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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.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Personas afectadas
- All
- N.A.
- Año
- 2011
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
Párrafo
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Agroecology is both a science and a set of practices. It was created by the convergence of two scientific disciplines: agronomy and ecology. As a science, agroecology is the "application of ecological science to the study, design and management of sustainable agroecosystems." As a set of agricultural practices, agroecology seeks ways to enhance agricultural systems by mimicking natural processes, thus creating beneficial biological interactions and synergies among the components of the agroecosystem. It provides the most favourable soil conditions for plant growth, particularly by managing organic matter and by raising soil biotic activity. The core principles of agroecology include recycling nutrients and energy on the farm, rather than introducing external inputs; integrating crops and livestock; diversifying species and genetic resources in agroecosystems over time and space; and focusing on interactions and productivity across the agricultural system, rather than focusing on individual species. Agroecology is highly knowledge-intensive, based on techniques that are not delivered top-down but developed on the basis of farmers' knowledge and experimentation.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
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- N.A.
- Año
- 2011
- Tipo de párrafo
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Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 26
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- In the past, Green Revolution approaches have focused primarily on boosting cereal crops. However, rice, wheat and maize are mainly sources of carbohydrates: they contain relatively little protein, and few of the other nutrients essential for adequate diets. The shift from diversified cropping systems to simplified cereal-based systems thus contributed to micronutrient malnutrition in many developing countries. Indeed, of the over 80,000 plant species available to humans, rice, wheat and maize supply the bulk of our protein and energy needs. Nutritionists now increasingly insist on the need for more diverse agro-ecosystems, in order to ensure a more diversified nutrient output of the farming systems.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
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- Año
- 2011
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Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- In previous reports, the Special Rapporteur has insisted on the need to facilitate the ability of small-scale farmers to join supply chains. Farmers should also be encouraged to move up the value chain by adding value to raw products through assuming increased roles in packaging, processing, and marketing their produce. Cooperatives can help them achieve economies of scale to facilitate adding value. This can also be supported by novel types of partnerships with the private sector. However, improved access to markets is essential if this is to happen. Better access to markets requires the development of communication routes, particularly rural feeder roads. The marginal returns to public spending on feeder roads for agriculture output and poverty reduction has been estimated to be "three to four times larger than the return to public spending on murram and tarmac roads." In addition, support for agroecological practices will fail to achieve the desired results if markets are not organized to protect farmers from volatile prices and the dumping of subsidized products on their local markets, which can seriously disrupt local production. Similarly, public procurement systems, fiscal incentives and credit, and land tenure policies - all areas on which the Special Rapporteur has made contributions in the past - must be aligned with the need to make the transition towards low-carbon and low-external-input modes of production in which farmers co-design the policies that affect them. The school-feeding programme in Brazil for instance, has been used as a leverage to support family farming through its public procurement scheme; future public procurements schemes should promote agroecological practices.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
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- Año
- 2011
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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.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
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- 2012
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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.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Personas afectadas
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- N.A.
- Año
- 2012
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- Other
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The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- While the agrifood industry is encouraged to produce and develop more healthy foods, very little is said about the need to develop more healthy food systems that can deliver sustainable diets in the holistic sense referred to above. But it is high time to recognize the real tension that exists between a strategy that promotes processed foods, enriched with nutrients to the point that diets become medicalized, and a strategy that promotes local and regional food systems, as well as a shift towards foods that are less heavily processed and thus more nutritious. For reasons of logistics and seasonality, as well as the urbanization of lifestyles, these two strategies must sometimes be combined, as not all foods can be sourced locally or bought in farmers' markets. But priorities must nevertheless be set in public policies. The market for food products cannot expand infinitely, and choices must be made as to which food system to promote.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
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- Año
- 2012
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
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Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- The right to food seeks to ensure access to adequate diets. Although access is necessary for individuals to be adequately nourished, it is not the only requirement. Obviously, food availability is also required (which necessitates appropriate functioning of markets to ensure that foodstuffs can travel from the producers to the markets and from food-surplus regions to food-deficit regions). Access to health-care services and sanitation, as well as adequate feeding practices, are also essential. In this regard, the right to food is also closely connected to the right to health and to what is described as adequate "utilization".
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
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- Año
- 2013
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The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- This is changing. Experts now agree that food systems must ensure the access of all to "sustainable diets", defined as "diets with low environmental impacts which contribute to food and nutrition security and to healthy life for present and future generations. Sustainable diets are protective and respectful of biodiversity and ecosystems, culturally acceptable, accessible, economically fair and affordable; nutritionally adequate, safe and healthy; while optimizing natural and human resources". This definition recognizes the need to gear agrifood systems away from an exclusive focus on boosting production and towards integrating the requirements of the adequacy of diets, social equity and environmental sustainability. All these components are essential to achieving durable success in combating hunger and malnutrition, as emphasized by the Special Rapporteur in past reports.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Personas afectadas
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- Año
- 2012
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The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- In section II, the Special Rapporteur described the considerable growth of non-communicable diseases and preventable deaths in all regions. A wide range of factors explain this evolution. They include tobacco and alcohol use, reduced physical activity linked to urbanization and thus more sedentary lifestyles, and inadequate diets. These avoidable deaths are often attributed to "lifestyle choices"-choices to exercise less, choices to consume more salt, sugars and fats. But the problem is a systemic one. We have created obesogenic environments and developed food systems that often work against, rather than facilitate, making healthier choices. The transformation of agrifood systems plays a major part in this trend.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
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- Año
- 2012
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
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The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Fourth, potential concerns exist regarding the relationship between solutions that rely on imported technologies and products and the local contexts in which these solutions are applied. Technology has a key role to play in improved nutrition. For instance, the iodization of salt is a cost-effective way to reduce iodine deficiency. Biofortification-the improvement at crop level of the micronutrient content of staples-can provide important benefits for rural populations, improving their access to micronutrient-rich foods produced locally at more affordable prices, as illustrated by the adoption of the orange-fleshed sweet potato in Mozambique that reduced vitamin A deficiency significantly. But such technologies could result in long-term dependency for the communities concerned if protected by intellectual property rights. Moreover, opportunities and market access for local farmers could be reduced if they result in the creation of new markets that are captured by the economic actors introducing such technologies.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Personas afectadas
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- 2012
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- Other
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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.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Personas afectadas
- All
- Año
- 2013
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
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The right to an adequate diet: the agriculture-food-health nexus 2012, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- The efforts on these fronts must continue. Nutrition interventions should be but one part of broader-based strategies for the realization of the right to adequate food. For example, the provision of fortified foods (enriched to improve nutritional content) may be necessary, where local production is insufficiently diversified and incapable of supplying the full range of foods required for adequate diets. Rebuilding and strengthening local food systems through diversified farming systems to ensure the availability of and accessibility to adequate diets will be more sustainable in the long term. Food systems based on local knowledge and conditions, such as homestead or community gardens, can be a cost-effective way to combat micronutrient deficiency, as demonstrated by examples in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, the Niger and South Africa; such alternative food systems present the additional advantage of increasing local incomes and resilience to price shocks, another pathway through which positive nutritional outcomes can be achieved.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Personas afectadas
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- Año
- 2012
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
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Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Second, in situations of natural disaster or conflict, or "whenever an individual or group is unable, for reasons beyond their control, to enjoy the right to adequate food by the means at their disposal, States have the obligation to fulfil (provide) that right directly" (see E/C.12/1999/5, para. 15). This component of the right to food has been invoked successfully before courts in recent years. In Nepal, the Supreme Court issued an interim order in 2008 for the immediate provision of food in a number of districts that food distribution programmes were not reaching, confirming and extending its initial order on 19 May 2010. It acted at the request of the non governmental organization Pro Public, which invoked the provisions of the 2007 interim Constitution of Nepal guaranteeing the fundamental right to food sovereignty and the right to a dignified life, as well as the international obligations of Nepal to fulfil the right to food. In Mexico, relying on the recent amendment to article 4 of the Constitution and the 2009 Food and Nutrition Security Law of the Federal District, one homeless person obtained on 22 March 2012 an injunction from the First District Administrative Judge of the Federal District, directed in particular against the Secretariat for Social Development and the National Coordination Office of the "Desarrollo Humano Oportunidades" programme for a failure of the authorities to comply with their obligation to protect the rights to health, to food and to housing. In May 2013, a juvenile court in Guatemala ordered 10 Government institutions to adopt a set of 26 specific measures to compensate damages caused to five children in two villages of Camotán, who were left malnourished as a result of the State's failure to provide support. The order was based on the 2005 Food and Nutrition Security Law and Guatemala's obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It included such restitution and compensation measures as food assistance, land distribution, water access, agricultural training and seed provision. Where the situation of individuals or communities is so desperate as to condemn them to hunger unless they are given support, courts routinely have relied on the right to life to impose such obligations to provide.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
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- Año
- 2013
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
Párrafo
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Social audits can be effective provided a number of conditions are met, including: (a) adequate information to beneficiaries on the entitlements they have a right to claim; (b) wide publicity to ensure broad participation across all segments of the community; (c) adequate information on inputs or expenditures, making it possible to track discrepancies with actual delivery of services; (d) technical competence of an intermediary group to facilitate the process; and (e) choice of indicators and appropriate level of the community involved.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Personas afectadas
- All
- Año
- 2013
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
Párrafo
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- From the point of view of the right to food, the provisions that ensure transparency and accountability in the implementation of the programmes are particularly noteworthy. As part of the reform of the Targeted Public Distribution System, all transactions relating to the distribution of foodgrains will be computerized, from the stage of procurement to the stage of delivery, "in order to ensure transparent recording of transactions at all levels and to prevent diversion" (sect. 12 (2) (b)); and the records are to be made available to the public (sect. 27). Periodic social audits must be performed on the functioning of the fair price shops, Targeted Public Distribution System and other welfare schemes and the findings will be publicized and lead to improvements (sect. 28 (1)). State governments are to put in place grievance redressal mechanisms, "which may include call centres, helplines, designation of nodal officers, or such other mechanism as may be prescribed" (sect. 14). Grievance Redressal Officers will be appointed at the level of each district, with a power to "hear complaints regarding non-distribution of entitled foodgrains or meals" and provide redress (sect. 15). Appeals against decisions by these officers may be filed before State Food Commissions established, within each State of the Union of India, to monitor and review implementation of the Ordinance (sect. 16). In addition to hearing appeals against decisions by District Grievance Redressal Officers, their powers include inquiring about implementation of the Ordinance, whether upon receiving complaints or at their own initiative; making recommendations for improvements; and preparing annual reports to the State Legislature. Finally, vigilance committees are to be established at the various levels, from the fair price shop level to the state level, with a view to ensuring proper implementation and alerting the District Grievance Redressal Officer to any violation (sect. 29).
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Personas afectadas
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- Año
- 2013
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- Other
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Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 26
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- The National Food Security Ordinance could be further improved. Questions relating to access to productive resources for food producers are omitted, and too little attention has been paid to issues of nutrition. For destitute persons, Grievance Redressal Officers established at the District level may be, in fact, inaccessible. Although they are to exercise quasi-judicial investigatory powers (sect. 20), the State Food Commissions, whose six members are to be appointed as provided by each State government, may not present the required guarantees of independence and impartiality to function effectively as monitoring bodies. The Ordinance nevertheless provides an example of a food security law that defines as legal entitlements a large range of benefits that are aimed at ensuring that people are not denied access to food simply because they are poor, and establishes a set of accountability mechanisms at different levels.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Personas afectadas
- All
- Año
- 2013
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
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Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- The involvement of civil society and farmers' organizations in the design and implementation of policies aiming at the eradication of hunger and malnutrition ensures that such policies will not be driven by political expediency. However, one of the shortcomings of current food and nutrition security systems and legal frameworks is that they do not designate the judicial, quasi-judicial and administrative bodies to which claims relating to the violation of the right to food can be presented, nor are sanctions for non-compliance set out in national law. Framework laws could be strengthened by providing recourse mechanisms to the individuals or organizations aggrieved by their lack of implementation, for instance if the Food and Nutrition Security Council does not meet as provided or if its recommendations receive no response.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Personas afectadas
- All
- Año
- 2013
- Tipo de párrafo
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Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- The increasing recognition of the importance of a legal and policy framework grounded in the right to food reflects a growing understanding that hunger is not simply a problem of supply and demand, but primarily a problem of a lack of access to productive resources such as land and water for small-scale food producers; limited economic opportunities for the poor, including through employment in the formal sector; a failure to guarantee living wages to all those who rely on waged employment to buy their food; and gaps in social protection.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
- Personas afectadas
- All
- Año
- 2013
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
Párrafo
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Progress is being made on this front in other regions as well. The 2011 Zanzibar Food Security and Nutrition Act affirms the obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food; establishes a National Food Security and Nutrition Council; and instructs sector ministers to account for food security and nutrition concerns in their policies and programmes and to include adequate resources in their budgets. In Malawi, a proposal was made by civil society organizations in 2010 for a national food security bill. In Mozambique, the Technical Secretariat for Food and Nutritional Security, an interministerial coordination body, led an inclusive process to the same effect. In Uganda, the Nutrition Action Plan 2011-2016 mentions the need to fast-track the adoption of the Food and Nutrition Bill, which should lead to the adoption of a Food and Nutrition Council. Senegal and Mali, in 2004 and 2006, respectively, adopted framework laws that are centred on the establishment of agricultural policies, allowing farmers' organizations to contribute to the design of such policies. Although restricted to the agricultural sector and not extending to food security policies as a whole, they are a first and promising attempt to improve accountability and participation. In Indonesia, a Food Law (18/2012) was passed in November 2012 where the right to food, food sovereignty and food self-sufficiency are important pillars; a national food security agency should be established before 2015. Thailand adopted the 2008 National Food Committee Act, establishing a body composed of 11 ministers and four secretariats, as well as seven independent experts, tasked in particular to promote the adoption of food security strategies and to "control, monitor and evaluate the outcomes of policies and strategies" adopted in this area (section 10 (5)).
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Personas afectadas
- All
- Año
- 2013
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
Párrafo
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- In Haiti, a national platform of civil society organizations was a major driving force behind the adoption in March 2010 of the National Plan for Food Security and Nutrition elaborated by the National Food Security Council. In Nepal, the non governmental organization Pro Public was instrumental in the right to food case brought before the Supreme Court, mentioned in paragraph 18 above. The Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee, a well-known non-governmental organization, has also been instrumental in scaling up the anti-hunger social protection network. In the Dominican Republic and Paraguay, civil society organizations are playing an active role in support of the adoption of food and nutrition security laws.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Personas afectadas
- All
- Año
- 2013
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
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Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- While there has been considerable legislative and judicial progress in many countries throughout the world since the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines a decade ago, many challenges remain. In order to ensure the progressive realization of the right to food at the domestic level, it is imperative that constitutional principles and framework laws are established as a means of providing an appropriate institutional structure. The adoption of sectoral legislation will ensure that States adequately address various sectors that impact significantly on levels of food security.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Personas afectadas
- All
- N.A.
- Año
- 2014
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
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Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Despite the scepticism that persists in a number of States, courts in several countries have been proactive in stepping in to prevent situations in which survival was threatened due to government inaction or inefficiency in realizing the right to food. The majority of cases relate to failures by authorities to provide minimum levels of subsistence for affected individuals or communities. The right to food is now enshrined in the constitutions of more than 20 countries, together with legal provisions that allow for judicial protection by invoking the right to life, respect for human dignity, the right to health, the right to land, respect for ethnic and cultural rights, the right to housing and consumer rights.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Personas afectadas
- All
- Año
- 2014
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
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Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- The most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change16 suggests that climate change will "more likely than not" depress crop yields by more than 5 per cent by 2050. In addition, there is increased certainty about the effects of climate volatility on agricultural production and practices, with climate change shocks principally affecting smallholder agriculture, where the absence of crop insurance translates into adversity to risk. The report further acknowledges that climate change will have significant impacts on non-farm rural livelihoods, as well as tending to increase the risk of violent conflict when the availability of food and water is threatened. FAO has noted that climate change affects the four dimensions of food security: availability, accessibility, utilization and food system stability. It will have an impact on human health, livelihood assets, food production and distribution channels, as well as influencing purchasing power and market flows.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Personas afectadas
- All
- Año
- 2014
- Tipo de párrafo
- Other
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The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- This is the interdependence of reforms. While the rebuilding of local food systems in developing countries is vital to expand opportunities to small-scale food producers and, at the same time, to improve access to fresh and nutritious food for all, it depends fundamentally on the reform of food systems in rich countries. Such reform faces significant obstacles, however. The various elements of the food systems have co-evolved over the years, shaped by the productivist paradigm that has dominated the design of food and agricultural policies for decades. The farming sector has become highly dependent on agricultural subsidies that have favoured the production of commodities for the livestock or food processing industry - corn, soybean and wheat, in particular - rather than food, and it has come to rely on cheap fuel for its highly mechanized and input-intensive mode of production, replacing farmers' knowledge. Even without taking into account the subsidies for the consumption of fossil fuels by agricultural producers, countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development subsidized their farming sector to the amount of $259 billion in 2012. This has encouraged the expansion of the food processing industry, thanks to the availability of cheap inputs and the deployment of infrastructure - in the form of silos and processing plants - that has been shaped by and for agro-industry. Large agribusiness corporations have come to dominate increasingly globalized markets thanks to their ability to achieve economies of scale and because of various network effects. In the process, smaller-sized food producers have been marginalized because, although they can be highly productive per hectare of land and highly resource-efficient if provided with adequate support, they are less competitive under prevalent market conditions. The dominant position of the larger agribusiness corporations is such that these actors have acquired, in effect, a veto power in the political system. Finally, the habits of consumers themselves have changed: in high-income countries, the consumption of highly processed, high-energy (though nutrient-poor) foods has increased year on year, becoming an accepted, unquestioned part of modern life.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
- Temas
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Personas afectadas
- All
- Año
- 2014
- Tipo de párrafo
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Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 54
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- The world is currently blighted by a plethora of humanitarian crises and armed conflicts, which are having a devastating impact on the lives of millions of people around the globe. While 19 per cent of the poorest people in the world now live in fragile and conflict-affected places, it is estimated that this will increase to 40 per cent by 2030 if current trends continue. The international community must take greater responsibility for emergency food crises derived from natural or human-made disasters, global economic crises, climate change, or as a result of armed conflict.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
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- Special Procedures' report
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- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
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- 2014
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The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 3
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- Most stakeholders agree, in general terms, on the urgent need for reform. Measured against the requirement that they should contribute to the realization of the right to food, the food systems we have inherited from the twentieth century have failed. Of course, significant progress has been achieved in boosting agricultural production over the past fifty years. But this has hardly reduced the number of hungry people, and the nutritional outcomes remain poor. Using a new method for calculating undernourishment that began with the 2012 edition of the State of Food Insecurity in the World report, United Nations agencies estimate hunger in its most extreme form to have decreased globally from over 1 billion in 1990-1992, representing 18.9 per cent of the world's population, to 842 million in 2011-2013, or 12 per cent of the population. However, these figures do not capture short-term undernourishment, because of their focus on year-long averages; they neglect inequalities in intra-household distribution of food; and the calculations are based on a low threshold of daily energy requirements that assume a sedentary lifestyle, whereas many of the poor perform physically demanding activities.
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- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
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- Special Procedures' report
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- Food & Nutrition
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- 2014
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Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 55
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- International humanitarian law, which, inter alia, is designed to ensure that civilians and prisoners of war have adequate food and water during armed conflicts, also outlines preventive measures by prohibiting the deliberate starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in situations of both international and internal armed conflict. That prohibition is violated not only when access to food is denied, resulting in death, but also when the population goes hungry as a result of deprivation of food sources or supplies. In accordance with international criminal law, violations of such protection constitute war crimes. Deliberate starvation, whether during times of war or peace, may also constitute genocide or a crime against humanity. Implementation is always controversial in those situations, especially if the combat zone is limited to the territory of a single State. It should be noted that the right to food continues to be protected by international human rights law during times of armed conflict.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
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- Special Procedures' report
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- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
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- 2014
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The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 42
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- The gradual substitution of policies focused on low prices of foodstuffs by rights-based social protection, as a means of ensuring access to adequate food for the poorest groups of the population, again illustrates the importance of a careful sequencing of reforms. Today, 75 to 80 per cent of the world population still does not have access to social security to shield them from the effects of unemployment, illness or disability - not to mention crop failure or soaring food costs. There is now an international consensus in favour of making the full realization of the right to social security a priority. On 12 June 2012, the International Labour Conference adopted Recommendation No. 202 concerning national floors for social protection, with 453 votes in favour and 1 abstention. The G-20 has subsequently acknowledged the importance of this objective. In the long run, the establishment of robust social protection schemes in line with this recommendation should protect not only poor households but also vulnerable households against the risk of falling into poverty. Thus, governments would shift away from their exclusive focus on maintaining low prices of food items, a focus that has often come at the expense of food producers, particularly the least competitive among them. Cash transfers to poor families, such as the Oportunidades programme in Mexico (A/HRC/19/59/Add.2, paras. 21-27), the Bolsa Família in Brazil (A/HRC/13/33/Add.6, para. 33) or the Child Support Grant in South Africa (A/HRC/19/59/Add.3, para. 39), have shown their effectiveness in reducing child poverty, and hunger. As long as gaps remain in social protection, however, food price inflation will continue to be a serious threat to the right to food of low-income households. Thus, while low food prices may not be a long-term solution - both because of the fiscal cost of subsidies to farmers and because a policy focused on keeping prices low may ultimately harm the least competitive food producers - they remain, in the short term, vital. Social protection schemes should be strengthened in all countries, and the social protection agenda and the agricultural agenda should be better aligned with each other, to gradually succeed in making the transition.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
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- Special Procedures' report
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- Equality & Inclusion
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- 2014
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Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 43
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- Climate change is already having a significant impact on approximately 1 billion of the world's poor. In achieving the target set out in Millennium Development Goal 1, poverty rates have been halved, with 700 million fewer people living in extreme poverty in 2010 than in 1990. In the Human Development Report 2013, however, the United Nations Development Programme warns that if environmental degradation continues at the current rate, the gains in poverty reduction will be reversed, plunging over 3 billion people into extreme poverty and hunger. Without the implementation of serious measures to combat climate change, the number of people at risk of hunger is projected to increase by 10-20 per cent by 2050.
- Organismo
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Tipo de documento
- Special Procedures' report
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- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Poverty
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- 2014
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