Search Tips
sorted by
30 shown of 140 entities
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- Contract farming has gained importance in recent years in both developed and developing countries. Buyers see it as a means of strengthening control down the supply chain in order to respond to an increased need for production traceability and food product standardization, as quality and food safety standards have gained in importance and as consumers express concerns about the environmental and social aspects of production. Controlling contracted farmers to prevent extra-contractual marketing or the diversion of inputs received for uses other than crop production under the contract may be costly, but the costs are generally offset by the improved reliability and more consistent quality of supplies compared with products purchased on the open market. Contract farming can minimize firms' risks with respect to changes in supply and demand and allows firms to promote safety standards and other quality requirements. Contracts also enable firms to schedule the delivery of products at optimal times for their business, something that they cannot control when relying on the spot market.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Such strategies are a key component for the governance of the transition towards sustainable food systems that can contribute to the eradication of hunger and malnutrition. Indeed, regardless of how innovative they may be, local initiatives can only succeed, and be "scaled out" by successful experiments being replicated across large regions, if they are supported, or at least not obstructed, by policies adopted at the national level. Moreover, poor nutritional outcomes are explained by a range of factors, and combating hunger and malnutrition requires taking into account the full set of immediate, underlying and basic causes, at the individual, household and societal level respectively: this calls for a multisectoral approach, involving the full range of relevant ministries. Finally, because food systems are in need of reform, it is not sufficient to protect existing entitlements or to preserve the status quo. Instead, transformative strategies must be adopted, with a view to guaranteeing access to adequate food for all by simultaneously supporting small-scale food producers' ability to produce food sustainably, improving employment opportunities in all sectors and strengthening social protection.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 91
- Paragraph text
- Several helpful initiatives exist to assist policymakers in ensuring nutrition accountability. For example, the WHO global database on the implementation of nutrition action set forth national policy actions and strategies to eliminate all forms of malnutrition. Similarly, the International Network for Food and Obesity/ Non Communicable Diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS), an international collaboration of universities and global non governmental organizations, seeks to monitor, benchmark and support actions to create healthy food environments and reduce diet-related non-communicable diseases. It uses the healthy food environment policy index to monitor government actions. While currently at the pilot-testing stage, such tools will assist civil society in holding Governments and the food industry to greater account for creating healthier food environments. The Nourishing Framework, created by World Cancer Research Fund International, is an interactive tool to promote healthy diets, allowing a selection and tailoring of policy options for different populations. Finally, WHO regional offices have developed regional nutrient profiling models, which can be used in policymaking to improve the overall nutritional quality of diets.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- The constitutional jurisprudence of India provides for the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights based on "the right to life". This constitutional right was central to the case of People's Union for Civil Liberties ("PUCL") v. Union of India. In mid-2001, public food and employment programmes failed to provide food to deprived people in the impoverished and drought-stricken State of Rajasthan. The Supreme Court of India was petitioned by PUCL to compel the Government to respond to the hunger emergency. In response to the submissions, the Supreme Court held that the right to food was enshrined in the Constitution under the right to life provision in article 47, which requires that the State undertake measures to improve the nutritional state of the population. The Court handed down a series of resolutions which commenced in 2001 requiring State governments in India to implement food distribution programmes for the most disadvantaged. The Court's resolution had a considerable impact on the realization of the right to food in India, and provides an example of the influential role played by the judiciary in encouraging a legislative body to develop human rights legislation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- The role of CFS should gain in importance in the future, as we become more aware of the interdependence of efforts at the local, national, regional and global levels, and of the need to accelerate learning. Indeed, just as local-level initiatives cannot succeed without support from national-level right-to-food strategies, efforts at the domestic level require international support to bear fruit. Together with the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the Special Rapporteur has argued, for instance, for the establishment of a Global Fund for Social Protection, for overcoming financial obstacles and building international solidarity in order to fulfil the right to food and the right to social protection in developing countries, particularly those where vulnerability to covariant risks such as drought and food price volatility are high. The initiative was presented at the thirty-ninth plenary session of CFS in October 2012, and to the Social Protection Inter-Agency Cooperation Board, as well as in various other forums. The proposal was supported by the European Parliament and was among the key recommendations that emerged from global consultations led by the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- On the one hand, food systems must be reshaped in order to be more inclusive of small-scale food producers, who have generally been disadvantaged in the past, both as a result of inequitable food chains and because agricultural technologies have not taken into account their specific needs. With this aim in mind, the Special Rapporteur noted the importance of addressing imbalances of power in food chains, in particular by regulating buyer power in situations where dominant positions may be a source of abuse: this has been an entirely forgotten dimension of the reforms that have been promoted since 2008 (A/HRC/9/23, paras. 35-38; and A/HRC/13/33). He also sought to define the conditions under which contract farming - based on long-term agreements between agricultural producers and buyers - could benefit small-scale farmers, suggesting a variety of business models that could usefully be implemented to support the inclusion of small-scale food producers in the food systems (A/66/262) and noting the importance of supporting farmers' organizations. He called for reforming a regime of intellectual property rights on plant varieties that can make commercially bred varieties inaccessible to the poorest farmers in low-income countries (A/64/170).
- 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
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- To satisfy the first condition above and because small-scale farmers are in a comparatively weaker bargaining position, they should have the opportunity to contribute to the wording of contract provisions, ensuring that the contracts reflect the farmers' needs and that obligations are written in terminology that the farmers will understand. Farmers' organizations may have a key role to play in supporting the negotiation of contracts and in providing advice, and the bargaining position of farmers is strengthened by their being organized in cooperatives that negotiate on behalf of the members. This also lowers the transaction costs for buyers, and may reduce the risk of farmer defaults by providing group lending and improved communication. Once contracts are drafted, farmers must be provided with a copy of the contract. In the case of illiterate parties, the written contract should be reviewed by farmers' representatives, a farmers' organization or a supporting non governmental organization. Copies should also be made available to relevant governmental agencies to ensure appropriate oversight and reduce the risk of abusive clauses.
- 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
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Individual titling appears to matter less to the poor than security of tenure, reflecting the fact that "[a]t low levels of income and in the absence of other social security mechanisms, land serves as a social safety net for the rural poor and provides them their basic means of livelihood". In other words, while security of land tenure and recognition of land rights may correspond to strong demand, as illustrated by a number of country experiences, the same cannot be said of individual titling and the alienability of land. On the contrary, the limiting of land sales can protect smallholders from pressure to cede their land; it can also protect use rights regarding communal land and preserve communal forms of land management. There is growing experience with the use of low-cost, accessible tools for recording local land rights, or at least land transactions, to ensure security of tenure through the recognition of use rights rather than full ownership. Examples include the "Plan foncier rural", implemented in Benin and tested in Burkina Faso, and the $1 registration process leading to the issuance of certificates in some Ethiopian states. An interesting illustration of the decentralized management of land rights is Law 2005-019 of Madagascar, setting forth the status of land.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provides individuals with a grievance mechanism at the international level to claim violations of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant and to submit complaints to the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- Ensuring adequate financing is also a struggle. For example, to reach the World Health Assembly goal on stunting by 2025, a doubling of government funding and a quadrupling of donor spending is necessary. Technical knowledge, political will and efficient accountability systems are needed to reach existing nutrition goals.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- On 1 April 2016, following the recommendations of the Conference, the General Assembly proclaimed 2016-2025 the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition. The Decade presents a unique opportunity to centralize globally agreed targets, align actors around implementation and address the shortcomings identified in the current nutrition governance system.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- To respond to universal malnutrition challenges, a coordinated multisectoral policy response is needed at every level. This requires dialogue between all relevant sectors and actors, including nutritionists, development actors, civil society, donors, the private sector and government officials. Furthermore, it is important to establish accountability mechanisms to assess planning, budgeting and the results of nutrition-related interventions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- The Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security also encourage States to take steps to prevent overconsumption and unbalanced diets that may lead to malnutrition, obesity and degenerative diseases. Many States are taking steps in the right direction to regulate the food industry, including through labelling initiatives, advertising restrictions and economic measures.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Recent initiatives, such as a 2014 high-level commission on ending childhood obesity and recommendations towards a global convention to protect and promote healthy diets by the World Obesity Federation and Consumers International, as well as Global Nutrition Reports, indicate the need for stronger accountability mechanisms at the national level, considering that voluntary corporate initiatives are proving ineffective.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Right to food and nutrition 2016, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, endorsed by the Human Rights Council in 2011, formally recognize the responsibility of enterprises to avoid infringing on the human rights of others and to address adverse human rights impacts with which they are involved. Logically, this responsibility includes the adverse impacts of the food industry with respect to the right to adequate food.
- 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
- All
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Some States have failed to take vigorous steps to ensure that victims have access to judicial remedies for human rights abuses that have arisen extraterritorially owing to the activities of businesses or their subsidiaries. By creating or allowing these obstacles and barriers to remain, States have failed in their duty to protect human rights by ensuring access to effective remedy through the judicial process.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- Within the food and agriculture sector, approximately ten corporations control and monopolize the commercial seed and global pesticide markets, as well as food retailers. In addition to their financial power, TNCs significantly influence law and policymaking processes both at the international and national level. Similarly, IFIs exercise considerable influence over national decision-making in relation to food and agricultural policies. Many developing countries are compelled to implement projects that jeopardize economic, social, and cultural rights in return for economic and financial aid. In recent decades, there have been significant efforts to alter the policy approach undertaken by IFIs, especially the World Bank, in relation to supporting development projects that have a harmful effect on human rights and the environment. Moreover, bilateral, and regional foreign trade agreements have facilitated the privatization, deregulation and growth of extractive industries around the globe, a development that has had significant impacts on food security and health. Globalization has highlighted and exacerbated socioeconomic disparities throughout the world, with the result that global social inequality is not only expressed in terms of inter-State justice, but as implicating human rights obligations as well. States are
- 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
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- In addition to a lack of awareness of their rights, victims of violations face considerable institutional and structural barriers. For many, particularly for those living in rural and remote areas and peri-urban settings, simply accessing a court is in itself a significant challenge. In many countries, municipal courts do not exist and the legal epicentre is located in the capital only, with logistical and monetary implications for those who live beyond the city. In countries where municipal and subnational mechanisms are available, a lack of affordable and dedicated legal assistance and judicial corruption often hinders access. In cases where rights holders have the means to submit a case, often ordinary courts, which are more accessible for families facing food security, are unaware of the issue - with the right to food not considered as related to other citizen's rights. Complex and inflexible court systems also have a significant impact on victims, often requiring a high burden of proof for applicants. Some courts may also be averse to accepting collective, or public interest mechanisms or innovative fact-gathering or remedial procedures. In such cases, victims are dissuaded from submitting claims. Some countries, however, have tackled the problem by establishing public interest litigation procedures that authorize individual and collective claims.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Families
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- While the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Covenant represented a significant step in terms of ensuring justice for the victims of violations of economic, social and cultural rights, to date only 15 States are currently party thereto, in comparison with 115 parties to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This in itself is representative of the fact that many States have failed to develop a judicial culture of recognition in practice, or the necessary legal frameworks required to ensure that the rights enshrined in the Covenant, including the right to food, are justiciable. In some countries, it is the case that international human rights conventions are not considered as formal sources of law and, even where they may be incorporated into national law, these rights may not provide criminal punishment or financial compensations, but rather expresses a moral conviction without legal force. In some States, even when justiciable rights are enshrined in the Constitution, there is a reluctance to acknowledge their relevance. There is also certain reluctance at the regional level, with many European States failing to recognize the direct applicability of the Covenant in domestic law. In Africa, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights provides no option for complaints relating to the violation of the right to food.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Constitutional provisions and framework laws can be effective means of promoting the progressive realization of the right to food at the domestic level. The adoption of sectoral legislation will ensure that States adequately address various sectors that impact significantly on various dimensions of food security.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Victims of violations now have a means of making effective appeals through an international mechanism, once they have exhausted the grievance mechanisms within their own countries, or if there is an excessive delay in processing their claims through national procedures. The Optional Protocol also provides for interim measures for victims in exceptional circumstances in order to prevent irreparable damage to victims (art. 5).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to justice and the right to food: the way forward 2015, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- The Optional Protocol is intended to complement rather than replace national legal systems and should not be considered as the principal means of seeking justice. The Optional Protocol grants individuals, or groups of individuals under the jurisdiction of a State party, the right to submit communications about alleged violations of any economic, social or cultural right to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 2).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Impact of climate change on the right to food 2015, para. 78
- Paragraph text
- Similarly, in Cuba, farmers have embraced agroecology through initiatives that support the sharing of experiences and the creation of networks. From 1995 to 2004, Cuba increased its food production by 37 per cent through agricultural development policies, farmer networks and sharing of information rather than through a reliance on the use of chemical fertilizers and heavy machinery.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- The consequences are well known. Because small-scale farming was not viable under these conditions, many rural households were relegated to subsistence farming, surviving only by diversifying their incomes. Others migrated to the cities, a rural exodus that in Africa accounted for at least half of all urban growth during the 1960s and 1970s and about 25 per cent of urban growth in the 1980s and 1990s. At the same time, the dependence of low-income countries on food imports grew significantly. Many of the least developed countries are still primarily agricultural, yet, in part because they have to repay their foreign loans in hard currency, they export a narrow range of commodities and therefore find themselves highly vulnerable to price shocks on international markets for these products. Their food bills have soared - the combined result of population growth and a lack of investment in local agricultural production and food processing to meet local needs. When the prices of agricultural products suddenly increased in 2008 in the wake of higher oil prices and speculation, the least developed countries found themselves trapped. The imbalances in the food system, which had been building up over the previous forty years, suddenly became visible, and the human consequences too important to ignore (see A/HRC/9/23 and A/HRC/12/31).
- 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
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- Because of the various channels though which access to food can be achieved, the creation of decent jobs in the industry and services sectors plays an essential role in securing the right to food, as does the provision of social protection. The right to food overlaps in this regard with the right to work and the right to social security, guaranteed under articles 6 and 9 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. While addressing these issues in his thematic reports, the Special Rapporteur has focused most of his work on how food systems might be reformed to ensure a fuller realization of the right to adequate food. Indeed, the beginning of his mandate coincided with the global food price crisis of 2008, and the Special Rapporteur made it a priority to ensure that global and national efforts to address the crisis would be grounded in the right to food. While most of the initiatives that were adopted to strengthen the ability of countries to increase their own production and meet a greater share of their own food needs focused on supporting small-scale farmers, they did not include mechanisms for monitoring progress and accountability, or for ensuring that food producers and consumers participated in policymaking processes. They did not focus on the most vulnerable and they often failed to guarantee the transformation of support schemes into legal entitlements.
- 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
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Vision of the mandate 2014, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- The High-level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security stresses the importance of reducing food waste.24 The Special Rapporteur supports the call for the development of global protocols to measure food loss and waste, with due sensitivity to the large number of variables and national specificities, so as to improve the reliability, comparability and transparency of the data.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- The mobilization of civil society and social movements has played a key role in support of the legal developments described in the present report. The 2011 reform that led to the insertion of the right to food in the Constitution of Mexico followed 20 years of advocacy by civil society groups, initiated in 1992 when 130 organizations forming the Mexican Front for the Right to Food presented to the national Chamber of Deputies a petition for the constitutional recognition of the right to food; the same coalition is now actively preparing a food and nutrition security framework law. Similarly, in Brazil, the proposal that led to the 2010 constitutional amendment recognizing the right to food was initially presented by a member of Parliament in 2003 and subsequently promoted by the President of the national Parliamentary Front for Food and Nutrition Security, Mr. José Nazareno Fonteles, with the support of various civil society organizations. In India, the right to food case before the Supreme Court led to the emergence of a broad network of individuals and organizations, the Right to Food Campaign, which has played an essential role in providing the court with information about the implementation of social programmes and in monitoring compliance with its orders.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Assessing a decade of progress on the right to food 2013, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- The obligation to fulfil has two components. First, States must "proactively engage in activities intended to strengthen people's access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure their livelihood, including food security" (see E/C.12/1999/5, para. 15).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- States should also support farming communities by providing certain goods and services required to achieve an adequate standard of living through farming. Although private investors may provide some of the same goods and services, leading some commentators to view contract farming as a means to ensure the more efficient distribution of such goods and services, it would be misplaced to view contract farming as a substitute for the indispensable role of the State in this regard. Guideline 2.6 of the Voluntary Guidelines on the right to food recalls the duties of the State where poverty and hunger are predominantly rural. It is expected that States, for instance, will provide technical assistance to farmers through public agricultural extension services, ensure access to reliable and assured credit for small-scale farmers at reasonable rates and help to create basic price support mechanisms for small-scale farmers. Contract farming should not become a driver of the privatization of extension services, or serve as an excuse for Governments to neglect their duty to support farmers with the provision of public goods, since it is precisely the most marginalized farmers who would suffer most from the retreat of State support.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 8
- Paragraph text
- A considerable number of small-scale farmers have joined such schemes. In part as a result of the withdrawal or reduction of public extension services over the past 30 years, contract farming often represents the only viable option to improve livelihoods, as such agreements guarantee access to markets as well as to good-quality inputs (often supplied at lower wholesale prices) and technical advice, and facilitate both access to certification schemes and meeting standards. The shift to higher-value crops, improved productivity and the lowering of their marketing and transaction costs may result in higher incomes. Contract farming may also improve farmers' access to credit, either because firms directly provide credit or because banks accept farmers' contracts as collateral. Depending on the particular type of arrangement, contract farming can provide a guarantee that farming revenues will be relatively stable and insulated from market price fluctuations. In addition, firms sometimes pay farmers a premium to ensure that they do not engage in selling outside the contract. As a model of direct procurement, which generally cuts out the middleman, contract farming may also be seen as a winning solution for consumers, firms and farmers alike.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph