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SAARC Convention on Regional Arrangements for the Promotion of Child Welfare in South Asia 2002, para. e
- Paragraph text
- To ensure consistent focus on and pursuance of the regional priorities delineated above, States Parties shall promote solidarity, co-operation and collective action between and among SAARC Member States in the arena of child rights and development. States Parties view such cooperation as mutually reinforcing and capable of enhancing the quality and impact of their national efforts to create the enabling conditions and environment for full realization of child rights and attainment of the highest possible standard of child well being. In pursuance hereof, States Parties shall: e. set up a South Asian nutrition initiative aimed at enhancing knowledge and promoting greater awareness, practice and attainment of higher levels of nutrition, particularly for children and women, through mass education, adequate training and ensuring food security and equitable distribution of food at the family level.
- Body
- South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
- Document type
- Regional treaty
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access and participation of women and girls in education, training and science and technology, including for the promotion of women's equal access to full employment and decent work 2011, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- The Commission expresses continued concern at the negative impact of the global crises, such as the financial and economic crisis, the food crisis and continuing food insecurity, and the energy crisis, as well as the challenges posed by poverty, natural disasters and climate change, on the empowerment of women and girls, including their access and participation in education, training, science and technology.
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls 2014, para. 42cc
- Paragraph text
- [The Commission urges Governments, at all levels [...] to take the following actions:] [Realizing women's and girls' full enjoyment of all human rights]: Recognize, resource and support programmes that advance gender equality and women's rights in all areas of economic activities, including fisheries and aquaculture, to address food security and nutrition, and meaningfully facilitate women's contributions to small-scale and artisan fisheries and aquaculture, commercial fisheries, and the use and care of oceans and seas;
- Body
- Commission on the Status of Women
- Document type
- CSW Agreed Conclusions / Declaration
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Conclusion On Children At Risk 2007, para. (h) ix
- Paragraph text
- [Further recommends that States, UNHCR and other relevant agencies and partners undertake the following non-exhaustive prevention, response and solution measures in order to address specific wider environmental or individual risks factors:] Make all efforts to ensure integrated nutrition and health interventions and access to adequate food through measures that address the root causes of food insecurity and malnutrition, including by enhancing families' enjoyment of self-reliance, age and gender-sensitive food distribution systems, targeted nutrition programmes for pregnant women and children during their critical first years of development, and by providing treatment for malnourished children;
- Body
- Executive Committee of the Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
- Document type
- ExCom Conclusion
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2007
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women and health 1999, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- The Committee notes that the full realization of women's right to health can be achieved only when States parties fulfil their obligation to respect, protect and promote women's fundamental human right to nutritional well-being throughout their lifespan by means of a food supply that is safe, nutritious and adapted to local conditions. To this end, States parties should take steps to facilitate physical and economic access to productive resources, especially for rural women, and to otherwise ensure that the special nutritional needs of all women within their jurisdiction are met.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 1999
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Rights of rural women 2016, para. 3
- Paragraph text
- Currently, rural women represent a quarter of the world's population. They play a crucial role in maintaining and improving rural livelihoods and strengthening rural communities. In recent years, the Committee has developed a significant body of jurisprudence on the rights of rural women and the challenges that they face, in particular through concluding observations. Several United Nations conferences have recognized the role of rural women in agriculture, rural development, food and nutrition, and poverty reduction. Hence, there is a need for further specific attention to rural women, as recognized in the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Rights of rural women 2016, para. 62a
- Paragraph text
- [States parties should implement agricultural policies that support rural women farmers, recognize and protect the natural commons, promote organic farming and protect rural women from harmful pesticides and fertilizers. They should ensure that rural women have effective access to agricultural resources, including high-quality seeds, tools, knowledge and information, as well as equipment and resources for organic farming. In addition, States parties should:] Respect and protect rural women's traditional and eco-friendly agricultural knowledge, in particular the right of women to preserve, use and exchange traditional and native seeds;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Rights of rural women 2016, para. 62b
- Paragraph text
- [States parties should implement agricultural policies that support rural women farmers, recognize and protect the natural commons, promote organic farming and protect rural women from harmful pesticides and fertilizers. They should ensure that rural women have effective access to agricultural resources, including high-quality seeds, tools, knowledge and information, as well as equipment and resources for organic farming. In addition, States parties should:] Protect and conserve native and endemic plant species and varieties that are a source of food and medicine, and prevent patenting by national and transnational companies to the extent that it threatens the rights of rural women. States parties should prohibit contractual requirements on the mandatory purchase of seeds producing plants whose seeds are sterile ("terminator seeds"), which prevent rural women from saving fertile seeds;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate food (Art. 11) 1999, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- The strategy should give particular attention to the need to prevent discrimination in access to food or resources for food. This should include: guarantees of full and equal access to economic resources, particularly for women, including the right to inheritance and the ownership of land and other property, credit, natural resources and appropriate technology; measures to respect and protect self-employment and work which provides a remuneration ensuring a decent living for wage earners and their families (as stipulated in article 7 (a) (ii) of the Covenant); maintaining registries on rights in land (including forests).
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 1999
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to adequate food (Art. 11) 1999, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, have physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement. The right to adequate food shall therefore not be interpreted in a narrow or restrictive sense which equates it with a minimum package of calories, proteins and other specific nutrients. The right to adequate food will have to be realized progressively. However, States have a core obligation to take the necessary action to mitigate and alleviate hunger as provided for in paragraph 2 of article 11, even in times of natural or other disasters.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 1999
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to water (Art. 11 and 12) 2002, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- The Committee notes the importance of ensuring sustainable access to water resources for agriculture to realize the right to adequate food (see General Comment No.12 (1999)). Attention should be given to ensuring that disadvantaged and marginalized farmers, including women farmers, have equitable access to water and water management systems, including sustainable rain harvesting and irrigation technology. Taking note of the duty in article 1, paragraph 2, of the Covenant, which provides that a people may not "be deprived of its means of subsistence", States parties should ensure that there is adequate access to water for subsistence farming and for securing the livelihoods of indigenous peoples.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Women
- Year
- 2002
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights 2005, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Article 11 of the Covenant requires States parties to recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for him/herself and his/her family, including adequate housing (para. 1) and adequate food (para. 2). Implementing article 3, in relation to article 11, paragraph 1, requires that women have a right to own, use or otherwise control housing, land and property on an equal basis with men, and to access necessary resources to do so. Implementing article 3, in relation to article 11, paragraph 2, also requires States parties, inter alia, to ensure that women have access to or control over means of food production, and actively to address customary practices under which women are not allowed to eat until the men are fully fed, or are only allowed less nutritious food.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2005
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health 2013, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Measures for fulfilling States' obligations to ensure access to nutritionally adequate, culturally appropriate and safe food and to combat malnutrition will need to be adopted according to the specific context. Effective direct nutrition interventions for pregnant women include addressing anaemia and folic acid and iodine deficiency and providing calcium supplementation. Prevention and management of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, should be ensured for all women of reproductive age to benefit their health and ensure healthy foetal and infant development.
- Body
- Committee on the Rights of the Child
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Infants
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Eliminating discrimination against women in the area of health and safety, with a focus on the instrumentalization of women's bodies 2016, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- During pregnancy, many women are vulnerable to malnutrition owing to discrimination in the allocation of food. This can result in a serious and irreversible deterioration of women's general health and increase the risk of premature delivery, low birth weight and birth defects. After childbirth, such discrimination can continue to affect women's health, including in connection with breastfeeding. Furthermore, as stated by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, structural violence is an underexamined barrier to women's right to adequate food and nutrition. Gender-based violence, which is a primary form of discrimination, can impede women from accessing adequate food and nutrition.
- Body
- Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- A human rights-based approach requires a focus on the most vulnerable, those who are most often excluded from progress. Contract farming schemes often exclude the poorest farmers, who have limited and marginal land and fewer resources to invest and live in remote areas. Researchers note that the transaction costs associated with providing inputs, credit and extension services and carrying out product collection and grading are disincentives for firms to contract with smallholders, so firms often prefer to engage with medium- or large-scale farmers. Unless vulnerable and marginalized groups are considered specifically, they may be excluded from the opportunities that these business models seek to create. Moreover, small-scale farmers are usually in weaker bargaining positions. They may be illiterate or lack the skills to effectively defend their rights and interests in contract negotiations. Women often are marginalized, particularly where decisions are made at the community level through decision-making processes from which they are de facto excluded.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- 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. 21
- Paragraph text
- Women have less access to contract farming than men. A study found that in the Kenyan horticulture export industry, women comprised fewer than 10 per cent of contracted farmers, and in a sample of 59 contract farmers for French beans exported from Senegal, only one was a woman. The ability of women to benefit from contract farming is determined by their rights over land and by the power relationships both within households or, when the contract is negotiated through representatives of the community or the farmers' organizations, within those groups. Indeed, even where most of the work is in fact performed by the wife and other family members, it is not unusual for the contract to be signed by the husband, as head of the household, as is seen in sugar contract farming in South Africa or in vegetable contract farming in the Indian Punjab. In addition, studies suggest that women lose control over decision-making when crops are produced for cash rather than for local consumption. While women decide about the use of food produced for self-consumption, they do not decide how the income of the household is spent. Therefore, unless the framework for contract farming respects women's rights and is gender sensitive, it will undermine gender equality. Research done on bean contract farming in Kenya shows, for instance, that while women performed most of the work, they received a limited portion of the revenues from the contract. In addition, where they did receive cash, they were expected to contribute to household expenditures even when this would have been the husband's responsibility. Strengthening the position of women is not only a matter of guaranteeing the right to equality of treatment, but also a means of improving productivity, since women receiving a greater proportion of the crop income will have a greater incentive to increase production. Moreover, household food security and children's health, nutrition and education all gain from improved income for women, in comparison to the gains that result from improved income for men. The more women decide on how to spend household income, the more it is usually spent on children's needs; a child's chance of survival increases by 20 per cent when the mother controls the household budget (see A/HRC/13/32, para. 58).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- The diversity of species on farms managed following agroecological principles, as well as in urban or peri-urban agriculture, is an important asset in this regard. For example, it has been estimated that indigenous fruits contribute on average about 42 per cent of the natural food-basket that rural households rely on in southern Africa. This is not only an important source of vitamins and other micronutrients, but it also may be critical for sustenance during lean seasons. Nutritional diversity, enabled by increased diversity in the field, is of particular importance to children and women.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Ethnic minorities
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Specific, targeted schemes should ensure that women are empowered and encouraged to participate in this construction of knowledge. Culturally-sensitive participatory initiatives with female project staff and all-female working groups, and an increase in locally-recruited female agricultural extension staff and village motivators facing fewer cultural and language barriers, should counterbalance the greater access that men have to formal sources of agricultural knowledge. It is a source of concern to the Special Rapporteur that, while women face a number of specific obstacles (poor access to capital and land, the double burden of work in their productive and family roles, and low participation in decision-making), gender issues are incorporated into less than 10 per cent of development assistance in agriculture, and women farmers receive only 5 per cent of agricultural extension services worldwide. In principle, agroecology can benefit women most, because it is they who encounter most difficulties in accessing external inputs or subsidies. But their ability to benefit should not be treated as automatic; it requires that affirmative action directed specifically towards women be taken.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The fisheries sector can contribute to the realization of the right to food by providing employment and income and sustaining local economies. Globally, 54.8 million people are engaged in capture fisheries and aquaculture and approximately three times as many are involved in upstream and downstream activities (e.g. fish processing, selling, net-making and boatbuilding). Small-scale fisheries predominate in developing countries, where most fishing-related employment resides. Industrial boats employ some 200 people for every 1,000 tons of fish caught, while small-scale fishing methods (used by 90 to 95 per cent of people in the fisheries sector) employ some 2,400 people for the same amount of fish. This greater intensity of labour has led experts to conclude that the small-scale fisheries sector is particularly pro-poor. Women comprise about half of the global fisheries workforce, typically concentrated in the pre-harvest and post-harvest sector. While employment is stagnating in wild-capture fisheries in most regions, it is increasing in aquaculture, especially in Asia, where employment rose from some 3.7 million people in 1990 to well in excess of 10 million people by the late 2000s (see table 1).
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- The small-scale fisheries sector is therefore an extremely important, albeit undervalued, source of livelihood, providing employment and income to millions of people, including women, in the post-harvest sector. It also plays an important safety net function, however. In times of crisis, often caused by failing agriculture, conflict or recession, fishing provides important part-time or temporary income or relatively free food. The increased price volatility of food commodities created by climate change and other factors could make this role even more important in the future. Nevertheless, for fishing to provide this safety net, it must be kept relatively open and free. This creates tension with some approaches to avoiding overfishing, in particular exclusive user rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 50d
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur has previously described the role that human rights impact assessments of trade and investment agreements can play in allowing countries to discharge their human rights obligations (see A/HRC/19/59/Add.5). Trade and access agreements in fisheries provide another such illustration. The above assessment of the potential opportunities and risks of such agreements (see paras. 29-32) may serve to identify the questions that should be asked in any impact assessment before the conclusion of an agreement by the coastal State. These are, for example:] Are measures in place to ensure that export-oriented fishing creates decent work opportunities to ensure an adequate standard of living? Overall, will the agreement increase the incomes of the poorest and most marginalized groups within the coastal communities, especially women?
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Assessments of these various nutrition promotion initiatives and the projects under the umbrella of the SUN initiative fall outside the scope of the present report. The increasing international profile of nutrition should be welcomed. It is positive too that SUN acknowledges the need for efforts to scale up nutrition to be driven by national authorities with a cross-sectoral approach, and that it brings together commitment and support from developing country Governments, donors, civil society, development agencies and the private sector. In providing assistance however, these actors must not overlook the entitlements that have been established under international law for women, children, minorities, refugees and internally displaced persons, and other groups that may be subjected to marginalization and discrimination. The Special Rapporteur, while welcoming the progress made through SUN, calls for an explicit alignment of its initiatives with human rights, including the right to food. A number of observations should be made in this regard.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Second, the focus on pregnant and lactating women and infants in some recent nutrition initiatives, while understandable, should not lessen the need to address the nutritional needs of others, including children, women who are not pregnant or lactating, adolescents and older persons. The right to adequate food, which includes adequate nutrition, is a universal right guaranteed to all. This pleads in favour of broad-based national strategies for the realization of the right to food that address the full range of factors causing malnutrition, rather than narrowly focused initiatives that address the specific needs of a child's development between conception and the second birthday.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Infants
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Third, interventions aimed at improving nutrition and targeting pregnant or lactating women and children under 2 years old, while vital, do not substitute for addressing the structural causes of undernutrition or inadequate diets. The Special Rapporteur noted previously that chief among these structural causes are inequitable food systems that are not sufficiently inclusive of the poorest, small-scale farmers and that do not reduce rural poverty; and the priority given to monocropping of certain staples over more diverse farming systems that would help to ensure more adequate diets. The violations of women's rights, gender inequality and the lack of women's empowerment are another major factor explaining poor nutritional outcomes. Improving women's access to productive resources, allowing women to make decisions regarding the household budget and protecting women from pressure, including economic pressure, to renounce optimal breastfeeding practices would contribute significantly to positive nutritional outcomes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- The requirement of non-discrimination ensures that interventions are targeted, with a focus on the most vulnerable and marginalized groups, and that they are gender sensitive. Finally, the adoption of national strategies for the realization of the right to food by Governments through participatory means should ensure that the needs of all groups are identified, including those of pregnant and lactating women and infants, and actions planned to address those needs. Such strategies should also link efforts to improve nutrition during early childhood with later life, adopting a life-course perspective as recommended by WHO, in order to take into account, for instance, that in contrast to breastfeeding, formula feeding may be a cause of obesity; they should facilitate inter-departmental coordination, recognizing that the right to adequate diets requires a collaborative effort across all government; and they should create a stable, multi-year framework, providing the necessary conditions both for private investment and for a continued effort of government.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Infants
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Agricultural policies led to these shifts in diets through two channels. First, maize and soybean have become a conveniently cheap input for the food processing and livestock industries. Most of the world's soybean is processed into meal to feed animals and into vegetable oil. Increasingly larger quantities of cereals (primarily maize) are used to produce sweeteners derived from starch (high-fructose corn syrup), largely explaining the global increase in caloric sweetener consumed. In 2000, 306 kcal were consumed per person per day, about a third more than in 1962, and caloric sweeteners by then also accounted for a larger share of both total energy and total carbohydrates consumed. Because the prices of basic crops went through such a significant decline, the agrifood industry responded by "adding value" by heavily processing foods, leading to diets richer in saturated and trans-fatty acids, salt, and sugars. This, combined with urbanization and higher employment rates for women, precipitated the rapid expansion for processed foods, both domestically and through exports dumped on foreign markets.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- The impacts of increasingly globalized food chains and the uniformization of diets across the globe have disparate impacts across population groups. As a country transitions towards higher income levels, the burden of overweight and obesity shifts. The poorest segment of the population is at low risk of obesity in poor countries, but in upper-middle income developing economies (with a gross national product per capita of over about US$ 2,500) and in high-income countries, it is the poorest who are most negatively affected. In high-income countries, while the poor bear a disproportionate burden of overweight or obesity, women are particularly at risk because their incomes are on average lower than those of men, and because men in the low-income group often are employed on tasks that are physically demanding and require large expenses of energy. Overweight or obese women tend to give birth to children who themselves tend to be overweight or obese, resulting in lower productivity and discrimination. Thus, socio-economic disadvantage is perpetuated across generations by the channel of overweight or obesity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Courts may contribute to strengthening benefits into legal entitlements. Following the filing of the public interest litigation Petition (Civil) No. 196/2001, People's Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India and Others (PUCL), the Supreme Court of India derived from the right to life mentioned in article 21 of the Constitution a series of requirements articulating how various social programmes should be expanded and implemented in order to ensure that the population is guaranteed a basic nutritional floor. This is to this date the most spectacular case of a court protecting the right to food. The Court prohibited the withdrawal of the benefits provided under existing schemes, including feeding programmes for infants, pregnant and nursing mothers and adolescent girls; midday school meal programmes; pensions for the aged; and a cash-for-work programme for the able-bodied, thus converting such benefits into legal entitlements. Moreover, the Court expanded on and strengthened existing schemes, to ensure that they provide effective protection against hunger. For instance, it ordered that school meals be locally produced and be cooked and hot, whereas in the past children were fed with dry snacks or grain, and that preference be given, in the hiring of cooks, to Dalit women; it raised the level of old-age pensions; and, consistent with the idea that the schemes implement a constitutional right, it ordered their universalization, significantly expanding the number of beneficiaries. To supervise the implementation of its orders, the Court also established two independent Commissioners to monitor the implementation of programmes fulfilling the right to food throughout the country.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 29
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- Other examples include the parallel vigilance committees set up in 1992 by women from low-income neighbourhoods in Mumbai to monitor the fair price shops under the Public Distribution System; the public expenditure tracking surveys in Ghana, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania to identify diversion of funds in the health and education sectors; citizens' report cards in India, the Philippines and a range of African countries, through which citizens rate the quality of the public services they are provided; community score cards in the Gambia, Kenya and Malawi, which combine report cards with public meetings between communities and public service providers; participatory audits in the Philippines or as conducted by Javanese farmers in Indonesia. Beyond post hoc accountability, participation may extend to the design of policies and the ranking of budgetary priorities: in Brazil, following the example of Porto Alegre, a number of cities have elaborated participatory budgets.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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