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Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- Access to land is thus closely related to the right to adequate food, as recognized under article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The right to food requires that each individual, alone or in community with others, have physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement. States may be under an obligation to provide food where "an individual or group is unable, for reasons beyond their control, to enjoy the right to adequate food by the means at their disposal". Primarily, however, the right to food requires that States refrain from taking measures that may deprive individuals of access to productive resources on which they depend when they produce food for themselves (the obligation to respect), that they protect such access from encroachment by other private parties (the obligation to protect) and that they seek to strengthen people's access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure their livelihoods, including food security (the obligation to fulfil).
- 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
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- Access to land and security of tenure are essential to ensure the enjoyment of not only the right to food, but also other human rights, including the right to work (for landless peasants) and the right to housing. This fact led the former Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing to conclude that the Human Rights Council should "ensure the recognition in international human rights law of land as a human right". The present report confirms that conclusion, while taking the right to food as its departure point. It describes the increasing pressures on land. It then discusses the right of land users to be protected in terms of their existing access to natural resources, particularly land. It also argues in favour of ensuring more equitable access to land.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Industrial uses of land and urbanization have also increased in recent years, further heightening the competition: 19.5 million hectares of farmland are converted annually into land for industrial and real estate development. Researchers have documented cases in which farmers' lands have been expropriated for mining projects or for the building of industrial plants, in conditions amounting to forced eviction with no or insufficient compensation. In certain regions, the expansion of industrial areas has taken the form of the establishment of special economic zones aimed at creating conditions favourable for the arrival of foreign investors. Large infrastructure projects such as dams and highways have also had an important impact, and a significant proportion of the communications sent to Governments by the Special Rapporteur during the period from 2003 to 2009 relates to evictions for such projects.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Under the right to property, land users are also protected from evictions in certain circumstances, as stipulated in article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, article 1 of the First Protocol to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and article 21 of the American Convention on Human Rights. While the conditions under which eviction may take place vary from instrument to instrument, the most common requirements are the following: an eviction must have a valid (or legitimate) public purpose (a condition that should exclude eviction to serve purely private interests); it must not be discriminatory; it must meet the requirements of due process; and it must be accompanied by fair compensation. Although this protection from arbitrary expropriation does not in principle extend to all forms of illegal occupation, it generally extends to forms of land occupation that are not formally recognized through a legal title ("extra-legal") or that are based only on customary tenure.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- In the presence of the sometimes highly unequal distribution of land in rural areas, strengthening security of tenure may not be sufficient; land redistribution may be required. Article 11, paragraph 2 (a), of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes the connection between the right to food and the use of natural resources, committing States to "developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources". This should be understood as encouraging agrarian reform that leads to more equitable distribution of land for the benefit of smallholders, both because of the inverse relationship between farm size and productivity and because small-scale farming (and linking farmers more closely to the land) may lead to more responsible use of the soil. The Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security, adopted in 2004 by the States members of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), also encourage agrarian reform (guideline 8.1).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- There are strong arguments, however, in favour of land reform as contributing to the progressive realization of the human right to food, at least in contexts characterized by (a) a high degree of concentration of land ownership (such as a level of inequality higher than a Gini coefficient of 0.65), combined with (b) a significant level of rural poverty attributable to landlessness or the cultivation of excessively small plots of land by smallholders. The implication is that States should monitor existing inequalities in terms of access to land and, where both circumstances are present, should allocate the maximum available resources to agrarian reform schemes and implement those programmes in accordance with the principles of participation, transparency and accountability, to protect them from being appropriated by local elites. Where States fail to establish land redistribution schemes, they should provide justifications for not having done so.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- Farmers can be encouraged to form their own cooperatives, farmer associations or collectives. While such farmer-controlled enterprises can enter into contract farming schemes (in conditions more favourable to the members), they also can strengthen farmers' negotiating skills and bargaining positions in their dealings with the suppliers of inputs and commodity buyers; they can facilitate access to markets and to moving towards the processing, packaging and marketing of crops; and they can improve the ability of their members to contribute to the design and implementation of public policies that affect them (see A/HRC/13/33, paras. 30 and 31). For instance, the total income of farmers with group marketing in the Philippines (as supported by the MASIPAG network, which reaches 35,000 farmers practising sustainable agriculture) is about 45 per cent higher than the income of other farmers.
- 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
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Governments should support the organization of farmers into cooperatives and other types of producers' organizations that can improve farmers' bargaining position and help them to move up the value chain into the produce packaging, processing and marketing operations and help them to acquire inputs and sell their produce under better circumstances. This condition is necessary to ensure fairness in the negotiations between investors and farmers' organizations. Governments could also provide legal advice to farmers or their organizations to enhance their negotiating position and to ensure that any contract they choose to enter into is economically sustainable for them.
- 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
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- Governments should ensure that the degree of competition among traders is sufficient to prevent farmers from being locked into unequal relationships with a particular trader in the absence of alternative buyers for a given crop. In particular, Governments should ensure that the expansion of contract farming does not result in the dismantling of public support schemes and the privatization of agricultural extension services, which would narrow the range of options available to small-scale farmers and increase the asymmetry of power between unorganized small-scale farmers and private actors operating on a national, regional or global scale.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- Governments should ensure that regulatory oversight keeps pace with the level of the expansion and the complexity of business models, including small-scale farming. Certain key clauses of contracts should be regulated, including those concerning price fixing, quality grading and the conditions under which inputs are provided, and the reservation of a portion of land for the production of food crops for self-consumption. The contracts, once agreed upon by the parties, could be subjected to vetting by authorities to ensure that any abuse is identified and, where appropriate, remedied; in addition, non-judicial dispute resolution mechanisms should be made available. Particular attention should be paid to the seven critical aspects and good practices for contract farming identified in section III above. [...]
- 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
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Development partners and international organizations can ensure that contract farming schemes work for the benefit of the poor small-scale food producers and respect the principles of the right to adequate food, including by increasing the capacity of community-based organizations to negotiate equitable agreements with the private sector, by contributing to financing equity participation by local communities in joint ventures or by supporting farmer-controlled enterprises to acquire the assets and managerial skills necessary to climb up the value chain, as initial support is frequently needed to start businesses that will become self-sustaining.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Agroecological practices require the supply of public goods such as extension services, storage facilities, rural infrastructure (roads, electricity, information and communication technologies) and therefore access to regional and local markets, access to credit and insurance against weather-related risks, agricultural research and development, education, and support to farmer's organizations and cooperatives. While this requires funding, the investment can be significantly more sustainable than the provision of private goods, such as fertilizers or pesticides that farmers can only afford so long as they are subsidized. While many efforts have been made since 2008 to reinvest in agriculture, too little attention has been paid to the differences between the various types of investment required and to understanding their impacts on the reduction of rural poverty. This has led World Bank economists to note that "underinvestment in agriculture is […] compounded by extensive misinvestment" with a bias towards the provision of private goods, sometimes motivated by political considerations. Research based on the study of 15 Latin American countries over the period 1985-2001 in which government subsidies for private goods was distinguished from expenditures in public goods indicated that, within a fixed national agriculture budget, a reallocation of 10 per cent of spending to supplying public goods increases agricultural per capita income by 5 per cent, while a 10 per cent increase in public spending on agriculture, keeping the spending composition constant, increases per capita agricultural income by only 2 per cent. In other words, "even without changing overall expenditures, governments can improve the economic performance of their agricultural sectors by devoting a greater share of those expenditures to social services and public goods instead of non-social subsidies." Thus, while the provision or subsidization of private goods may be necessary up to a point, the opportunity costs should be carefully considered.
- 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
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Agroecological practices are best adopted when they are not imposed top-down but shared from farmer to farmer. Extension services play a key role in favouring the scaling up of agroecology. An improved dissemination of knowledge by horizontal means transforms the nature of knowledge itself, which becomes the product of a network. It should encourage farmers, particularly small-scale farmers, living in the most remote areas to identify innovative solutions, by working with experts towards a co-construction of knowledge to ensure that advances will benefit them as a matter of priority, rather than only benefiting the better-off producers. Co-construction is key for the realization of the right to food. First, it enables public authorities to benefit from the experience and insights of the farmers. Rather than treating smallholder farmers as beneficiaries of aid, they should be seen as experts with knowledge that is complementary to formalized expertise. Second, as the Special Rapporteur has previously illustrated in describing participatory plant-breeding, participation can ensure that policies and programmes are truly responsive to the needs of vulnerable groups, who will question projects that fail to improve their situation. Third, participation empowers the poor - a vital step towards poverty alleviation. Lack of power is a source of poverty, as marginal communities often receive less support than the groups that are better connected to government. Poverty exacerbates this lack of power, creating a vicious circle of further disempowerment. Fourth, policies that are co-designed with farmers have a high degree of legitimacy and thus favour better planning of investment and production and better up-take by other farmers. Participation of food-insecure groups in the policies that affect them should become a crucial element of all food security policies, from policy design to the assessment of results to the decision on research priorities. Indeed, improving the situation of millions of food-insecure peasants cannot be done without them.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- The relationship between fishmeal and fish-food availability for human consumption is complex: the aquaculture industry has become more efficient in its use of fishmeal (for example, the use of plant-based feed to grow fish or a greater use of fish waste from industrial fish-processing factories: about one quarter of all fishmeal and fish oil comes from offcuts), significant regional variations exist and trade-offs may appear less obvious because of the higher costs in processing fish for human consumption compared to processing fish for fishmeal. Policy initiatives may reduce the competition between fishmeal and fish-food availability for human consumption. Peru supplies about half of the world's fishmeal and fish oil, but also needs to address food insecurity. To combat malnutrition, the Government has been promoting direct human consumption of fish since 2006, with 30 per cent of the food security budget ($80 million) spent on programmes to stimulate supply of and demand for fish products for human consumption. It has also imposed restrictions on the industry to ensure a proportion of fish that cannot be used for reduction purposes.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- There has been notable progress in providing exclusive rights to coastal areas for small-scale fishers. In many developing countries, Governments have introduced exclusive artisanal fishing zones, often under pressure from their small-scale sectors. In Cambodia, community-based dialogues and participatory research on the causes of conflict and overfishing in Tonle Sap Lake (the largest freshwater lake in South-East Asia, providing employment to an estimated 3 million people) resulted in the cancellation of all commercial fishing licences and the establishment of community-based user rights for small-scale and subsistence fisheries. This success illustrates the positive poverty-reduction outcomes of community deliberation and participation in 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
- All
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 58
- Paragraph text
- There is also growing recognition that top-down management strategies have proved unsuccessful for the small-scale sector. The active and meaningful participation by communities in the management of fisheries and the integration into decision-making of local or traditional knowledge of fish and marine habitats held by fishers is paramount. Indeed, there has been significant progress in terms of decentralization and co-management arrangements. Researchers recently identified 130 co-management schemes, covering 44 developed and developing countries, often showing how local communities have been able to develop legitimate institutions of self-governance and established sustainable approaches to managing fishing intensity and ecosystem impacts.
- 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
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 63e
- Paragraph text
- [To preserve the long-term sustainability of fishing and the availability of local fish as food, in particular by combating overfishing, all States should:] Reduce the proportion of fish used for fishmeal purposes, including by promoting direct human consumption of some small and nutritious fish, curbing demand for fish proteins from fish higher up the food chain (such as tuna and salmon or farmed carnivorous species such as prawns) by affluent consumers, which leads to overexploitation of marine resources worldwide, and considering imposing restrictions on the proportion of fish that can be used for reduction purposes.
- 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
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- As such, States should set binding targets in pursuing a double-track approach: (a) protecting the right to adequate diets; and (b) ensuring a transition towards more sustainable diets. They should ensure accountability, in accordance with the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, by establishing independent monitoring mechanisms and allowing individual victims or organizations to file claims against any failures to take the measures required under the national strategy for the realization of the right to food; this is what distinguishes legal obligations from mere policy commitments. Among the indicators that should be used to monitor the implementation of national strategies to prevent non-communicable diseases, WHO should therefore include the existence of a binding legal framework, clearly allocating responsibilities, and including sanctions where the measures that are pledged are not adopted, and it should include the requirements of participation and non-discrimination that form part of an approach based on 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
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The right to food has more to do with modes of production and issues of distribution than with levels of food production alone. It primarily aims to guarantee to each person, individually or as part of a group, permanent and secure access to diets that are adequate from the nutritional point of view, sustainably produced and culturally acceptable. Such access can be ensured through three channels that often operate in combination: (a) self-production; (b) access to income-generating activities; and (c) social protection, whether informally through community support or through State-administered redistributive mechanisms. As such, depending on the population concerned, the right to food is closely related to the right of access to resources such as land, water, forests and seeds, that are essential to those who produce food for their own consumption; the right to work, guaranteed under article 6 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and the right to social security, protected under article 9 of 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
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- It is sometimes believed that, owing to the fact that certain dimensions of the right to adequate food can be realized only progressively, courts have no role to play in adjudicating claims concerning the alleged insufficiency of measures adopted by the State to discharge this third-level obligation. This betrays a fundamental misunderstanding about the notion of progressive realization. Progressive realization is the opposite of passivity. It requires immediate steps that are deliberate, concrete and targeted and that aim to "move as expeditiously and effectively as possible" towards the full realization of economic, social and cultural rights (see E/1991/23-E/C.12/1990/8, annex III, paras. 2, 8 and 9).
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph