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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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- Youth
- Year
- 2011
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).
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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).
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2012
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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;
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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;
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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?
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2015
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Finally, land reform may be seen as an opportunity to strengthen access to land for women, particularly single women and widows. Article 14, paragraph 2 (g), of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women guarantees the right of women to equal treatment in land and agrarian reform as well as in land resettlement schemes. However, there remain laws and social customs such as those ensuring that the land of a deceased husband belongs to his sons, not to his widow, despite the flagrant violation of women's rights to which this leads. As a result, women still represent a significant minority of the total number of title-holders, as illustrated by the statistics set out in figure II.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2010
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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- This transforms the relationship between the authorities in charge of delivering the benefits and the beneficiaries into a relationship between duty-bearers and rights-holders. The institutionalization of social protection schemes facilitates decentralized monitoring of their implementation and broader accountability. It acts as a safeguard against elite capture, corruption, political clientelism or discrimination. Various studies also show that, in the absence of such safeguards, farm inputs as well as extension services may benefit primarily the elites or the best-connected households, leaving aside the poorest producers or those living in remote areas, as well as women.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Women also face discrimination in accessing extension services. First, women are underrepresented among extension services agents. Yet, in some contexts, social or cultural rules may prohibit contacts between a woman farmer and a male agricultural agent, especially when the woman is single, widowed or abandoned. Moreover, male agents may have less understanding for the specific constraints faced by women. Second, extension services tend to presume that any knowledge transmitted to the men will automatically trickle down to the women and so that they benefit equally, and meetings may be organized without taking into account the specific time and mobility constraints of women. This reinforces the pre-existing imbalances in decision-making within the household and neglects the fact that the needs of women may be different from those of men.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Many public works schemes set aside a quota for women. India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), introduced in 2005 and which benefited 52.5 million households in 2009-2010, provides for one third of the employment to be allocated to women. The Rural Maintenance Programme in Bangladesh goes even further; it is an all-women programme, successfully employing over 50,000 rural women to maintain 60,000 miles of earthen roads. While access to employment in such programmes can favour the empowerment of women, paying greater attention to the gender impacts could significantly increase their benefits to women:
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph