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Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- Recent years have witnessed various attempts to regulate the impact of business activities on human rights outside of the territorial boundaries of the home State. Notably the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011) underlined that States "should set out clearly the expectation that all business enterprises domiciled in their territory and/or jurisdiction respect human rights throughout their operations" and clarified the responsibility of TNCs and other business enterprises to respect human rights. Similarly The United Nations Global Compact (2000) urges TNCs to respect workers' rights and human rights; and the OECD Guidelines call on enterprises to respect human rights. In 2011, a group of experts in international law and human rights adopted the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which provide that States are responsible for violations of economic, social and cultural rights by non-State actors, including corporations in cases where these non-State actors act under the instructions or direct control of the State, or are empowered by the State to exercise elements of governmental authority.
- 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
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- As a result of IPR laws, seeds that would have once been saved and shared are now the intellectual property of corporations. Recent litigation demonstrates that corporations are willing to appeal to the law to protect their property. Since 1997, Monsanto reports that it has filed 147 lawsuits against those farmers who failed to "honor this agreement," i.e. Monsanto's intellectual property rights.
- 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
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Meanwhile, global agribusiness and biotechnology corporations have transformed the global commercial seed market into a multi-billion dollar industry and four companies alone account for 50% of this market. With such lucrative monopolies at stake, these international corporations have actively exercised the IPR regime to secure exclusive access to, and thus royalties from, patented seeds.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 80
- Paragraph text
- Despite the availability of widely endorsed good practices, many Governments, development agencies, donors and policymakers are still focusing on large-scale, high-input solutions that marginalize small-scale farmers because of existing political biases, trade rules and policies that limit the ability of Governments to support smallholder farmers and agroecological practices through investment, research funding and legal solutions to land tenure.
- 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
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- Agribusiness enterprises should incorporate the seven good practices identified in section III in their dealings with small-scale farmers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Governments could also encourage preferential sourcing from small-scale farmers through fiscal incentives or by making access to public procurement schemes conditional on the bidders' compliance with certain sourcing requirements.
- 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
- 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. 43
- Paragraph text
- Direct-to-consumer food marketing is an even more innovative way of linking small-scale farmers to markets in conditions that allow them to increase their incomes and at the same time to control their production. Although still relatively marginal, local food systems have made spectacular progress in recent years in a range of developed countries. In the United States of America, direct-to-consumer food sales more than doubled in 10 years, moving from $551 million in 1997 to $1.2 billion in 2007, and the number of farmers' markets rose from 2,756 in 1998 to 5,274 in 2009. In 1986 there were two community-supported organizations, whereas now there are an estimated 1,400 such organizations. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that in 2007, 136,817 farms were selling directly to consumers. Modern community-supported agriculture emerged in Japan with the teikei system, and now shows a strong growth in several countries, including Canada and France, where the network of "Associations pour le maintien d'une agriculture paysanne" now includes 1,200 community-supported agriculture schemes. Although they are often linked to the increased consumer demand for organic products, such initiatives ensure farmers a guaranteed outlet for their produce and stable revenues.
- 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
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- It has been argued that improving security of tenure encourages smallholders to invest in the land, and in principle it could lower the cost of credit by increasing the use of land as collateral. It could also encourage more sustainable farming, particularly through the planting of trees and through more responsible use of the soil and water resources. The real question, however, is not whether security of tenure should be improved, but how. The classical approach has consisted of individual titling, combined with the establishment of cadastres, or land registries, to facilitate and secure transactions related to land. That approach is linked to the idea that security of tenure is primarily a means to promote integration into the market: once property has been legally recognized, it can be alienated or mortgaged so that the beneficiaries can leave agriculture or obtain cash to make the necessary investments in the land. In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s - and more recently, under the influence of the writings of Hernando de Soto, international financial institutions promoted land registration and titling as part of their structural adjustment programmes, in the hope that successful land markets would ensure efficient land allocation and spur economic growth, which in turn was seen as the key to addressing rural poverty and food insecurity.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Trade liberalization and foreign direct investment (FDI) by transnational corporations in the processed food industry have played a large role in increasing the availability of ultraprocessed foods on the global market. The removal of policies to protect domestic markets has strongly affected the increase in production of certain unhealthy foods, as well as their availability and cost. Countries that embrace market deregulation experience a faster increase in unhealthy food consumption.
- 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
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- In relation to IFIs, private dispute mechanisms have been developed, including the establishment of an ombudsperson for international finance corporations, as have complaint mechanisms, such as the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the contact point procedure under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Under these mechanisms ICSID States and private actors are on an equal footing. The flip side is that corporations are in a position to sue governments.
- 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
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Lastly, the wealth generated by commercial fisheries may be concentrated among a few business and political elites, or repatriated to other countries, without benefiting the fishers, let alone society at large. Often, most benefits are reaped by the exporting firms and do not go towards improving the food security of the fishers or fish workers.
- 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
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- An analysis of contract farming grounded in the right to food highlights six potential problems. Four arise from the shift to contract farming itself, and two stem from the specific content of the contract farming arrangement into which some farmers enter.
- 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
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- Businesses, whose decisions “can profoundly affect the dignity and rights of individuals and communities”, also have human rights responsibilities. Yet the State-centric nature of the human rights regime largely fails to account for the considerable role that the business sector plays in the violation of human rights. The inability of the regime to address non-State actors is particularly problematic given that the pesticide industry is dominated by a few transnational corporations that wield extraordinary power over global agrochemical research, legislative initiatives and regulatory agendas.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Integrating a gender perspective in the right to food 2016, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Historically, efforts to increase the global food supply did not apply the intellectual property rights (IPR) regime to agricultural innovation. In most communities, farming practices, such as seed exchanges were communal activities, unrestricted by law. Furthermore, most agricultural research and development (R&D) was funded by the public sector. Today, however, industrialized agriculture mostly replaced traditional communal farming and has been inspired by competitive market for agricultural innovations to increase production. Over the past few decades, funding for agricultural R&D has shifted to private companies. The ten largest agricultural biotechnology companies invest roughly EUR1.69 billion a year on new product development, amounting to about 7.5 percent of these companies total sales revenue. To ensure that these companies recoup development costs for agricultural technologies and continue to invest in the R&D, an IPR-agricultural framework has emerged.
- 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
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- The Guiding Principles are considered the most authoritative statement of the human rights responsibilities of corporations and corresponding State duties adopted at the United Nations level. The Guiding Principles offer a noncommittal voice on extraterritoriality but are rapidly developing and cited in established international standards, such as the revised version of the 2011 OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the updated International Finance Corporation Performance Standards; the European Union has also cited the Guiding Principles in its latest Corporate Social Responsibility strategy, and many national governments are recognizing the need to regulate in the area of business and human rights. These rules that place obligations on corporations can develop out of the complex interplay between various States and non-State systems and this multidimensional aspects give them legitimacy.
- 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
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Women’s right and the right to food 2013, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Most social transfer programmes are in the form of cash transfer programmes which can be conditional or unconditional. Unconditional cash transfer programmes correspond better to the idea that social protection is a human right that should benefit all those in need of income support. They reduce the risks of under-inclusion and may be easier to administer where the administrative capacity is weak. A comparison across three Latin American countries concluded that verifying compliance with conditionalities represented 18 per cent of the administrative costs of the programme, and 2 per cent of the total costs.
- 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
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 62b
- Paragraph text
- [Flag States should protect labour rights in the fishing industry, including by ratifying and implementing the Convention concerning Work in the Fishing Sector (Convention No. 188). In addition, flag States should:] When engaging in fishing access agreements, agree to introduce provisions concerning conditions of work in the fishing industry; support the preparation of human rights impact assessments; and support the efforts of coastal States to regulate the fishing practices of industrial vessels operating in exclusive economic zones.
- 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
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- As mentioned in paragraph 11 of the present report, subsidies, at least those that support increased industrial fishing capacity, may encourage overfishing. At the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), held in Doha in November 2001, negotiations to clarify and improve WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies were initiated. At the Sixth Ministerial Conference of WTO, held in Hong Kong, China, in December 2005, broad agreement was reached on strengthening those disciplines, including a prohibition of fisheries subsidies that directly contributed to overcapacity and overfishing. In 2007, the Chair of the Negotiating Group on Rules submitted recommendations that included exemptions for low-income food-deficit countries, in particular for subsidies that promoted the development of and supported small-scale fishers. Such exemptions would be conditional on countries showing that subsidies were provided only where there were robust measures to protect fish stocks and prevent overfishing. While this recommendation has gained widespread approval, there have been more controversial calls to expand the exemptions to other developing countries. Some States have expressed doubts over the contribution of subsidies to overfishing. Disagreements also exist as to exactly what type of subsidies should be prohibited, with opinions differing on issues such as the building of ports and fisheries access agreements. Lastly, there are concerns that, even if agreement is reached, enforcing the WTO disciplines will be extremely difficult, given that 90 per cent of fisheries subsidies are confidential and beyond public scrutiny.
- 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
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Support should be given to small-scale fishers to enable their entry into global markets under conditions that provide decent employment and allow fishers' cooperatives to expand into the high-added-value stages of the industry (see table 2). Maldives may serve as an example in this regard. Industrialized tuna fishing has not been permitted and the vast majority of fishing is undertaken by locally owned pole-and-line fishing boats. In other cases, lobster fishers in Ceará, Brazil, for example, formed a cooperative that bypassed middlemen and allowed direct sales to retailers in the United States of America, increasing their profits by 70 per cent.
- 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
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- The employment benefits from the increase of commercial exports must be weighed against the costs. Such an increase may lead to demand-led overfishing and sharpen the competition for resources between industrial and small-scale fishing. Export increases may over time lead to the loss of jobs for fishers in the small-scale sector. In Argentina, for example, the considerable expansion of industrial pelagic fisheries in the 1990s saw the gradual control of those fisheries by foreign-owned fishing enterprises, which displaced smaller, more labour-intensive local companies. The growth of export-oriented fisheries may also lead to employment losses for the fish processors working in the small-scale sector supplying local or regional markets, as was seen in Kenya with the growth in commercial exports of Nile perch to Europe.
- 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
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Fisheries and the right to food 2012, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- For small-scale fishers in developing countries, increased demand in foreign markets may open up opportunities. In Sri Lanka, fishers targeting species for overseas markets, such as tuna, shrimp and lobster, have much higher incomes than those involved in fisheries for local markets. In other cases, however, where small-scale fishers sell fish destined for overseas markets, middlemen or fish-processing factories may pay relatively low prices, only marginally higher (or even the same) than those paid by local markets and consumers. In a study of fish trade in India, it was noted that fishers had little information on the prices paid for fish for export and relatively few actors controlled the supply chain and points of final sale. Although there are promising counter-examples, small-scale fishers generally face considerable obstacles, such as competition from larger firms and tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, including difficulties in meeting the stringent hygiene and sanitation standards demanded by importing countries.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Agroecological practices require the supply of public goods such as extension services, storage facilities, rural infrastructure (roads, electricity, information and communication technologies) and therefore access to regional and local markets, access to credit and insurance against weather-related risks, agricultural research and development, education, and support to farmer's organizations and cooperatives. While this requires funding, the investment can be significantly more sustainable than the provision of private goods, such as fertilizers or pesticides that farmers can only afford so long as they are subsidized. While many efforts have been made since 2008 to reinvest in agriculture, too little attention has been paid to the differences between the various types of investment required and to understanding their impacts on the reduction of rural poverty. This has led World Bank economists to note that "underinvestment in agriculture is […] compounded by extensive misinvestment" with a bias towards the provision of private goods, sometimes motivated by political considerations. Research based on the study of 15 Latin American countries over the period 1985-2001 in which government subsidies for private goods was distinguished from expenditures in public goods indicated that, within a fixed national agriculture budget, a reallocation of 10 per cent of spending to supplying public goods increases agricultural per capita income by 5 per cent, while a 10 per cent increase in public spending on agriculture, keeping the spending composition constant, increases per capita agricultural income by only 2 per cent. In other words, "even without changing overall expenditures, governments can improve the economic performance of their agricultural sectors by devoting a greater share of those expenditures to social services and public goods instead of non-social subsidies." Thus, while the provision or subsidization of private goods may be necessary up to a point, the opportunity costs should be carefully considered.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Although they can create jobs, agroecological approaches are fully compatible with a gradual mechanization of farming. The need to produce equipment for conservation agricultural techniques such as no-till and direct seeding actually results in more jobs being created in the manufacturing sector. This is true in particular in Africa which still imports most of its equipment, but which increasingly manufactures simple equipment Employment could also result from the expansion of agroforestry. In Southern Africa, farmers produce trees as a business, supported by a financing facility established by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). During its first year, the Malawi Agroforestry Food Security Programme distributed tree seeds, setting up 17 nurseries that raised 2,180,000 seedlings and establishing 345 farmer groups.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Development partners and international organizations can ensure that contract farming schemes work for the benefit of the poor small-scale food producers and respect the principles of the right to adequate food, including by increasing the capacity of community-based organizations to negotiate equitable agreements with the private sector, by contributing to financing equity participation by local communities in joint ventures or by supporting farmer-controlled enterprises to acquire the assets and managerial skills necessary to climb up the value chain, as initial support is frequently needed to start businesses that will become self-sustaining.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- Governments should ensure that the degree of competition among traders is sufficient to prevent farmers from being locked into unequal relationships with a particular trader in the absence of alternative buyers for a given crop. In particular, Governments should ensure that the expansion of contract farming does not result in the dismantling of public support schemes and the privatization of agricultural extension services, which would narrow the range of options available to small-scale farmers and increase the asymmetry of power between unorganized small-scale farmers and private actors operating on a national, regional or global scale.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Farmers (generally through their organizations) and private investors may establish joint ventures, with each party contributing in cash or in kind. Such business models ensure, in theory, that both sides are equal partners and are co owners of the project. Both sides hold equity shares in the joint venture, while retaining their individual legal status and sharing in profits or losses made by the joint venture. Enabling farmers to be shareholders allows them to influence company governance and negotiate price policy, to share in the benefits (whether profit is reinvested or distributed as dividends) and to improve access to credits and other farm-related services.
- 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
- 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. 33
- Paragraph text
- Contract farming rarely encourages farmers to climb up the value chain and move into the packaging, processing or marketing of their produce. The purpose of contract farming is to organize a division of labour between the seller and the buyer in which the seller is confined to the production of raw commodities. In addition, all the strategic decisions - about what to grow and how to grow and about which markets to target - are with the buyer. The producer is merely the executor. Finally, in contract farming, the interests of the two parties differ: while both have an obvious interest in the success of the arrangement, the terms of the contract will be more or less favourable to each, at the expense of the other. Other business models, therefore, should be explored.
- 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
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph