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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
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- Exposure to pesticides can have severe impacts on the enjoyment of human rights, in particular the right to adequate food, as well as the right to health. The right to food obligates States to implement protective measures and food safety requirements to ensure that food is safe, free from pesticides and qualitatively adequate. Furthermore, human rights standards require States to protect vulnerable groups, such as farm workers and agricultural communities, children and pregnant women from the impacts of pesticides.
- 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
- 2017
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Pregnant women who are exposed to pesticides are at higher risk of miscarriage, pre-term delivery and birth defects. Studies have regularly found a cocktail of pesticides in umbilical cords and first faeces of newborns, proving prenatal exposure. Exposure to pesticides can be transferred from either parent. The most critical period for exposure for the father is three months prior to conception, while maternal exposure is most dangerous from the month before conception through the first trimester of pregnancy. Recent evidence suggests that pesticide exposure by pregnant mothers leads to higher risk of childhood leukaemia and other cancers, autism and respiratory illnesses. For example, neurotoxic pesticides can cross the placental barrier and affect the developing nervous system of the fetus, while other toxic chemicals can adversely impact its undeveloped immune system.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Infants
- Women
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 95
- Paragraph text
- Agroecological farming can help secure livelihoods for smallholder farmers and those living in poverty, including women, because there is no heavy reliance on expensive external inputs. If properly managed, biodiversity and efficient use of resources can enable smallholder farms to be more productive per hectare than large industrial farms (A/HRC/16/49).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2017
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- Women account for 70% of the world's hungry and are disproportionately affected by malnutrition and food insecurity. This ratio is overwhelming in some developing and Least Developed Countries, for example, more than one third of women in several South-Asian countries being underweight. Poor nutrition, lack of healthcare, social protection, limited economic opportunities and general neglect has excluded more women from global society than the number of men killed in 20th century wars, combined.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Structural violence is an under-examined barrier to women's right to adequate food and nutrition. Gender-based violence, which is a primary form of discrimination, impedes women from engaging in their own right to adequate food and nutrition, and efforts to overcome hunger and malnutrition. Some men control women's behavior and monitor women's food work in households. A woman's perceived failure to adequately prepare food and meals is a common justification for "disciplinary" action.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Legal barriers also prevent men and women from equally benefiting from paid employment through the sanctioning of systems of overt discrimination against women in the workplace. As of 2014, 77 countries, out of 140 countries with reported data, still had legal restrictions on the type of paid employment activities available to women. Even when equal employment opportunities are available, equal pay is not: only 59 countries form the same sample of countries legally require equal pay for work of equal value.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Unfortunately, the IPR regime disproportionately excludes women, particularly in the context of agriculture. For example, IPR tends to reward "high technology" but ignores the contributions that the female labour force makes to agricultural production. Meanwhile, the privatization of agricultural resources leads to increased monetization. Women are less likely than men to have discretionary income, and are therefore less able to afford expensive seeds that were once managed communally.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Non-corporate agricultural producers, and particularly women, have suffered from evolution in agricultural policy and economic trends over the past several decades. The devastating structural adjustment policies imposed throughout much of the developing world in the past decades, largely as a precondition of receiving development assistance or joining the global trade regime, have resulted in an overall loss in agricultural productivity, decreased yields, and increasingly precarious rural livelihoods.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Women are responsible for much of the food cultivation and preparation of family meals, but they disproportionately lack access to adequate food and are more vulnerable to malnutrition. In its general recommendation No. 34, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women noted that rural women were among those most exposed to malnutrition and hunger. Patriarchal norms contribute to gender inequality, with women facing systemic discrimination in accessing land and natural resources, decision-making, education and health-care services and experiencing increased vulnerability to violations of their sexual and reproductive rights. Such factors impede their ability to provide adequately nutritious foods for themselves and their families, leading to intergenerational cycles of malnutrition.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The reasons behind the failure to women's access to adequate food can arguably be linked to two structural disconnects which exist at the crossroads between Women's Rights and the Right to Food. The first disconnect refers to the failure in international law to fully endow women with their right to food. In the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) and the ICESCR, the right to food is accorded to himself and his family. Although the ICESCR General Comment 12 and other documents have underscored the non-discriminatory intention of the right to food, the archaic language of patriarchy taints the UDHR and treaty language. Concurrently the economic and social rights of the ICESCR are generally reviewed in CEDAW, but not the right to food, which is indirectly touched upon only through a call for rural women. In CEDAW, as in the Convention of the Rights of Child (CRC), food access and adequacy for adult women and teenage girls are addressed only on behalf of pregnant and breastfeeding females .
- 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
- Adolescents
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 77
- Paragraph text
- Agro-ecology is a reaction against the agricultural policies promoted by the Green Revolution that have replaced traditional farming with GMO seeds, extreme use of fertilization, and intensive resource use. It offers an important means through which women farmers can adapt to climate change, recognizes women as legitimate actors, and opens spaces for women to become more autonomous and empowered at productive, reproductive, and community levels. At the same time, agro-ecology is a proven alternative farming method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph