and address human rights abuses abroad by companies domiciled within their jurisdictions. For example, if a host country is unwilling to hold a company responsible, or even provides tax-free or other incentives, the home country of the enterprise should exercise extraterritorial responsibility.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- The OECD guidelines' implementation mechanism, the "National Contact Points", emphasize due diligence responsibility for human rights. There have been more than 100 cases to date, in which different human rights organizations had approached the National Contact Points alleging violations of the guidelines by corporations and thus violations of human rights law. The Maastricht Principles are also an example of progressive development efforts of international law. A range of academic experts and non-governmental organizations endorsed the Maastricht Principles in September 2011, and they have been acknowledged in paragraph 61 of the Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, which were adopted by consensus by the Human Rights Council (resolution 21/11) in September 2012.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- All of these mechanisms have the common of preventing and addressing human rights abuse by business enterprises but fail to provide sufficient monitoring mechanisms. The voluntary nature of soft law instruments is generally not sufficient to protect human rights and thus fails to close the existing "accountability gap" of extraterritorial responsibilities. However, one should not be too quick to rule out categorically the legal applicability of such declarations just because they are of a voluntary nature. Law is not limited to what States set forth. Legal norms can also be formed in society. To treat the concept of law as being entirely dependent on the State is to overlook the unique nature of social norms.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 80
- Paragraph text
- To encourage increased consumption of healthy foods by children, some countries have implemented vegetable and fruit programmes at schools, imposed mandatory prohibitions on serving foods classified as unhealthy, and banned vending machines. Poland recently banned the sale of foods high in sugar, salt and fat in all schools, and Mexico introduced a similar ban in 2010. Other initiatives include implementing "green food zones" prohibiting the sale of fast food within the immediate vicinity of schools and banning advertising and promotion of foods that do not meet certain nutrition standards.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 81
- Paragraph text
- Global sales of breast milk substitutes total $44.8 billion and are expected to rise to $70.6 billion by 2019. The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes places restrictions on the sale of such substitutes, through prohibiting public advertising, provision of free samples or promotion in health-care facilities. It also requires all information on artificial feeding to explain the benefits of breastfeeding and the hazards associated with artificial feeding. Although some progress has been achieved, violations of the Code are widespread and only 39 countries have laws enacting all provisions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Traditionally, undernutrition and "hidden hunger" were considered specific to the developing world, while obesity was commonly perceived to mostly affect developed countries. It is now recognized that different forms of malnutrition coexist within most countries. Obesity rates are increasing in developing nations that are exposed to globalization while undergoing economic transition and urban migration. This is part of the global "nutrition transition", which is seeing a rise in consumption of energy-dense yet nutrient-poor foods, coupled with more sedentary lifestyles. As a consequence, many countries are now confronted with not only undernutrition but also rising rates of obesity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- Limited guidelines exist on how to manage such partnerships. They may be useful where public sector solutions are not available or effective, and the private sector may have an important role to play in driving innovation to reduce malnutrition. To avoid conflicts of interest, it is important to assess whether the private sector's activities are compatible with the goal of reducing malnutrition. Actions motivated by profit seeking alone should be discouraged. A memorandum of understanding or legal contract that lays out specifies objectives to avoid and resolve conflict of interest and ensure effective and transparent monitoring can help to manage such partnerships.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- Food systems include production, processing, transport and consumption of food and are shaped by political, environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic factors. The industrial food system currently dominates the world. It focuses on increasing food production and maximizing efficiency at the lowest possible economic cost and relies on industrialized agriculture, including monocropping and factory farming, industrial food processing and mass distribution and marketing. Reflecting their affordability, availability and aggressive marketing strategies, industrialized food products constitute a very significant portion of the world's food sales.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- The impact of industrial food systems on nutrition and public health is alarming. Monocropping depends heavily on chemical inputs such as synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, while animals grown on factory farms are given growth hormones and antibiotics. The food processing industry uses preservatives, artificial colourants, additives and other chemicals in order to enhance the appearance, flavour and shelf life of food products. Ultraprocessed foods may also contain high levels of sodium, sugar, trans-fats and saturated fats, so that they are energy dense yet lacking in nutritional value.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Increased meat, sodium, sugar and fat consumption are causing diets to become less healthy. High sodium consumption raises blood pressure, raising the risks of heart disease and strokes, while excessive sugar consumption is associated with weight gain. While meat and other livestock products provide high-value protein and are sources of micronutrients, their overconsumption leads to excessive intakes of fat and sodium. As early as 2002, WHO recommended moderating processed meat consumption to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer and classified processed meat as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1). The Global Burden of Disease project estimates that approximately 34,000 cancer deaths per year worldwide are attributable to diets high in processed meat.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Trade liberalization has also allowed transnational corporations to gain influence on the global food supply chain and, in turn, on food systems. They have obtained control over agricultural production, processing, retailing, advertising and food imports and exports. By investing in technology used in the processed food industry, for example agrochemicals and hybrid seeds, extraction technology used in food processing, and additives to increase the shelf life of food products, large-scale food production achieves substantially lower costs while increasing profit margins.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Judicial protection of land as a source of livelihood can be seen in judgments by the Constitutional Court of Colombia. One such significant case involves the community of Las Pavas, whose members occupied unused land in 1997 and began farming activities to feed themselves. Over the years, the community had been repeatedly subjected to various forms of intimidation and harassment, including attacks by paramilitary groups and the destruction of crops and food. A formal eviction order was issued in 2009 at the request of two private companies, who claimed ownership of the land. In 2011, the Colombian Constitutional Court delivered its judgment, finding that the actions leading to the eviction of the families of Las Pavas were unlawful and violated the right to a dignified existence, among other rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- In 2013, a coalition of NGOs Guatemala sin Hambre engaged in strategic litigation to claim the right to food of children suffering from chronic malnutrition and living in conditions of extreme poverty. The judgements were delivered in April 2013 by the Child and Adolescence Court of the Zacapa Department which, based on the facts, found violations of the right to food, the right to life, the right to housing and the right to an adequate standard of living. Specifically with regard to the right to food, the court grounded its reasoning on article 51 of the Constitution, which protects the right to food for children, as well as on article 11 of the Covenant and article 25 of the Universal Declaration. To define the right to food and the obligations that stem from it, the court cited general comment No. 12.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 89
- Paragraph text
- Some countries have understood the need for more systemic changes to improve the nutritional quality of food products available on the market. Overall improvements can be achieved through dialogue with the food industry to reformulate food products by setting targets to reduce salt and fats, eliminate trans-fats and make products less energy dense, or put a cap on portion size. Good examples include schemes to collaborate with food suppliers to provide healthier ingredients for public entities serving food, or requirements that a certain percentage of food products be sourced from agroecological farms. Other initiatives focus on improving the accessibility of healthy foods at retail outlets, for example by providing incentives to set up "healthy" food enterprises in deprived neighbourhoods or placing planning restrictions on fast food outlets.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 90
- Paragraph text
- While the above-mentioned examples are positive indications, national policies are often fragmented, and it is crucial to go further to encourage States to implement comprehensive plans to combat malnutrition in all its forms.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 94
- Paragraph text
- The United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition, proclaimed in April 2016, could be an effective vehicle to strengthen implementation of existing nutrition commitments. However, the United Nations and the international community need to address existing flaws within the global governance system, especially the weakness of implementation and accountability. The General Assembly has called upon the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to lead the implementation of the Decade, recommending that multi-stakeholder platforms such as the Committee on World Food Security and the Standing Committee on Nutrition be entrusted with coordinating oversight. Recognizing legitimate concerns about the influence of private interests on nutrition policymaking, a participatory process is particularly important. This makes it imperative to protect open spaces to ensure that policy formulation is consistent with the public good, which may require the empowerment of civil society.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 96
- Paragraph text
- While certain States have taken encouraging steps, most national systems to combat malnutrition are fragmented and lack effective action, evaluation and accountability mechanisms. It is imperative that responses move away from isolated interventions and "medicalized" approaches to fighting malnutrition. In line with their obligations under the international human rights system, States must acknowledge the underlying causes of malnutrition and develop multisectoral approaches to coordinate nutrition policies with health, housing, water and sanitation, social protection, poverty and inequality reduction initiatives. Moreover, it must be recognized that, to effectively combat malnutrition, women's rights should be at the forefront.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 99a
- Paragraph text
- [With a view to respecting, protecting and fulfilling the right to adequate food and nutrition, the Special Rapporteur recommends that:] Member States embrace the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition as an opportunity to achieve ambitious nutrition targets and ensuring the right of every individual to adequate food and nutrition, especially the people who most need it. To this end, United Nations agencies and programmes should establish coordinated, effective monitoring and accountability mechanisms to implement the multitude of existing nutrition targets in ways that are coherent, harmonized, mutually reinforcing and overcoming gaps, together with clear timelines, funding and indicators to assess progress;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 99f
- Paragraph text
- [With a view to respecting, protecting and fulfilling the right to adequate food and nutrition, the Special Rapporteur recommends that:] International trade and investment agreements be re-evaluated to ensure that they do not undermine health and nutrition policies. For example, food taxes, tariffs and other market restrictions or incentives that justifiably form part of national nutrition policies should be exempt from World Trade Organization rules and should not lead to penalties for violating trade agreements;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- Oxfam researchers found that adaptation projects aimed at women created under Burkina Faso's National Action Programme for Adaptation (NAPA) sought to diversity the ways that women can generate income to offset income lost by harvests damaged by climate change. In order to rectify these consequences, individuals and organizations need to be better educated on the different vulnerabilities that men and women face in disasters, and local women's organizations need to be consulted in order to understand region-specific contexts. Moreover, such attempts could have ancillary positive effects, as developing credit systems to aid families during times of famine, strengthening women's organizations that promote adaptation measures, and addressing larger issues could prevent gender inequality.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- In all adaptation projects women should be granted access to the same level of technology and financing as men. This will help women change agricultural practices as well as preserve livelihoods during times of drought. Addressing issues of resource management and land ownership will also improve women's chances against climate change. Ultimately, communities must take a "bottom-up" approach in order to accurately understand local customs and to incorporate local knowledge; applying a model that relies upon opinions from international institutions or outside groups will not be as effective.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Girls and women suffer from discrimination in relation to their right to food at all stages in life. In many countries, females receive less food than their male partners, due to a lower social status. In extreme cases, a preference for male children may lead to female infanticide, including by deprivation of food. Some mothers stop breastfeeding girls prematurely in order to try and get pregnant with a male, which could increase risks of infection and other risks if impure water is used with formula. Similar discrimination applies to older women who tend to be less literate than older men, in many parts of the world; this limits women's employability, participation and voice in community development activities and makes them less likely to be able to provide for themselves.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Furthermore, girls and adolescent women induced by tradition or forced into child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, suffer the consequences of a high work burden and deprivation of their child rights, including their right to adequate nutrition and education. They are required to perform heavy amounts of domestic work, and are responsible for raising children while still children themselves. Adolescent pregnancy is a typical outcome of child marriage and complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the second cause of death for 15-19 year-old girls globally.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- A gendered approach to climate change adaptation and mitigation is necessary to combat the vulnerabilities women face because of existing social, economic and political inequalities. Mitigation activities aim to decrease greenhouse gas emissions through support for technology development and capacity building. These activities also provide important opportunities to improve women's health and livelihoods by creating new opportunities for women particularly in the renewable energy sector. Development programs that support the distribution of clean cook-stoves have had a significant impact on reducing emissions and limiting premature deaths and illness linked to indoor air pollution, particularly benefiting women and children.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- Adaptation strategies are adjustments made to ecological, social or economic systems in response to actual or expected effects or impacts of climate change. In general, adaptation policies and measures need to be gender sensitive, taking into account women's lack of control and access to land, resources, transportation, information, technology, and ultimately decision-making. Data from several countries suggest that men and women have different needs, priorities, and preferences for adaptation and, indeed, men and women tend to report engaging in different adaptation strategies. Women tend to adopt certain practices more readily than men, including cover cropping with legumes to increase soil fertility and improve food security and feed management practices for livestock.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development also acknowledges the critical importance of advancing gender equality and empowering women and girls to realize sustainable development. Many of the climate-related SDGs include gender-specific targets, including those related to ownership and control over land and access to new technology (SDG1), women small-scale food producers (SDG2), and water and sanitation (SDG6). These goals provide a mandate for advancing gender equality and women's empowerment across all areas of climate change action.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- One area of concern is disaster management because climate change is likely to impact the number and severity of extreme weather events. Researches show that in societies where men and women should be impacted indiscriminately in disasters women and girls, as a result of gender based inequalities, are up to 14 times more likely to die in the event of a disaster. This is especially true of elderly women, those with disabilities, pregnant and nursing women, and those with small children, who may have lack of, or limited mobility and resources, and therefore remain most at risk in cases of emergency.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- Women remain more vulnerable than men in post-disaster situations, as their household responsibilities increase while access to resources decreases. The daily work involved in providing food, water, and fuel for households after a disaster requires intensive labour, the bulk of which is borne by women. Moreover, marketing interference with breastfeeding initiation and long-term prolongation jeopardizes women's ability to safely feed their infants and young children due to unreliable quality and quantity of safe drinking water, particularly in post-disaster situations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Lack of harmonized standards also results in more toxic, and even banned, pesticides being used extensively in developing countries because they are cheaper alternatives. In many cases, highly hazardous pesticides that are not or no longer permitted for use in industrialized countries are exported to developing countries. Some pesticide companies fail to register or reregister products intended for export to developing countries, or increase exports of products that have been banned or restricted to use up existing stocks, fully aware that they would not be authorized for sale in the country where the company is based. To subject individuals of other nations to toxins known to cause major health damage or fatality is a clear human rights violation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Of grave concern are the impacts of chronic exposure to hazardous pesticides. Pesticide exposure has been linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, hormone disruption, developmental disorders and sterility. They can also cause numerous neurological health effects such as memory loss, loss of coordination, reduced visual ability and reduced motor skills. Other possible effects include asthma, allergies and hypersensitivity. These symptoms are often very subtle and may not be recognized by the medical community as a clinical effect caused by pesticides. Furthermore, chronic effects of pesticides may not manifest for months or years after exposure, presenting a significant challenge for accountability and access to an effective remedy, including preventive interventions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 81
- Paragraph text
- From the production of pesticides to their disposal, the impacts of pesticides go beyond their application to crops and exposure through food and water.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 82
- Paragraph text
- One of the most catastrophic incidents involving pesticides occurred in 1984 in Bhopal, India, where approximately 45 tons of methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a Union Carbide plant as a result of negligence, immediately killing thousands of people and resulting in serious health issues and premature deaths for tens of thousands living in the vicinity. Epidemiological studies conducted soon after the accident showed significant increases in pregnancy loss, infant mortality, decreased fetal weight, chromosomal abnormalities, impaired associate learning and respiratory illnesses.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Infants
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 85
- Paragraph text
- Unused pesticides may accumulate and deteriorate for a variety of reasons. For example, purchased or donated pesticides may be unsuitable to local conditions or quantities received may exceed demand. This can occur because of pressure from agrochemical industries and corruption, leading to more pesticides being procured than needed. Also, when pesticides are banned, managing existing stocks is a problem. According to FAO, “good practice requires regulatory authorities to allow a phase-out period when products are banned or restricted so that existing stocks can be used up before the restriction is fully applied”. This is, of course, a highly problematic suggestion.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 86
- Paragraph text
- The oligopoly of the chemical industry has enormous power. Recent mergers have resulted in just three powerful corporations: Monsanto and Bayer, Dow and Dupont, and Syngenta and ChemChina. They control more than 65 per cent of global pesticide sales. Serious conflicts of interest issues arise, as they also control almost 61 per cent of commercial seed sales. The pesticide industry’s efforts to influence policymakers and regulators have obstructed reforms and paralysed global pesticide restrictions globally. When challenged, justifications for lobbying efforts include claims that companies comply with their own codes of conduct, or that they follow local laws.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 87
- Paragraph text
- Companies often contest scientific evidence of the hazards related to their products, with some even standing accused of deliberately manufacturing evidence to infuse scientific uncertainty and delay restrictions. There are also serious claims of scientists being “bought” to restate industry talking points. Other egregious practices include infiltrating federal regulatory agencies via the “revolving door”, with employees shifting between regulatory agencies and the pesticide industry. Pesticide manufacturers also cultivate strategic “public-private” partnerships that call into question their culpability or help bolster the companies’ credibility. Companies also consistently donate to educational institutions that conduct research on pesticides, and such institutions are becoming dependent on industry owing to shrinking public funding.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 94
- Paragraph text
- In ecological farming, crops are protected from pest damage by enhancing biodiversity and encouraging the presence of natural enemies of pests. Examples include developing habitats around farms to support natural enemies and other beneficial wildlife or applying functional agrobiodiversity, using scientific strategies to increase natural enemy populations. Crop rotation and usage of cover crops also help protect the soil from various pathogens, suppress weeds and increase organic content, while more resistant crop varieties can help prevent plant disease.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- Meanwhile, the activities of certain non-governmental organizations have made a significant impact on recent policies. Pesticide Action Network International, for example, has developed a list of highly hazardous pesticides based on its own definition, which has been useful in advocacy efforts. A recent civil society initiative, the International Monsanto Tribunal, held in The Hague in October 2016, dealt with human rights violations stemming from widely used hazardous pesticides. Eminent judges heard testimonies from victims and will deliver an opinion, following procedures similar to those at the International Court of Justice. While these efforts are helpful to publicize the problem and help to develop laws in the future, they cannot provide remedy to victims.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 99
- Paragraph text
- Measuring the success of agroecology in comparison with industrial agricultural systems requires further research. Studies using short time frames and focusing on individual crop yields underestimate the potential long-term productivity of agroecological systems. Comparative studies are increasingly showing that diversified systems are advantageous and even more profitable when looking at total outputs, rather than specific crop yields. Aiming to build balanced and sustainable agroecosystems, agroecology is more likely to produce constant yields in the longer term owing to their greater ability to withstand climate variations and naturally resist pests.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 101
- Paragraph text
- While the present report has illustrated that there is no shortage of international and national legislation, as well as non-binding guidelines, such instruments are failing to protect humans and the environment from hazardous pesticides. These instruments suffer from implementation, enforcement and coverage gaps, and generally fail to effectively apply the precautionary principle or meaningfully alter many business practices. Existing instruments are particularly ineffective in addressing the cross-border nature of the global pesticide market, as proven by the widespread and often legally permitted practices of exporting banned highly hazardous pesticides to third countries. These gaps and inadequacies should be confronted on the basis of human rights mechanisms.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 107r
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Eliminate pesticide subsidies and instead initiate pesticide taxes, import tariffs and pesticide-use fees.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 103
- Paragraph text
- Implementing the right to adequate food and health requires proactive measures to eliminate harmful pesticides. Corporations have the responsibility to ensure that the chemicals they produce and sell do not pose threats to these rights. There continues to be a general lack of awareness of the dangers posed by certain pesticides, a condition exacerbated by industry efforts to downplay the harm being done as well as complacent Governments that often make misleading assertions that existing legislation and regulatory frameworks provide sufficient protection.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- The responsibility of corporations is specified in the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In addition to setting out States’ existing obligations to protect against business-related human rights abuse and ensure access to remedy for victims, the Guiding Principles specify the independent responsibility of businesses to respect human rights, that is to avoid and address adverse human rights impacts linked to their operations. While businesses are not directly bound by international human rights treaties, the Guiding Principles provide a broadly agreed normative basis to assess corporate activity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Water is also an important aspect of transportation, which affects the distribution of food and income generation. This in turn has an impact on the livelihoods of individuals and therefore their ability to purchase food. Climate change puts additional pressure on water resources on the supply side. It also increases demand for water to sustain crop and livestock production increases in a progressively warming climate as well as having a tremendous impact on fisheries as a result of changes to water flows and temperatures.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- In 2010, the States parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, citing Human Rights Council resolution 10/4, agreed, in the outcome document adopted by the Conference of the Parties at its sixteenth session, held in Cancun, Mexico, "that Parties should, in all climate change related actions, fully respect and protect human rights". This was reiterated at the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties, held in Durban, South Africa, in November/December 2011.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- In sum, we have entered a new century, and the questions we face now are different from those of fifty years ago. A new paradigm focused on well-being, resilience and sustainability must be designed to replace the productivist paradigm and thus better support the full realization of the right to adequate food. The equation is complex, but it is one that can be solved.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- In its general comment No. 12 (1999), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights defined the necessary elements required for the right to food (i.e. the possibility either to feed oneself directly from productive land or other natural resources or to purchase food) as availability, accessibility and adequacy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Accessibility refers to both physical and economic access. Physical accessibility means that food should be accessible to all persons, including the physically vulnerable such as children, older persons and persons with a disability; economic accessibility means that food should be affordable without compromising other basic needs such as education, health care or housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Changes in food production and quality affect market prices and, in turn, price increases affect accessibility to food, especially for the poor. Socially vulnerable groups may have to alter their diet, substituting less nutritious and lower-quality food items and. as a result, diminishing dietary diversity owing to dependence on a few staple foods.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- Access to nutritious food is often a key indicator of socioeconomic inequalities. Discussing nutrition within a rights-based framework is critical to ensuring that marginalized and vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by malnutrition are guaranteed a certain level of nutrition and health, rather than a minimum number of calories needed for survival. Such recognition is crucial for the reduction of nutritional and health inequalities around the world.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 93
- Paragraph text
- To successfully combat universal malnutrition in all its forms, including the negative effects of the "nutrition transition", the first step is recognizing nutrition as an essential component of the human right to adequate food, reinforced by monitoring, accountability and transparency mechanisms.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- Hazardous pesticides impose substantial costs on Governments and have catastrophic impacts on the environment, human health and society as a whole, implicating a number of human rights and putting certain groups at elevated risk of rights abuses.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Adequacy requires that food satisfy dietary needs (factoring in a person's age, living conditions, health, occupation, sex, etc.) and be safe for human consumption, free of adverse substances, culturally acceptable and nutritious.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Adaptation and mitigation strategies should address these challenges. So far, no broadly accepted and comprehensive analytical frameworks have been developed that analyse the impacts of climate change on food security and nutrition.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- While not specifically enunciated in general comment No. 12 (1999), sustainability is linked to hunger-reduction strategies and policies as it places emphasis on the principles of participation, non-discrimination, transparency and empowerment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- Although certain multinational treaties and non-binding initiatives offer some limited protections, a comprehensive treaty that regulates highly hazardous pesticides does not exist, leaving a critical gap in the human rights protection framework.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 107m
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Impose penalties on companies that fabricate evidence and disseminate misinformation on the health and environmental risks of their products;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- States, under international law, have the duty to respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate food. The duty to respect requires States not to take any measures that result in preventing access to adequate food. The duty to protect requires measures by States to ensure that enterprises or individuals do not deprive individuals of their access to adequate food (see E/C.12/1999/5, para. 15). Consequently, States must control long-term arrangements between investors and buyers and between farmers and producers to prevent the risk of abuse or, where abuses do occur, to ensure that effective remedies are available. They must also protect basic labour rights recognized under the core International Labour Organization (ILO) instruments, since the failure to comply with such rights can lead to violation of the rights to work and to an adequate standard of living recognized in international human rights law. The duty to fulfil obliges States to proactively engage in activities intended to strengthen people's access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure their livelihood, including food security (see E/C.12/1999/5, para. 15). To the maximum extent of their available resources, States must, therefore, create an environment enabling farming communities to enter into various arrangements under conditions that ensure that their rights will be effectively safeguarded, despite sometimes stark inequalities of power and asymmetries of information among the various parties.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- As part of their national strategies for the realization of the right to food, Governments should create an environment enabling the development of local markets benefiting small-scale farmers and the creation of a range of options for connecting small-scale farmers in rural areas to urban consumers. The more farmers have alternatives for accessing markets, the stronger their position will be in negotiating the terms of agreements with private entities for contract farming or joint ventures.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 52a
- Paragraph text
- [WHO, in discharging the mandate assigned to it by the General Assembly, should:] Take into account the role of adequate diets in the realization of the right to adequate food and the right to the highest attainable standard of health, and include human rights principles of accountability, participation and non-discrimination in the design of a comprehensive global monitoring framework to address non-communicable diseases, as well as in the indicator frameworks for nutrition under preparation;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- India has led the way, not only at the regional level, but also globally, in terms of developing jurisprudence on economic, social and cultural rights. Its Constitution provides a strong legal framework for the protection and promotion of human rights, with article 47 noting that "States shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties". It has also recently joined a select group of countries that are legally obliged to ensure the distribution of subsidized food grains to its people. With the historic passing of its National Food Security Act in September 2013, India has pledged to provide heavily subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of its population. The National Food Security Act will amount to the largest food security programme in the world, and aims to reduce malnutrition and improve food security. It also promotes gender-based rights and social inclusion of women, and includes provision for social monitoring and complaint mechanisms. While the Act has received criticism, particularly owing to its failure to address the nutritional aspect, and for placing too much emphasis on public distribution without tackling the root causes of poverty and hunger, the Special Rapporteur commends Indian efforts to address chronic malnutrition, and encourages India to work with relevant stakeholders to tackle any potential gaps that may prevent this innovative approach from achieving its full potential
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 61d (iv)
- Paragraph text
- [Coastal States and landlocked States with inland fisheries should:] Consistent with the pledge made at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (see para. 175 of the outcome document), strengthen access to fishery resources and improve the incomes of small-scale fishing communities by: Supporting fishers' groups wishing to gain access to export markets under conditions that provide decent employment and promote sustainable fisheries management;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 25a
- Paragraph text
- [Three concerns have emerged:] The approach adopted by CCT programmes may reinforce gender stereotyped roles as women are prioritized as "mothers" and "caregivers", rather than empowered as equal to men. Women are relied upon to ensure that the household invests in children, leading some authors to claim that child-centered policies such as those illustrated by CCT programmes tend to sideline "the equality claims of adult women and attention to their needs [...] in favor of those of children, including girls."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- A human rights-based strategy to address gender discrimination against women includes four complementary requirements. It must relieve women of the burdens of household chores; it must be empowering and challenge the existing division of roles; it must systematically aim at taking into account gender in existing food security strategies; and, as regards governance, it must be part of a multisectoral and multi-year effort, including independent monitoring of progress towards certain targets.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- In the present report, her first to the General Assembly in accordance with Assembly resolution 68/177 and Human Rights Council resolution 6/2, the Special Rapporteur will outline some of the priorities she has identified for taking the mandate forward. Given the limited time frame between taking up office on 2 June 2014 and the submission of the present report, the Special Rapporteur notes that the issues identified hereafter are not exhaustive but rather provide a tentative description of her priorities for the mandate.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- In contrast to undernutrition, developed and middle-income countries, as well as the poorest countries of the world, are now faced with rising levels of chronic diseases related to obesity, including heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. Dietary changes associated with urbanization, such as increased consumption of sugars and fats and declining levels of physical activity, are largely to blame. Marketing campaigns employed by the food and beverage industry, targeting children and adolescents, also bear much of the responsibility.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- The right to food is central to the success of these efforts at rebuilding local food systems. First, a key condition for the success of such strategies is that participation is encouraged at a local level, in order to allow all stakeholders (from the producers to the end consumers) to arrive at a joint diagnosis of which improvements could be made to rebuild the local food system and to propose certain social innovations. Local initiatives informed by social participation will be better informed and therefore more effective in reaching their objectives, and they will result in a more transparent and accountable use of resources. The establishment of local food councils formally linked to municipalities can be one way of achieving this. Second, the right to food provides a way to measure whether the initiatives launched are successful, thus facilitating monitoring. The definition of the right to food recalled above provides a set of indicators to define success, in ways that avoid conflating it with the reduction of income poverty or increased agricultural outputs. Third, crucially, the right to food introduces the dimension of accountability: social innovations aimed at the mobilization of local resources to rebuild food systems through a bottom-up approach will have lasting impacts if they result in commitments that beneficiaries can claim - for instance, commitments to provide certain types of support to local food producers or to deliver adequate food to low-income communities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Such initiatives are particularly concerning because the private sector can advocate food supplements so effectively. For example, commercialization of such products as ready-to-use-therapeutic foods, branded with the logos of transnational companies, may also increase consumers' brand loyalty to a company's unhealthy soft drinks and snack foods. Furthermore, many businesses involved in fortified products are the same multinationals violating the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Nevertheless, fortification initiatives do make an important contribution to efforts to achieve food and nutrition security, provided they form part of a comprehensive strategy that addresses the social, economic and cultural determinants of food systems. Such solutions must always be critically evaluated and narrowly implemented to ensure that they are used only to provide temporary relief and do not replace long-term solutions, such as diversification of agriculture, or interfere with local production systems.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 84
- Paragraph text
- Taxes on poor nutritional foods can also deter consumers. Norway has taxed sugar, chocolate and sugary drinks since 1981, and many countries have followed suit. Denmark taxes food containing saturated fat, Hungary imposes a "public health tax" on the salt, sugar and caffeine content of various categories of ready-to-eat foods, and in the United States, 33 states have issued some form of food tax. In the Navajo Nation for instance, a tax is levied on food items with minimal to no nutritional value.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- Notwithstanding the legal framework designed to protect them, women experience poverty and hunger at disproportionate levels. Institutionalized gender discrimination and violence still impose barriers that prevent women from enjoying their economic, social and cultural rights and specifically the right to adequate food and nutrition, and the status of women and girls has not substantially improved, despite recurrent calls for the inclusion of a gender perspective to development programs and to social policies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Formal laws could also prove ineffective if women do not realize or assume control over their rights. For example, in 2005, India amended the Hindu Succession Act (1956) to allow men and women equal inheritance to agricultural land. However, according to a 2013 study, challenges in the implementation of the Act had been observed, allegedly as a result of women not being aware of their legal rights and not wanting to upset their families and resistance from their brothers amongst other reasons.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- Another non-binding policy framework is the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, adopted by the International Conference on Chemicals Management, held in Dubai in 2006. The Dubai Declaration, which is part of the Strategic Approach, explicitly states the commitment to respect human rights. The International Conference also adopted a resolution in 2015 to encourage the use of alternatives to highly hazardous pesticides without, however, any specificity or obligation to phase them out any time in the future.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 64b
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur encourages the FAO Committee on Fisheries:] To ensure that the guidelines include a mechanism to facilitate discussion of both good practices and issues of concern with regard to their implementation, based on the participation of and information provided by fishing communities, given that such a mechanism would strengthen the implementation of the guidelines and accelerate collective learning among States.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 50h
- Paragraph text
- [States, in accordance with their obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate food for all, should:] Complete the reform of the Standing Committee on Nutrition, in order to ensure that adequate attention is paid to nutrition throughout the United Nations system under multilateral guidance by Governments, with adequate participation of civil society organizations, including farmers' organizations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 51a
- Paragraph text
- [The private sector, consistent with its responsibility to respect the right to adequate food, should:] Comply fully with the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, abstaining from promoting breast-milk substitutes, and comply with the WHO recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children, even where local enforcement is weak or non-existent;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- The eradication of hunger and malnutrition is an achievable goal. Reaching it requires, however, that we move away from business as usual and improve coordination across sectors, across time and across levels of governance. Empowering communities at the local level, in order for them to identify the obstacles that they face and the solutions that suit them best, is a first step. This must be complemented by supportive policies at the national level that ensure the right sequencing between the various policy reforms that are needed, across all relevant sectors, including agriculture, rural development, health, education and social protection. In turn, local-level and national-level policies should benefit from an enabling international environment, in which policies that affect the ability of countries to guarantee the right to food - in the areas of trade, food aid, foreign debt alleviation and development cooperation - are realigned with the imperative of achieving food security and ensuring adequate nutrition. Understood as a requirement for democracy in the food systems, which would imply the possibility for communities to choose which food systems to depend on and how to reshape those systems, food sovereignty is a condition for the full realization of the right to food. But it is the paradox of an increasingly interdependent world that this requires deepening the cooperation between States.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- The obligation to respect requires that the State refrain from interfering with the existing levels of enjoyment of the right to food and that it guarantee existing entitlements, for instance, by ensuring that those who produce their own food be secure in their access to the resources, including land and water, on which they depend, or by ensuring that those who could have access to income-generating activities allowing them to purchase food are not denied such access.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- The remarkable progress achieved over the past decade in Latin America is the result of the combined efforts of civil society, social movements, parliamentarians and national human rights institutions. FAO support to the Hunger-Free Latin America and the Caribbean Initiative played a major role, together with the support given to this process by the FAO Right to Food Unit and OHCHR, including through its country and subregional offices in the region.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Such framework laws may set targets for Governments to achieve, allocating responsibilities for taking action to different branches of government and coordinating their action. Typically, however, these framework laws are procedural in nature: they establish institutions and define a process, without prejudging the outcome, and leaving it to the actors involved to design a cross-sectoral right to food strategy. These framework laws ensure that such strategies are designed and continuously monitored through an inclusive and participatory process involving government and civil society organizations. They do so by establishing national food security councils, often linked to the highest level of government and including as members both representatives from relevant ministerial departments and civil society. It is not unusual for such councils to provide recommendations to an interministerial task force, ensuring intersectoral coordination across departments. In Brazil, the National Council on Food and Nutrition Security, two thirds of the members of which represent civil society organizations, has a consultative nature, addressing recommendations to the Inter-Ministry Chamber of Food and Nutrition Security, the interdepartmental task force in charge of implementing the national food security strategy (see A/HRC/13/33/Add.6, para. 14). In other countries, such as Guatemala and Ecuador, the body can make binding decisions (for Guatemala, see A/HRC/13/33/Add.4).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 27a
- Paragraph text
- Women may choose not to participate in such programmes because of the heavy demands it would impose on them and the difficulties they may have in reconciling the work with their responsibilities in the "care" economy. A system of quotas may be ineffective to address this. The difficulties women may face to participate in public works programmes should therefore be taken into account: their responsibilities in the "care" economy should be recognized and accommodation measures should be adopted. Furthermore, work schedules should take into account the specific time constraints faced by women, and institutionalized child care should be implemented to attract more women. Where child care at the work site is under the responsibility of women who are labour-constrained, because of age or disability, this can further increase the opportunities the programme offers to women. Thus, the MGNREGA includes a provision that "in the event that there are at least five children under the age of six at the worksite, one of the female workers shall be deputed to look after them and paid the same wage as other NREGA workers." However, the implementation of this clause remains highly uneven as most women joining the programme are discouraged from bringing their children to work, and a social audit of the implementation of MGNREGA revealed that 70 per cent of the women interviewed had no access to child-care facilities on the worksite, while 65 per cent were not aware of this provision in the Act.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 1
- Paragraph text
- The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food was established by the Commission on Human Rights in resolution 2000/10. In September 2007, the Human Rights Council, in resolution 6/2, reviewed and extended the mandate for three years. In resolution 6/2, the Council instructed the Special Rapporteur to: (a) promote the full realization of the right to food and the adoption of measures at the national, regional and international levels for the realization of the right to food; (b) examine ways and means of overcoming obstacles to the realization of the right to food; (c) continue mainstreaming a gender perspective and take into account an age dimension in the fulfilment of the mandate; (d) submit proposals that could help the realization of Millennium Development Goal 1; (e) present recommendations on possible steps towards achieving progressively the full realization of the right to food; (f) work in close cooperation with all States, intergovernmental and non governmental organizations, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other relevant actors to take fully into account the need to promote the effective realization of the right to food for all; and (g) continue participating in and contributing to relevant international conferences and events with the aim of promoting the realization of the right to food. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur was subsequently endorsed by the Council in resolutions 13/4 and 22/9, renewing the mandate for periods of three years.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 100
- Paragraph text
- Success must be calculated in terms other than economic profitability, and take into consideration the costs of pesticides on human health, the economy and the environment. Agroecology prevents direct exposure to toxic pesticides and helps improve air, soil, surface water and groundwater quality. Less energy intensive, agroecology can also help mitigate the effects of climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gasses and by providing carbon sinks.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- The poverty-reducing potential of more equitable land distribution is further illustrated by statistical analyses showing that "a decrease of one third in the land distribution inequality index results in a reduction in the poverty level of one half in about 12-14 years. The same level of poverty reduction may be obtained in 60 years by agricultural growth sustained at an annual average of 3 per cent and without changing land distribution inequality". Land reforms in Asia following the Second World War resulted in a 30 per cent increase in the incomes of the bottom 80 per cent of households, while leading to an 80 per cent decline in the incomes of the top 4 per cent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- In addition to its economic functions of stimulating growth and reducing rural poverty, more equitable access to land for the rural poor contributes to social inclusion and economic empowerment. Access to land also improves food security, since it makes food more easily and cheaply available, providing a buffer against external shocks. Evidence resulting from land redistribution in China suggests that "even though access to land insures household income only moderately against shocks, it provides almost complete insurance against malnutrition". More equitable land distribution and the development of owner-operated family farms are thus desirable on both efficiency and equity grounds. Small family-owned farms can use the land in more sustainable ways, since sustainable farming is often more labour-intensive and requires the linking of farmers to the land. Moreover, where rural areas face high unemployment and underemployment and relative scarcity of land, it is more sensible, from both an economic perspective and a social justice perspective, to raise land productivity than to try to increase labour productivity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Firms transfer responsibilities for labour management to farmers through contract farming, and labour costs may be lower because contract farmers often use unpaid family workers. Furthermore, firms using contract farming arrangements can maintain more fluid operations because they are not constrained by fixed assets. These are some of the reasons why, for instance, contract farming with smallholders has been seen as an attractive option in India for companies in the horticultural, poultry and dairy sectors. Although transaction costs are relatively high, this model spreads risk over a large number of suppliers (the buyer, therefore, is not at risk if any one major supply source defaults) and provides for flexible supply that adapts easily to volume or quality variations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- It can be argued that part of the reason for this mixed outcome, lies in the strongly ideological overtones of the debate about how to implement land reform. Over the past generation, the major divide has been between centralized, or State-led, agrarian reform, effectuated through State land acquisitions compensated at below-market prices, and decentralized, or market-led, agrarian reform, based on the principle of a willing buyer and a willing seller. Although State-led agrarian reform has become less common, FAO continues to receive requests for assistance regarding such reform, and certain countries are still redistributing land or have committed to doing so. Since the 1990s, however, there has been a trend towards market-led agrarian reform, as illustrated by programmes such as the Cédula da Terra project, launched in Brazil during the period 1996-2001 and since renewed; the Colombian programme developed under Agrarian Law 160 of 1994; the South African Reconstruction and Development Programme, launched in 1994; the Community-Based Rural Land Development Project in Malawi; and the voluntary land transfer scheme in the Philippines.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 41b
- Paragraph text
- [In order to protect the right to food, States should:] Adopt tenancy laws, and effectively implement existing laws against the pressure to free land for private investors. The adoption of tenancy laws can protect tenants from eviction and from excessive levels of rent. Such laws can also allow a tenant's heirs to occupy the land if the tenant dies, and provide the tenant with the right to pre-emption if the landowner wishes to sell (ideally, at a below-market price); they can provide for the joint titling of husband and wife as tenants, in order to protect widows from the risk of eviction; and they can ensure that the tenant will be allowed to remain on the land if the property changes hands;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 42a
- Paragraph text
- [In order to ensure the enjoyment of the right to food, States should:] Implement the conclusions set out in the Final Declaration of the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development and prioritize "improved" State-led land redistribution programmes. States should implement land redistribution programmes where a high degree of land ownership concentration (which could be defined as a level of inequality higher than a Gini coefficient of 0.65) is combined with a significant level of rural poverty attributable to landlessness or to the cultivation of excessively small plots of land by smallholders. Redistributive agrarian reforms should: (a) include comprehensive rural development policies that follow the recommendations resulting from the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, including extension systems, access to credit and agricultural research and support beneficiaries, provided with sufficient budgets; (b) make use of land ceiling laws and be based on legal frameworks that clearly define beneficiaries and exempted land; (c) encourage communal ownership systems, rather than focusing solely on individual beneficiaries; (d) be implemented in accordance with the principles of participation, transparency and accountability, in order to prevent their appropriation by local elites; (e) be grounded in constitutional provisions regarding the social functions of land, where such provisions exist. All States should monitor land inequalities before and after the implementation of such programmes;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 42b (i)
- Paragraph text
- [In order to ensure the enjoyment of the right to food, States should:] Ensure that market-led land reforms are compatible with human rights. If, despite the reservations expressed in the present report, States choose to seek to improve security of tenure through titling programmes and the creation of land rights markets, they should: Regulate such markets by taking appropriate measures to prevent increased land speculation, increased land concentration, abuse of customary forms of tenure by new landowners, and distress sales by indebted farmers;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 42b (iv)
- Paragraph text
- [In order to ensure the enjoyment of the right to food, States should:] Ensure that market-led land reforms are compatible with human rights. If, despite the reservations expressed in the present report, States choose to seek to improve security of tenure through titling programmes and the creation of land rights markets, they should: Prioritize the titling of land for those who are dependent on land for their livelihoods and are more vulnerable to land-grabbing, rather than for those who claim to be the formal landowners;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 43a (i)
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur also makes the following recommendations to the international community:] Establish adequate governance instruments to operationalize the commitments set out in the Final Declaration of the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development. The Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and other Natural Resources could make a significant contribution, provided that they: Encompass land redistribution issues in addition to land administration issues, consistent with the Conference commitments;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 43c
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur also makes the following recommendations to the international community:] Governments investing in farmland abroad should ensure that they do so in accordance with their human rights obligations. They should regulate the conduct of private actors on which they can exercise an influence, thus helping to protect the human rights of the communities concerned. Similar obligations exist for development banks funding projects that have an impact on land rights (see A/HRC/13/33/Add.2, para. 5);
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 43d
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur also makes the following recommendations to the international community:] International human rights bodies should consolidate the right to land and take land issues fully into account when ensuring respect for the right to adequate food. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights could play a leading standard-setting role in clarifying the issue of land as a human right by issuing a general comment in that regard. Acting in their monitoring capacity, human rights bodies should examine the justifications offered by Governments that fail to put in place land redistribution programmes or policies with similar aims, despite the existence of a high degree of concentration of land ownership, combined with a significant level of rural poverty attributable to landlessness or inequitable land distribution.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- State support can build on those efforts. In Brazil, for example, the 2010 Act on extension and technical assistance for family farming and agrarian reform (Lei 12.188/2010) prioritizes support to rural extension activities in ecological agriculture. This Act will accentuate the qualitative shift in the Brazilian extension services which is parallel to quantitative changes in the last decade. Indeed, extension activities organized under the Brazilian National Rural Extension Policy (2003) have increased from an average of 2,000 activities/year in 2004-2005 to an average of close to 30,000/year in 2007-2009. Such efforts enable a rapid dissemination of best practices, including agroecological practices, especially when farmers participate in the system and are not mere receivers of trainings.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- While the ability of buyers to purchase inputs at wholesale prices might allow them to pass savings on to farmers through lower prices, it may also be that when a farmer has access to inputs only through a buyer, the buyer will charge farmers higher than market prices for those inputs. In the course of consultations, the Special Rapporteur received a communication indicating that in the absence of public services, contract farming can create potentially devastating dependence by small farmers on the technology, credit, inputs and services provided by their contracting companies. This not only points to the danger of the Government relinquishing its duty to support farming communities by providing adequate public goods in the hope that private investors will fill in the gap, it also highlights one of the main negative effects of contract farming for farmers, which is its potential to trap them in cycles of debt. One common occurrence is that farmers must borrow money to invest in agricultural production as required under the contract and then do not earn enough money to cover their debts, for instance, because of falling market prices or poor harvests. This risk is particularly important where the investment on the land is related specifically to one type of production for which the contracting firm is the only buyer, a constraint that may be exploited by the firm as a way to exercise monopolistic power and thus gradually impose lower prices on farmers. Crops that rely on complex production and processing technologies and substantial specialized inputs that are unfamiliar to most growers and require large capital outlays significantly increase the level of risk confronted by growers, as illustrated by the Smallholder Sugar Authority and Smallholder Tea Authority contract-farming schemes in Malawi. The resulting cycle of debt can trap farmers into contractual arrangements that are neither optimal nor easily abandoned, either because of the debt itself or for other reasons, for example, because the soil was degraded by heavy pesticide use or because farmers have lost their relationships with former transaction partners, are unable to re-establish traditional cultivation methods or products or have become too dependent on the firm for other services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 53b
- Paragraph text
- [National food security institutions should monitor and assess the contribution of the various business models explored in the present report to the realization of the right to food. These institutions could build on the work of the National Council on Food and Nutrition Security in Brazil or the specific work of the South African Human Rights Commission on food security issues. Governments should also set up forums in which the fairness of food chains could be discussed among producers, processors, retailers and consumers to ensure that farmers are paid fair prices for the food they produce. Such forums could examine:] How more direct links could be established between producers and consumers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Specific, targeted schemes should ensure that women are empowered and encouraged to participate in this construction of knowledge. Culturally-sensitive participatory initiatives with female project staff and all-female working groups, and an increase in locally-recruited female agricultural extension staff and village motivators facing fewer cultural and language barriers, should counterbalance the greater access that men have to formal sources of agricultural knowledge. It is a source of concern to the Special Rapporteur that, while women face a number of specific obstacles (poor access to capital and land, the double burden of work in their productive and family roles, and low participation in decision-making), gender issues are incorporated into less than 10 per cent of development assistance in agriculture, and women farmers receive only 5 per cent of agricultural extension services worldwide. In principle, agroecology can benefit women most, because it is they who encounter most difficulties in accessing external inputs or subsidies. But their ability to benefit should not be treated as automatic; it requires that affirmative action directed specifically towards women be taken.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Reducing the most unsustainable practices is difficult for numerous reasons, including the prevalence of illegal fishing practices, trans-shipment at sea, the targeting and trading of protected species, the use of banned fishing gear and the activities of industrial boats in coastal zones reserved for small-scale fisheries. Estimates of the scale of illegal fishing vary considerably, from about $9 billion to $25 billion, or between 10 million and 28 million tons. Although such estimates should be treated with caution, it is clear that, as fish are becoming less abundant, fishing vessels are tempted to evade rules and conservation strategies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- In comparison to some industrial fishing methods, small-scale fisheries rarely discard catches and tend to have a much lower impact on aquatic habitats. In many parts of the world, however, the increase in the number of small-scale fishers is causing stress on fish populations. A minority of small-scale fishers also uses destructive methods of fishing, such as encroachment into protected areas and the use of dynamite fishing, poisons to catch reef fish and extremely fine nets that are banned because of their impact on juvenile fish. In one report on illegal fishing in West Africa, it is claimed that the scale of illegal/unreported fishing by the artisanal fishing fleet is of a similar magnitude to that found in the industrial sector.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- MBSA is another promising joint venture model, focusing on the production of biodiesel from jatropha in collaboration with smallholders in Burkina Faso and Mali, with support from Dutch private institutional investors and the Government of the Netherlands. In Mali, 2,611 farmers were involved in 2009, having planted 1.6 million jatropha trees on 3,250 ha of land. The farmers are organized in 12 cooperatives, joined in a farmers' union. The union negotiates the price of the jatropha with MBSA and provides support to the farmers. The farmers' union is represented on the board of the company and owns a 20 per cent share of the company. The farmers, therefore, benefit directly from the sale of their produce and from dividend payments as shareholders.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Lastly, the future of fishing is threatened by habitat loss. Mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, salt marshes and coral reefs play a vital role in the reproductive cycles of many fish and marine species. Since the 1940s, however, 35 per cent of the world's mangrove forests has been destroyed and one third of seagrass areas and 25 per cent of salt marshes have been lost. For some habitats, declines are accelerating. Before 1990, seagrass meadows were being lost at a rate of about 1 per cent annually; since 1990, this rate has increased to 7 per cent. One third of coral reefs has disappeared during the past 50 years.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- [As part of their obligation to devote the maximum of their available resources to the progressive realization of the right to food, States should implement public policies supporting the adoption of agroecological practices by:] reorienting public spending in agriculture by prioritizing the provision of public goods, such as extension services, rural infrastructures and agricultural research, and by building on the complementary strengths of seeds-and-breeds and agroecological methods, allocating resources to both, and exploring the synergies, such as linking fertilizer subsidies directly to agroecological investments on the farm ("subsidy to sustainability");
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- A wide panoply of techniques based on the agroecological perspective have been developed and successfully tested in a range of regions. These approaches involve the maintenance or introduction of agricultural biodiversity (diversity of crops, livestock, agroforestry, fish, pollinators, insects, soil biota and other components that occur in and around production systems) to achieve the desired results in production and sustainability. Integrated nutrient management reconciles the need to fix nitrogen within farm systems with the import of inorganic and organic sources of nutrients and the reduction of nutrient losses through erosion control. Agroforestry incorporates multifunctional trees into agricultural systems. In Tanzania, 350,000 hectares of land have been rehabilitated in the Western provinces of Shinyanga and Tabora using agroforestry; there are similar large-scale projects developed in other countries including Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. Water harvesting in dryland areas allows for the cultivation of formerly abandoned and degraded lands, and improves the water productivity of crops. In West Africa, stone barriers built alongside fields slow down runoff water during the rainy season, allowing an improvement of soil moisture, the replenishment of water tables, and reductions in soil erosion. The water retention capacity is multiplied five- to ten-fold, the biomass production multiplies by 10 to 15 times, and livestock can feed on the grass that grows along the stone barriers after the rains. Integration of livestock into farming systems, such as dairy cattle, pigs and poultry, provides a source of protein to the family, as well as a means of fertilizing soils; so does the incorporation of fish, shrimps and other aquatic resources into farm systems, such as irrigated rice fields and fish ponds.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- Other efforts to address overfishing include international initiatives to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. In 2001, FAO produced an international plan of action to prevent, deter and eliminate such fishing, within the framework of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. The European Community followed with a Community action plan to eradicate such fishing, in 2002. In 2005, FAO produced a model scheme on port State measures to combat such fishing, focusing on the role of port States in preventing illegally caught fish from being trans-shipped to or laundered in the legal market, and, in 2009, the first legally binding instrument in that regard was adopted by the FAO Conference. Under the instrument, port States are obliged to deny access to vessels known to engage in illegal activities and port authorities required to share data on port visits of fishing vessels with regional fisheries management organizations. The European Union has now also passed legislation (Council Regulation (EC) No. 1005/2008 of 29 September 2008) requiring all fish entering the Union to be accompanied by verified catch documentation and proof of chain of custody.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- States should discharge their duties to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food in the fisheries sector by moving towards sustainable resource use while ensuring that the rights and livelihoods of small-scale fishers and coastal communities are respected and that the food security of all groups depending on fish is improved. This is a difficult balance to strike, but, without swift and bold action by States, the contribution made by fisheries to securing the right to food will diminish, with considerable consequences, in particular for poorer rural communities that depend on fisheries for both their nutritional needs and their income. Both coastal and flag States should accept their duties in this regard and should actively involve the fishing communities themselves, both in fisheries management and in the design and implementation of policies in adjacent sectors that could affect fishing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 61c
- Paragraph text
- [Coastal States and landlocked States with inland fisheries should:] Refrain from taking measures, including large-scale development projects, that may adversely affect the livelihoods of inland and marine small-scale fishers, their territories or access rights, unless their free, prior and informed consent is obtained, and ensure that courts protect such rights; and conduct ex-ante assessments of extractive industry projects, such as sand extraction, operated by private entities in order to evaluate the possible negative human rights impacts on local fishing communities;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 50b
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur has previously described the role that human rights impact assessments of trade and investment agreements can play in allowing countries to discharge their human rights obligations (see A/HRC/19/59/Add.5). Trade and access agreements in fisheries provide another such illustration. The above assessment of the potential opportunities and risks of such agreements (see paras. 29-32) may serve to identify the questions that should be asked in any impact assessment before the conclusion of an agreement by the coastal State. These are, for example:] Is the agreement accompanied by measures aimed at improving local fishing capacity, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea?
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 50c
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur has previously described the role that human rights impact assessments of trade and investment agreements can play in allowing countries to discharge their human rights obligations (see A/HRC/19/59/Add.5). Trade and access agreements in fisheries provide another such illustration. The above assessment of the potential opportunities and risks of such agreements (see paras. 29-32) may serve to identify the questions that should be asked in any impact assessment before the conclusion of an agreement by the coastal State. These are, for example:] Are measures in place to ensure that small-scale fishers are equipped to benefit from the opportunities created by trade agreements, in particular by improving their ability to comply with standards and their bargaining position vis-à-vis buyers?
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 50d
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur has previously described the role that human rights impact assessments of trade and investment agreements can play in allowing countries to discharge their human rights obligations (see A/HRC/19/59/Add.5). Trade and access agreements in fisheries provide another such illustration. The above assessment of the potential opportunities and risks of such agreements (see paras. 29-32) may serve to identify the questions that should be asked in any impact assessment before the conclusion of an agreement by the coastal State. These are, for example:] Are measures in place to ensure that export-oriented fishing creates decent work opportunities to ensure an adequate standard of living? Overall, will the agreement increase the incomes of the poorest and most marginalized groups within the coastal communities, especially women?
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 50e
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur has previously described the role that human rights impact assessments of trade and investment agreements can play in allowing countries to discharge their human rights obligations (see A/HRC/19/59/Add.5). Trade and access agreements in fisheries provide another such illustration. The above assessment of the potential opportunities and risks of such agreements (see paras. 29-32) may serve to identify the questions that should be asked in any impact assessment before the conclusion of an agreement by the coastal State. These are, for example:] Are the licence and access agreements fair in sharing the benefits between the coastal State and the flag State under which the fishing vessels operate? Is the revenue from such agreements used to support poverty reduction in the coastal State?
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- The FAO Committee on Fisheries is currently developing international guidelines for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries, a follow-up to the Global Conference on Small-Scale Fisheries, held in Bangkok in October 2008, and a complement to the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. The Special Rapporteur welcomes this important initiative, in which he intends to remain actively involved. Linking the content of the guidelines to the norms and standards of international human rights law, including the right to food, is essential. Below, the Special Rapporteur offers general remarks on some key issues to be considered in the negotiations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- Access rights of artisanal and small-scale fishing communities - more than 90 per cent of whom are in developing countries - are protected under various instruments. Under article 5 (i) of the 1995 Fish Stocks Agreement, States are required to take into account the interests of artisanal and subsistence fishers. In article 6.18 of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, there is recognition of the important contributions of artisanal and small-scale fisheries to employment, income and food security, with States recommended to appropriately protect the rights of fishers and fish workers, particularly those engaged in subsistence, small-scale and artisanal fisheries, to a secure and just livelihood, as well as preferential access, where appropriate, to traditional fishing grounds and resources in the waters under their national jurisdiction.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
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Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- Beyond general wording, however, disagreements exist about how user rights, which can range from individual to community-based rights, should be approached for the small-scale sector, and the overall aims of strengthening or changing user rights. One view is that a clarification and strengthening of access rights, including the use of transferable fishing quotas, would increase economic efficiency and avoid overfishing. Another view is that priority should be accorded to poverty-reduction objectives and to improving access to fishing rights by the communities most in need and who could be best placed to manage the common-pool resources concerned and monitor catches at the local level.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Individual transferable quotas systems may lead to rent capture by some actors in a privileged position, which is difficult to reconcile with poverty-reduction objectives. An alternative might be to allow operators to rent quotas from the Government so that quotas are periodically redistributed on equity grounds. Transferability of quotas (conceived as property rights) will inevitably lead to monopolization, unless limited to transferability between the deceased holder and his/her descendants (if they also fish). Indeed, the Human Rights Committee noted that a system in which the quotas originally held could be sold or leased at market prices instead of reverting to the State for allocation to new quota holders in accordance with fair and equitable criteria might result in discrimination in violation of article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (see CCPR/C/91/D/1306/2004). Other systems can be explored that combine sustainability requirements (limiting overfishing) and redistributive aims based on human rights norms and standards.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- An additional nutritional challenge concerns people whose caloric intakes exceed their needs. Today, more than one billion people worldwide are overweight (with a bodily mass index (BMI) >25) and at least 300 million are obese (BMI >30). Overweight and obesity cause, worldwide, 2.8 million deaths, so that today 65 per cent of the world's population live in a country (all high-income countries and most middle-income countries) where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight. In a country such as the United States of America, this means that today's children could have shorter life expectancies than their parents. But obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) linked, in particular, to unhealthy diets are no longer limited to rich countries (see figures 1 and 2). It is estimated that by 2030, 5.1 million people will die annually before the age of 60 from such diseases in poor countries, up from 3.8 million today. Obesity and overweight affect 50 per cent or more of the population in 19 of the 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, but they have become public health challenges in all regions (see figure 2). Death and disease from NCDs now outstrip communicable diseases in every region except Africa, and it is expected that NCD deaths will increase globally by 15 per cent between 2010 and 2020-and by over 20 per cent in Africa, South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean. Moreover, NCDs are more rapidly fatal in poorer countries. In both South-East Asia and Africa, 41 per cent of deaths caused by high BMI occur under age 60, compared with 18 per cent in high-income countries. For society, the costs are huge, directly in medical care and indirectly in lost productivity. An important time lag exists between the onset of obesity and the increase in health-care costs, but it has been estimated for instance that the costs linked to overweight and obesity in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2015 could increase by as much as 70 per cent relative to 2007 and could be 2.4 times higher in 2025. In countries such as India or China, the impact of obesity and diabetes is predicted to surge in the next few years. On average, a 10 per cent increase in NCDs results in a loss of 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- The fight against NCDs is underfunded, in part, because it was not included in the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000. Less than 3 per cent of development assistance for health goes to combating NCDs, even though they cause more than one third of all premature deaths. The poorest segments of the population are affected disproportionately. Poor families may be unable to afford the increased health-care expenditures that result from NCDs. Annually, 100 million people are pushed into poverty because they cannot afford the necessary health services. In India for example, treatment for diabetes costs an affected person on average 15-25 per cent of household earnings, and cardiovascular disease leads to catastrophic expenditure for 25 per cent of Indian families and drives 10 per cent of families into poverty. Furthermore, people who are affected may not be able to work, and their family members may have to provide care, resulting in lost revenues. Poor families may be less educated, on average, about the risks of unhealthy diets, and they lack the resources to improve their diets.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- The agrifood systems must be reshaped to address these challenges of malnutrition-undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, and overnutrition-not in isolation, but concurrently. Malnutrition in all its forms cannot be addressed only by a food sciences approach, such as through the provision of ready-to-use therapeutic foods or micronutrient-enriched "health foods" to combat micronutrient deficiency or the negative health impacts of foods high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, sodium and sugar ("HFSS" foods). Ensuring adequate availability of and accessibility to fruits and vegetables and diets that are sufficiently diverse and balanced across food groups requires the rebuilding of agrifood systems. This means prioritizing access to adequate diets that are socially and environmentally sustainable over the mere provision of cheap calories. Any intervention seeking to address the diverse forms of malnutrition described above should be assessed against the requirement that it favour, and does not create obstacles to, such a reprioritization.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Assessments of these various nutrition promotion initiatives and the projects under the umbrella of the SUN initiative fall outside the scope of the present report. The increasing international profile of nutrition should be welcomed. It is positive too that SUN acknowledges the need for efforts to scale up nutrition to be driven by national authorities with a cross-sectoral approach, and that it brings together commitment and support from developing country Governments, donors, civil society, development agencies and the private sector. In providing assistance however, these actors must not overlook the entitlements that have been established under international law for women, children, minorities, refugees and internally displaced persons, and other groups that may be subjected to marginalization and discrimination. The Special Rapporteur, while welcoming the progress made through SUN, calls for an explicit alignment of its initiatives with human rights, including the right to food. A number of observations should be made in this regard.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Other examples include the parallel vigilance committees set up in 1992 by women from low-income neighbourhoods in Mumbai to monitor the fair price shops under the Public Distribution System; the public expenditure tracking surveys in Ghana, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania to identify diversion of funds in the health and education sectors; citizens' report cards in India, the Philippines and a range of African countries, through which citizens rate the quality of the public services they are provided; community score cards in the Gambia, Kenya and Malawi, which combine report cards with public meetings between communities and public service providers; participatory audits in the Philippines or as conducted by Javanese farmers in Indonesia. Beyond post hoc accountability, participation may extend to the design of policies and the ranking of budgetary priorities: in Brazil, following the example of Porto Alegre, a number of cities have elaborated participatory budgets.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- In addition, it is not unusual for the remuneration in this "periphery" segment to be calculated on a piece-rate basis, based on how much of the task has been accomplished. This mode of calculation of the wage is advantageous to the employer; it generally means that the employer does not provide benefits or social security in addition to the wage earned, and it is a method of calculating wages that is self-enforcing and requires much less supervision. Yet, though the most efficient women sometimes benefit, this mode of calculation of wages may be unfavourable to women in the heavier tasks, where the pay is calculated on the basis of male productivity standards. In addition, it encourages workers, especially women, to have their children work with them as "helpers", in order to perform the task faster. The result is that about 70 per cent of child labour in the world is in agriculture, representing approximately 132 million girls and boys aged 5-14 (A/HRC/13/33, para. 10).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Finally, women may face specific difficulties in reconciling their responsibilities in the care economy, particularly as regards the minding and educating of children of pre-school age, and their work on farms. The lack of access to child-care services in rural areas, combined with poor transportation services, sometimes leads women to bring the children with them on the plantation, as has been documented in the horticultural sector in Punjab, Pakistan, or in the informal settlements established near the plantations during the working season, as in South Africa.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- A number of the issues that in practice are of particular concern to women could be addressed in principle through effective policies and laws, and collective bargaining. These include equality of opportunity policies, equal pay for work of equal value, maternity leave and benefits, child care issues, reproductive health services. However, apart from the general problems related to unionization on farms, male-dominated unions do not always pay sufficient attention to issues that matter especially to women. Male union representatives may fail to consider the gender implications of apparently neutral issues for collective bargaining, including how wages are determined, leave, overtime, or bonus systems since these often in reality impact on women and men differently. To address this problem, the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers (IUF) has for example produced a gender-equality guide and aims at a 40 per cent representation of women on all its committees.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Improving access to education for girls requires that the incentives structures for families be changed, and that social and cultural norms that lead parents to interrupt the schooling of girls earlier than that of boys be challenged. Many poor households are unable to send girls to school because of the costs, both direct and indirect (school fees or other costs related to attending school, such as uniforms and books), of doing so; because of opportunity costs (girls who go to school are not available to work within the household); because of the commute involved, when the family lives at a far distance from the nearest school, and associated security concerns. The absence of separate sanitation facilities for girls in schools can also be a major obstacle.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- Various programmes have proven to be effective in removing some of these obstacles. Bangladesh launched the Female Secondary School Assistance Project (FSSAP) in 1993; ten years later, as it entered its second phase, the project covered one quarter of rural Bangladesh and now benefits almost one million girls across the country in more than 6,000 schools. FSSAP provides a stipend to girls who agree to delay marriage until they complete secondary education, for a total cost to the programme of about US$121 per year per person; and it has improved sanitation facilities in schools. It has spectacularly succeeded in improving girls' school attendance rates.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Women face multiple forms of discrimination in accessing land. As regards land that is inherited, laws in many countries still discriminate against women, and even when the discriminatory elements are removed, the laws are often circumvented under the pressure of social and cultural norms. For instance, where a sister could inherit land on an equal basis with her brothers, she may accept a lump-sum payment in lieu of her portion of the land in order to maintain good relations with her brothers. As regards land that is acquired during marriage, in a number of regions, particularly in South Asia, a separation of property regime is applied, according to which assets brought into the marriage or acquired during marriage remain the individual property of the spouse who acquired said assets from his or her personal funds. But this leads to deeply inequitable outcomes, as it does not recognize the important non-monetary contribution that women make to the household by looking after the house, child-rearing, caring for the elderly, or various other chores.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- A first requirement is breaking the cycle of discrimination against women. This does not mean simply removing discriminatory provisions in the law, particularly as regards access to land or other productive resources, but it also requires that the structural causes of de facto discrimination be addressed. In particular, measures should be taken to relieve women of the burden imposed on them by the duties they assume in the "care" economy, and to improve their economic opportunities by better access to education and employment. Older women are particularly at risk of food insecurity as the cumulative effect of discrimination in accessing employment tends to leave older women with disproportionately lower (or no) incomes and pensions in later life; yet older women are expected to take care of other, more dependent members of the household.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- The third area is finance. Microcredit schemes often target rural women specifically, who, even more than men, face obstacles in accessing credit. However, far more could be done. First, improved access to loans for rural women does not necessarily imply that women will control the use of the loans. Some microfinance programmes directed at women have been assessed to be successful in increasing the participation of women in decision-making within the household, particularly as regards family planning and the children's education, and other members of the household have sometimes assumed a greater share of the housework since women who benefit from a microcredit programme tend to spend more time on their businesses and contribute more to the household income. The Small Farmers Development Program (SFDP) launched by the Indonesian government in the early 1990s is one example. But, overall evidence is mixed. Because the creditworthiness of women (as measured by loan repayment rates) is higher than that of men, women in practice may be used as convenient "middlemen" by the lending institutions' field workers and by the male members of households. This runs the risk of creating increased tensions within the household when the husband or other male relative does not give the woman the money to allow her to repay the loan on time or when the woman cannot access the loans she has obtained. Women benefiting from microcredit in rural Bangladesh, for instance through the Grameen Bank, only seldom use the loans to run their own businesses, Instead of becoming entrepreneurs themselves, they often use the loans to support the capital of existing businesses that are usually managed by male members in the household or to support their husbands in launching micro-enterprises. Similar results were found in Andra Pradesh, India.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Since the establishment of the mandate in 2000, a number of important issues have been addressed by the Special Rapporteur's predecessors, including the impact of trade agreements, agroecology and alternative farming methods as a means of maintaining access to land. Legal, policy and institutional frameworks related to the right to food have also been analysed, with examples of best practice providing the basis of many of the recommendations made to States in relation to their obligation to protect the right to an adequate diet. The right of vulnerable groups to access adequate food has also been addressed by previous mandate holders, as has the impact of agriculture on climate change.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- While there have been significant developments in a number of countries in response to the crisis, concerns about price volatility remain, with the world economy showing little sign of stabilizing. Indeed there has been a worrisome rise in local food prices in recent years. Additional steps must be taken at the global level to reduce the risk of future food crises resulting from rapid price increases. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur will continue to monitor the situation and urges States, both individually and collectively, to fulfil their legal obligation under human rights law to do their part in ensuring sustainable access to food for people.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- In its general comment No. 12 (1999) on the right to adequate food, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights defined the necessary elements required for the right to food (i.e., the possibility either to feed oneself directly from productive land or other natural resources, or to purchase food) as follows: (a) availability; (b) accessibility; and (c) adequacy. Availability relates to the presence of sufficient food on the market to meet population needs. Accessibility refers to both physical and economic access: physical accessibility means that food should be accessible to all persons, including the physically vulnerable, such as children, older persons and persons with a disability; economic accessibility means that food should be affordable without compromising other basic needs, such as education, health care or housing. Adequacy requires that food satisfy dietary needs (factoring in a person's age, living conditions, health, occupation, sex and so on), be safe for human consumption, free of adverse substances, culturally acceptable and nutritious.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- At the international level, the right to food is recognized as a distinct and fundamental right in a number of international instruments. It was recognized in article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirmed in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (article 11) and, through the right to life, in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is also conferred in article 3 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is further recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (articles 3, 24, para. 2 (c), and 27), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (articles 12, para. 2, and 14) the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (article 5 (e)) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (articles 25 (f) and 28, para. 1).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- The tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security is observed in 2014. The Voluntary Guidelines were developed as a practical tool for States to assist them in implementing their obligations under article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. They build on international law and complement the objectives set out in the Plan of Action of the 1996 World Food Summit. They also provide an additional instrument to accelerate attainment of the Millennium Development Goals and the post-2015 sustainable development goals. While the Voluntary Guidelines do not establish legally binding obligations for States or international organizations, Guideline 7 does, however, provide guidance on strengthening legal frameworks at the domestic level.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- The transformative approach implies that as policies seek to accommodate the specific needs of women, they should also seek to subvert traditional gendered divisions of roles. The two objectives are not necessarily easy to reconcile, but they should be prioritized in the design and implementation of programmes and given careful, context-sensitive consideration. In public works programmes for instance, where a gender-blind approach may lead to the de facto exclusion of women, the specific contributions and needs of women should be acknowledged, such as access to nurseries or adapted schedules, in order to enable them to effectively benefit from the programmes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- The priorities identified by the Special Rapporteur are interrelated. It is not possible to develop a successful sustainable policy framework to eradicate hunger and provide adequate and nutritious food accessible to all without considering the specific requirements of women and children. It should be understood that the mandate encompasses issues relating to corporate responsibility with respect to global food policy and practices and linkages between private sector behaviour, food security and the right to food. The Special Rapporteur intends to address those issues in future reports. In so doing, she will coordinate her efforts with the relevant work being done by civil society and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- It is in this context that the Special Rapporteur believes the international community should look to the future and establish what more can be done to ensure an enabling environment for people to access food in a dignified manner and to establish applicable remedies for those who are unable to do so. In his final report to the Human Rights Council in March 2014, the previous Special Rapporteur highlighted framework laws and national strategies in support of the realization of the right to food, highlighting a number of countries where examples of good practice exist. The Special Rapporteur intends to assess the experience of those countries and will examine the implementation of such laws at the national level, as a means of identifying possible models for other countries.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur believes that a key focus should now be placed on the implementation of those legal frameworks and policies to promote the right to adequate food for all. The Guidelines illustrate the significant impact of sectoral legislation through three examples: school feeding programmes, subsidies and transfers in cash or in kind for food security, food safety and consumer protection. The Special Rapporteur supports the implementation of such policies and believes that regional, as well as North-South and South-South cooperation is essential for sharing best practices among States.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Increases in sea temperatures and the acidification of oceans owing to rising levels of concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are also expected to have major effects on the fisheries sector (A/67/268). Warming oceans can lead to increased and more severe outbreaks of algal blooms, which can have a devastating impact on fish populations. Calcifying organisms are also threatened, which in turn reduces dependent fish populations. A consensus exists that climate change will have a negative impact on fisheries' production, especially in developing countries in tropical areas.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 77
- Paragraph text
- Brazil's agroecology policies have already experienced success. Approximately 100,000 family farms have adopted agroecological farming practices. These farms have had average yield increases of 100-300 per cent and demonstrated greater resilience to irregular weather patterns. Brazil has also developed programmes that provide access to low-interest credit for family farmers and also offered technical support for 2.3 million families in 2010. It has stimulated agroecological systems by providing technical support for crop diversification techniques and irrigation systems.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- The impact of climate change on food security was recognized in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (art. 2), but received little attention until the spike in food prices in 2007. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the first time in its assessments included a section on food security in the Fifth Assessment Report. Article 2 of the United Nations Framework Convention states that ecosystems must be allowed sufficient time to adapt naturally to climate change so as to "ensure that food production is not threatened". Several international organizations have also acknowledged the link between food security and climate change. Nevertheless, the inclusion of a rights-based approach to food security has yet to be realized.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- As early as 1999, in its general comment No. 12, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights acknowledged that "even where a State faces severe resource constraints, whether caused by a process of economic adjustment, economic recession, climatic conditions or other factors, measures should be undertaken to ensure that the right to adequate food is especially fulfilled for vulnerable population groups and individuals". In accordance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, most States accept the responsibility for fulfilling the right to food, designing and implementing policies that support its progressive realization and ensure access to adequate food. In the context of climate change, States must avoid policies and actions that undermine people's ability to produce their own food or to access food for themselves and their families.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- States must also endeavour to support policies that limit and overcome negative effects on the right to food. A human rights framework requires all States to seek to reduce harmful emissions into the global atmosphere, with a view to reducing their negative effect on the enjoyment of human rights. In addition, in its statement on the world food crisis (E/C.12/2008/1), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights pressed States parties to adopt "strategies to combat global climate change that do not negatively affect the right to adequate food and freedom from hunger, but rather promote sustainable agriculture". This statement is in harmony with article 2 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Unfortunately, while it does mention the strategies that States should employ to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies, the United Nations Framework Convention refers to the use of "appropriate methods" to minimize "adverse effects on the economy, on public health and on the quality of the environment" (art. 4 (1) (f), rather than referencing human rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- Since 2008, the Human Rights Council has regularly highlighted the negative implications of climate change on human rights. Furthermore, at the request of the Council, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) presented a report in 2009 that addressed the adverse effects of climate change on specific rights, including the direct relationship between the right to adequate food and climate change (A/HRC/10/61, paras. 25-27). The Council reiterated the negative impact of climate change on the right to food in subsequent resolutions adopted in 2009, 2011, 2014 and, most recently, in June 2015.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 79
- Paragraph text
- Agroecology is beneficial not only for developing countries. In September 2014, the National Assembly of France adopted a project for the future of agriculture, food and forests that calls for the implementation of agroecology through agricultural initiatives that take the environment into consideration. Under the multi-year project agroecological actions will be undertaken that aim to improve the economic, social and environmental performance of farming operations and promote innovation and agricultural experimentation. An example of a local initiative is the law passed by the City of San Francisco, California, requiring mandatory recycling and composting of organic material rather than sending it to landfills. The city currently diverts 80 per cent of its waste to recycling and composting, with the goal of "zero waste" by 2020.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Given the threats that food systems face, particularly those linked to climate change and soil degradation, and given the potential of productivity improvements to raise the incomes of small-scale food producers, investments in raising productivity are needed. However, a narrow focus on improved productivity risks ignoring the wide range of other variables that foresight exercises should take into account. Moreover, the deeper debate concerns not whether productivity should be raised, but how to achieve this. Increasing yields alone will not do. Any prescription to increase yields that ignores the need to transition to sustainable production and consumption, and to reduce rural poverty, will not only be incomplete; it may also have damaging impacts, worsening the ecological crisis and widening the gap between different categories of food producers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 83
- Paragraph text
- The imperative to feed the world in a time of climate change resonates strongly with food policymakers and has resulted in a push for large-scale agricultural models to respond to the future demand for food. However, it is has been proven that more food production does not necessarily result in fewer people suffering from hunger and malnutrition. The world has long produced enough food, sufficient not only to meet the caloric requirements of the existing global population of over 7 billion, but also to meet the needs of a population expected to reach 9 billion in 2050. Hunger and malnutrition are a function of economic and social problems, not production. Moreover, not all of the calories produced go to feed humans: one third are used to feed animals, nearly 5 per cent are used to produce biofuels and as much as one third are wasted all along the food chain.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 85
- Paragraph text
- This approach is wrong and counterproductive and will only serve to exacerbate the problems experienced by the current mode of agriculture. Rather, agriculture and food systems need to be reformed to ensure that they are more responsive to the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation, as evidenced by reduced reliance on fossil fuel-intensive production methods. More importantly, the reform should ensure that the right to adequate food of people is protected through appropriate levels of production as well as equitable access and just distribution.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 88
- Paragraph text
- Finally, because the harm caused by climate change is felt predominantly by people and regions that are minimally responsible in the first place, climate change policies should be designed to minimize, if not overcome, these fundamental injustices. Some of the climate change policies described in the report, justified on the grounds that they help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, undermine human rights. Unequal capabilities and exposure to the dangers make climate change the biggest human rights and justice problem of our time; solving it should be obligatory, not voluntary and aspirational. Whether there will be sufficient political will to implement the recommended shift in agricultural policy is the haunting uncertainty that casts a long shadow over the future of food security and the realization of the right to food. There are two dominant conclusions in the present report, the necessity of encouraging agroecological approaches to food security and the need to integrate the commitment to climate justice and human rights in the climate change regime, which cannot be realized without the support of civil society.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- The right to food was first recognized in article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since then it has been recognized in a number of international instruments, with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (hereinafter "the Covenant") representing the most significant treaty on the right to food. The Covenant (to date ratified by 162 States) has been vital in shaping and developing the normative framework on the right to food. The treaty defines the right to food as a distinct and fundamental right to be free from hunger and to have sustainable access to food (art. 11). It outlines specific obligations for all States parties to take measures to progressively attain the full realization of the right to food.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Development-induced displacement is an increasingly widespread phenomenon with devastating impact. An estimated 15 million people each year are forced to relocate and resettle as a result of such interventions. Despite some of the more recent efforts to highlight land dispossession, as yet global institutions have been unable to discourage the practices and processes that undermine land rights, prevent equitable access and establish the context for large and small-scale displacements. The expanding mining sector has contributed to strong economic growth in some countries, with mining and oil concessions dramatically increasing in countries. The industry has however also generated social conflict in many States, particularly in rural areas, with mining activities coming into direct competition with small-scale agriculture. Indigenous peoples are particularly vulnerable as they are often forced to leave their land and sources of livelihood. A lack of engagement and opportunities for participation in decisions that affect their lives has left many communities in situations of dire poverty and without access to adequate food and nutrition.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- The underlying causes of malnutrition are complex and multidimensional, and access to nutritious food is often a key indicator of socioeconomic inequality. Women and children are particularly sensitive to malnutrition, while poverty, gender inequality and lack of access to adequate sanitation, health and education services are aggravating factors. Today's food systems, which are dominated by industrial production and processing, as well as trade liberalization and aggressive marketing strategies, are fostering unhealthy eating habits and creating a dependence on highly processed, nutrient-poor foods. Unequal access to and control over resources, as well as unsustainable production and consumption patterns, which lead to environmental degradation and climate change, also contribute to the malfunctioning of food systems.3
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing the growing threat of malnutrition in all its forms and its negative impacts on economic development, universal health and efforts to reduce inequality, the international community has taken major initiatives to ensure global policy action. The World Health Organization (WHO) global targets to improve maternal, infant and young child nutrition by 2025, the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases 2013-2020 and the political commitments made at the Second International Conference on Nutrition, in 2014, to ensure the right of everyone to safe, sufficient and nutritious food are encouraging responses. It is now also recognized that nutrition plays a crucial role in fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- Transnational campaigns by civil society are also important in developing good practice. For example, Oxfam's "Behind the Brands" campaign called upon TNCs to stop land grabbing. As a result PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Nestle responded by committing to a "zero tolerance" policy within their supply chains in relation to land grabbing and protecting the land rights of rural and indigenous communities. These are important victories, yet monitoring and proper enforcement by the companies is essential to ensure that these committments are upheld.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Developing countries are increasingly subject to dispute procedures brought by private companies. For example, high water prices and poor water quality following the privatization of the water supply in the Bolivian town of Cochabamba, culminated in protests against Aguas de Tunari, a subsidiary of the United States firm Bechtel. The Government succumbed to public pressure and reversed the decision to privatize, which prompted the company to bring the Government before ICSID. The case posed the fundamental question of whether the property rights of the company could trump the rights to food and to access water and sanitation. In the end, civil society pressure led to a settlement and, as a result, Bolivian water laws were amended with the 2009 Constitution guaranteeing the right to access to water.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- Locally developed crops have been shown to be extremely adaptable and robust because they have been bred over generations specifically to cope with difficult ecological and social conditions. For example, "farmer rice varieties" are often more productive than imported varieties of rice and can grow with less input than modern varieties and require less maintenance. Furthermore, research has shown that farms run on agroecological principles can be more resilient in response to natural disasters such as hurricanes. Farms in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala that relied on sustainable agricultural methods suffered considerably less damage than conventional farms following Hurricane Mitch in 1998, with sustainable farms retaining up to 40 per cent more topsoil and suffering less economic loss than neighbouring conventional farms. Similar studies conducted in Mexico following Hurricane Stan and in Cuba following Hurricane Ike had similar findings. Agroecological farms were also able to recover faster after the hurricane.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- WHO recommends breastfeeding within one hour of birth and exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. Nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods should be introduced at 6 months of age, together with continued breastfeeding up to 2 years of age or beyond. Yet only about 36 per cent of infants between 0 and 6 months old are exclusively breastfed. In high-income countries, fewer than one in five infants are breastfed for 12 months, and only two out of three children between 6 months and 2 years of age receive breast milk in low- and middle-income countries. These rates have not improved in two decades. In addition, few children receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods. A total of 823,000 children's lives could be saved yearly if all children between 0 and 23 months were optimally breastfed. One of the major obstacles to breastfeeding is the misleading marketing by baby food companies of breast milk substitutes and the lack of corporate accountability for the adverse consequences of such abuses.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- In the Rome Declaration on Nutrition, adopted in 2014, States recognized that the root causes of malnutrition were complex and multidimensional. They include social, economic, political and cultural determinants. Poverty, social exclusion, gender inequality, low socioeconomic status and lack of control over productive resources, for example land-grabbing and seed patenting, are all major contributors to malnutrition. Similarly, malnutrition is aggravated by poor sanitation and the absence of safe drinking water and adequate housing, as well as a lack of education, health and social protection services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- Children and pregnant and lactating women enjoy even further protections. The Convention on the Rights of the Child confirms that, to ensure the full implementation of a child's right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health, States must take appropriate measures to combat disease and malnutrition through, inter alia, the provision of "adequate nutritious foods" (art. 24 (2) (c)) and that in case of need they must provide material assistance and support programmes, including with regard to nutrition (art. 27 (3)). The Convention also calls for the protection and promotion of exclusive breastfeeding for infants up to 6 months of age, and for breastfeeding to continue alongside appropriate complementary foods preferably until 2 years of age.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 86
- Paragraph text
- Raising tariffs on imported foods and drinks classified as "unhealthy" are another tool, used for example by the Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Nauru and Samoa. Others have lowered import tariffs on "healthy" foods that are not procured locally. Targeted subsidies or price discounts can also enable people on low incomes to afford healthier food options. In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, for example, low-income pregnant women and families receive vouchers to buy dairy and vegetables, and in the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program gives incentives to spend on fruits and vegetables.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- The following examples illustrate the positive role played by regional human rights mechanisms. In the case Centre for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group International on behalf of Endorois Welfare Council v. Kenya, the Endorois, a primarily pastoralist indigenous community, were removed from their lands by the Government of Kenya to establish a wildlife reserve. The African Commission found Kenya to have violated articles 8, 14, 17, 21 and 22 of the African Charter. The Commission noted that, as a consequence of its removal, the community had been "relegated to semi-arid land", which was unsuitable for pastoralism. The ability to graze animals, a key means of subsistence for the community, had become impossible as a result of loss of their land and this threatened the community's survival.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2015
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- During the 1970s, the pesticide DCBP was used extensively on banana and pineapple plantations around the world. In Davao, the Philippines, where the pesticide was used in the 1980s, high levels of sterility were scientifically proven to have resulted from exposure. Other conditions, including cancer, asthma, tuberculosis and skin disease, were also detected, but a linkage was not scientifically proven. While local authorities banned aerial spraying following community protests, the Supreme Court of the Philippines reversed the ban, allegedly under pressure from banana corporations. Further, suits brought by plantation workers have been dismissed, leaving victims without compensation. Twenty years on, despite a global ban on DBCP, soils and water sources remain contaminated.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Inheritance is often the main avenue for women's land acquisition, yet women are still less likely to inherit land than men. Inheritance is often determined through marriage practices. Through patri-linearism, which is the most common societal system, sons, rather than daughters, inherit land from their fathers. Even where bilateral inheritance practices exist, communities may favor customary patrilineal practices. This is so in the case of the Mossi community in Burkina Faso "where despite the fact that the majority of families are Muslim, meaning that in theory daughters inherit land, this practice is not observed."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- For married women, the death of a husband does not guarantee her ownership rights of the decedent's property. In Uganda for example, a co-ownership clause was added to the Land Act of 1998, which technically vested the land title in both the husband and wife; however, upon the death of the husband, any .children of the marriage are legally allowed to take land from the mother. Similarly, among the Hmong and Khmu, the largest ethnic groups in Lao PDR, women are primarily considered as guardians of their children's inheritance rather than heirs in their own right and additionally single women are prohibited from living independently.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Pesticide residues are commonly found in both plant and animal food sources, resulting in significant exposure risks for consumers. Studies indicate that foods often contain multiple residues, thereby resulting in the consumption of a “cocktail” of pesticides. Although the harmful effects of pesticide mixtures are still not fully understood, it is known that in some cases, synergistic interactions can occur that lead to higher toxicity levels. High cumulative exposure of consumers to pesticides is particularly worrying, especially with lipophilic pesticides, which bind with fats and bioaccumulate in the body.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Pesticides also present a serious threat to drinking water, particularly in agricultural areas, which often depend on groundwater. While it can take several decades before pesticides applied in fields appear in water wells, high levels of herbicides in agricultural areas have already caused health problems for some communities. For example, in the United States of America, where over 70 million pounds of atrazine are used annually, runoff into water supplies has been linked to increased risk of birth defects. While atrazine was banned in the European Union in 2004, some European countries still detect it in groundwater today.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Neonicotinoids are accused of being responsible for “colony collapse disorder” of bees worldwide. For example, heavy use of these insecticides has been blamed for the 50 per cent decline over 25 years in honeybee populations in both the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This decline threatens the very basis of agriculture, given that wild bees and managed honeybees play the greatest role in pollinating crops. According to estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), of some 100 crop species (which provide 90 per cent of global food), 71 per cent are pollinated by bees. The European Union, unlike the United States, restricted the use of certain neonicotinoids in 2013.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Many of the pesticides used today, accounting for approximately 60 per cent of dietary exposure, are systemic. Seeds treated with systemic pesticides are commonly used in soybean, corn and peanut production. Similarly, crops may be genetically engineered (so-called GMOs) to produce pesticides themselves. Proponents of systemic pesticides and genetically engineered crops claim that by eliminating liquid spraying, the risk of exposure to farm workers and other non-target organisms is greatly reduced. However, further studies of chronic exposure are needed to determine the extent of the impact of systemic pesticides and genetically engineered crops on human health, beneficial insects, soil ecosystems and aquatic life. For example, transgenic corn and soybean varieties have been developed that are capable of producing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) endotoxins that act as insecticides. While the use of Bt crops has led to a reduction in conventional synthetic insecticide use, controversy remains about the possible risks posed by these crops.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- The prime example of controversy around genetically engineered crops is glyphosate, the active ingredient of some herbicides, including Roundup, that allow farmers to kill weeds but not their crops. While presented as less toxic and persistent compared to traditional herbicides, there is considerable disagreement over the impact of glyphosate on the environment: studies have indicated negative impacts on biodiversity, wildlife and soil nutrient content. There are also concerns regarding human health. In 2015, WHO announced that glyphosate was a probable carcinogen.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- In rural areas, women and girls spend the majority of their time engaged in subsistence farming and in the collection of water and fuel. As a result of flooding, droughts, fires and mudslides, these tasks become more difficult. Water shortages and depletion of forests require women and girls to walk longer distances to collect water and wood. In Senegal and Mozambique, women spend 17.5 and 15.3 hours respectively each week collecting water. In Nepal, girls spend an average of five hours per week on this task. In rural Africa and India, 30 percent of women's daily energy intake is spent in carrying water. Depletion of land and water resources may place additional burdens on women's labour and health as they struggle to make their livelihoods in a changing environment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- Impacts of decreased water quality as a result of climate change are also gender differentiated. Children and pregnant women are more physically vulnerable to waterborne diseases and their role in supplying household water and performing domestic chores makes them more vulnerable to developing diseases, such as diarrhea and cholera, which thrive in degraded water. Decreased water resources may also cause women's health to suffer as a result of the increased work burden and reduced nutritional status. For instance, in Peru following the 1997-98 El Niño events, malnutrition among women was a major cause of peripartum illness.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Gender
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 80
- Paragraph text
- The industry frequently uses the term “intentional misuse” to shift the blame onto the user for the avoidable impacts of hazardous pesticides. Yet clearly, the responsibility for protecting users and others throughout the pesticide life cycle and throughout the retail chain lies with the pesticide manufacturer. This is reflected, for example, in the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights on “business relationships”, which set a precedent by requiring businesses to have producer responsibility for certain products even after they are sold. It is imperative that such responsibility be extended to pesticide producers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 90
- Paragraph text
- Today, hazardous pesticides are in excessive use, inflicting damage on human health and ecosystems around the world, and their use is poised to increase in the coming years. Safer practices exist and can be developed further to minimize the impacts of such excessive, in some cases unnecessary, use of pesticides that violate a number of human rights. A rise in organic agricultural practices in many places illustrates that farming with less or without any pesticides is feasible. Studies have indicated that agroecology is capable of delivering sufficient yields to feed the entire world population and ensure that they are adequately nourished.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- Moreover, articles 11 and 12 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women address women’s right to protection of health and safety, including the safeguarding of the function of reproduction, and call for special protections to be accorded to mothers before and after childbirth. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women also calls on States to take appropriate measures to provide special protection to women during pregnancy. Such obligations clearly extend to minimizing the risks of maternal exposure to pesticides.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Appropriately, article 24 (2) (c) of the Convention makes the explicit link between food, water and the right to the highest attainable standard of health. States must combat disease and malnutrition through the provision of adequate, nutritious foods and clean drinking water, taking into consideration the dangers and risks of environmental pollution. In articles 24 (4) and 32 (1), the Convention also calls for international cooperation to help developing countries achieve this, and requires States to protect children from work that may be hazardous to their health or physical or mental development, such as work where they use or may otherwise be exposed to hazardous pesticides. It is clear that ensuring protection from pesticides falls within the parameters of the Convention.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- While international human rights laws provide substantive protections against excessive and unsafe pesticide practices, implementation and enforcement remain major challenges. Most commonly, a human right that contemplates the negative effects of pesticides is implicit in the right to health. For example, in the African system, which does not recognize the right to food, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has interpreted the right to health to require Governments to take action to prevent third parties from destroying or contaminating food sources.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Individual titling can also become a source of conflict and legal insecurity if it conflicts with customary rules regarding tenure, for example, as regards communal land ownership. Indeed, individual titling, combined with the marketability of land, may not be compatible with the recognization of customary forms of tenure with respect to communal land and common property resources, putting groups that do not use the land intensively or do not occupy it permanently at a particular disadvantage.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- The bargaining position of farmers is often weak before they enter into contracts. They typically have less information and negotiating skills than their business partners and a lower degree of legal literacy. The way prices are determined, the deductions for the provision of inputs, the conditions under which the contract can be terminated and the way in which the quality grading of the produce is assessed are all areas in which contractual clauses may be heavily biased in favour of the buyer.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 78
- Paragraph text
- Although WHO has recommended that the private sector adopt evidence-based "responsible marketing", and despite some positive initiatives as described above, ensuring informative labelling is still an uphill battle for nutrition and health advocates.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 107d
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Consider non-chemical alternatives first, and only allow chemicals to be registered where need can be demonstrated;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 49c
- Paragraph text
- [Governments have a duty to support the realization of the right to food, to the maximum extent of their available resources, by providing small-scale farmers with appropriate support, including by:] Establishing schemes allowing small-scale farmers to climb up the value chain, including by identifying at the local or regional level which partnerships could be established between producers, packagers, processors and retailers;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Agroecology is also gaining ground in Malawi, a country that has been at the centre of attention in recent years. Malawi successfully launched a fertilizer subsidy programme in 2005-2006, following the dramatic food crisis due to drought in 2004-2005. However, it is now implementing agroforestry systems, using nitrogen-fixing trees, to ensure sustained growth in maize production in preparation for the medium-term situation when fertilizer subsidies may have to be scaled back or withdrawn. By mid-2009, over 120,000 Malawian farmers had received training and tree materials from the programme, and support from Ireland has now enabled extension of the programme to 40 per cent of Malawi's districts, benefiting 1.3 million of the poorest people. Research shows that this results in increased yields from 1 t/ha to 2-3 t/ha, even if farmers cannot afford commercial nitrogen fertilizers. With an application of a quarter-dose of mineral fertilizer, maize yields may surpass 4 t/ha. However, this shows that, while investment in organic fertilizing techniques should be a priority, this should not exclude the use of other fertilizers. An optimal solution that could be an exit strategy from fertilizer subsidy schemes would be to link fertilizer subsidies directly to agroforestry investments on the farm in order to provide for long-term sustainability in nutrient supply, and to build up soil health as the basis for sustained yields and improved efficiency of fertilizer response. Malawi is reportedly exploring this "subsidy to sustainability" approach.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- These are not symbolic advances. Victims of violations are entitled to "adequate reparation, which may take the form of restitution, compensation, satisfaction or guarantees of non-repetition" (see E/C.12/1999/5, para. 32). The recognition of the right to food in domestic law empowers courts or other independent monitoring bodies to impose compliance with the obligations of the State to respect, to protect and to fulfil the right to food. Significant progress has been made in this regard in recent years.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 61b
- Paragraph text
- [Coastal States and landlocked States with inland fisheries should:] Involve local fishing communities in the design, implementation and assessment of the fisheries policies and interventions affecting them, in accordance with human rights norms and standards and article 10.1.2 of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, and establish grievance mechanisms allowing them to protect the rights that may be affected by such policies and interventions;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 61d (ii)
- Paragraph text
- [Coastal States and landlocked States with inland fisheries should:] Consistent with the pledge made at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (see para. 175 of the outcome document), strengthen access to fishery resources and improve the incomes of small-scale fishing communities by: Considering the introduction of exclusive artisanal fishing zones and exclusive user rights for small-scale and subsistence fisheries, where appropriate;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Year
- Item does not have this property
Paragraph