A/71/282 affordable, the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical a nd mental health cannot be met. 47 59. The Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security also recogn ize that State obligations to ensure the right to food include responsibilities towards ensuring standards of nutrition and health. In the Guidelines, it is noted that “States should take measures to maintain, adapt or strengthen dietary diversity and heal thy eating habits and food preparation, as well as feeding patterns, including breastfeeding, while ensuring that changes in availability and access to food supply do not negatively affect dietary composition and intake”. 48 60. A relatively new proposal, the draft Framework Convention on Global Health, suggests that the right to adequate food should be interpreted to mean the right to a standard of nutritional quality and not just the right to a caloric minimum. 46 61. Several international conferences under United Nations auspices have consolidated international law by recognizing nutrition and health within the context of the human right to food. As early as 1992, the World Declaration on Nutrition of the First International Conference on Nutrition referred to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the right to food, with States committing to ensure “sustained nutritional well-being for all people”. The Rome Declaration on World Food Security, adopted in 1996, reiterated “the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger”. This was reaffirmed at the Second International Conference on Nutrition, in 2014. 62. While nutrition support in the past was often considered charitable action, it is increasingly regarded as a result of a failure to protect an essential human right, attributed largely to a lack of sufficient nutrition governance and accountability. Applying a human rights-based approach to nutrition facilitates the implementation of procedural rights, such as participation, accountability, non -discrimination and transparency. The Second International Conference on Nutrition confirmed that embedding nutrition in a human rights agenda made issues of governance and accountability central to effective implementation. 63. Access to nutritious food is often a key indicator of socioeconomic inequalities. Discussing nutrition within a rights -based framework is critical to ensuring that marginalized and vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by malnutrition are guaranteed a certain level of nutrition and health, rather than a minimum number of calories needed for survival. Such recognition is crucial for the reduction of nutritional and health inequalities around the world. 46 64. Children and pregnant and lactating women enjoy even further protections. The Convention on the Rights of the Child confirms that, to ensure the full implementation of a child’s right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health, States must take appropriate measures to combat disease and malnutrition through, inter alia, the provision of “adequate nutritious foods” (art. 24 (2) (c)) and that in case of need they must provide material assistance and support programmes, including with regard to nutrition (art. 27 (3)). The Convention also calls for the protection and promotion of exclusive breastfeeding for infants up to 6 months of __________________ 47 48 16/24 Sims, “Obesity prevention” (see footnote 32). Guideline 10.1. 16-13441