Dimensions
What are the dimensions of the international right to adequate food?
Adequacy, Availability, Accessibility, and Sustainability.
Where can we find the Right to Food in the UDHR?
Article 25
What are the three obligations of governments vis-a-vis the right to food?
To respect, to protect, and to fulfill
Why did the Right to Food emerge at the 1996 World Food Summit?
Number of hungry people not reduced by technological advances. Global recognition that hunger results from unaccountable governments (not lack of food).
Michael Fakhri
What dimension refers to food that is safe from adverse substances?
Adequacy
Where can we find a detailed explanation of what the right to food is?
General Comment No. 12
What are the two obligations included in the obligation to fulfill?
The obligation to fulfil (facilitate) means the State must pro-actively engage in activities intended to strengthen people’s access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure their livelihood, including food security.
Finally, 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. This obligation also applies for persons who are victims of natural or other disasters.
What is an example of a significant legal case (that went before a court) on the right to food that was discussed by Olivier De Schutter in his video?
In India, the local governments were not using food reserves in spite of significant hunger due to high prices. India Supreme Court ruled that local government release reserves. School meal program established.
In Nepal, Supreme Court ruled that food aid needed to be delivered in all parts of the country.
Explain the content of one thematic report by the current UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.
Various
What dimension refers to food deserts?
Physical accessibility
What is General Comment No. 12? What body adopted it and when?
The authoritative interpretation of Article 11 of ICESCR. The Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, in 1999
How are violations of the right to food according to General Comment 12 determined?
- Failure to meet minimum essential level required to be free from hunger.
- Unwillingness (and not simply inability) of a State to comply. Burden of proof is on the State.
- Any discrimination in access to food constitutes a violation.
- Violations can be both direct action of States or other entities insufficiently regulated by States (look at paragraph 19 of GC 12).
What are framework laws on the right to food?
They are laws that set up bodies where various actors in the food system interact with government actors to come up with action plans on the right to food.
When was the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food established?
2000
What dimension deals with the accessibility of food for future generations?
Sustainability
Where can we find detailed guidelines for governments on the implementation of the right to food? Hint: this instrument (with a very long name) was negotiated by governments.
UN FAO Voluntary Guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security
What does it mean to "progressively realize" a human right?
The principal obligation is to take steps to achieve progressively the full realization of the right to adequate food. This imposes an obligation to move as expeditiously as possible towards that goal. Every State is obliged to ensure for everyone under its jurisdiction access to the minimum essential food which is sufficient, nutritionally adequate and safe, to ensure their freedom from hunger.
What is an example of a successful right to food national strategy?
Brazil's Hunger 0 Strategy
What does the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food do?
To inform governments on developments related to the right to food, to monitor compliance on the right to food, shape our understanding of what the right to food requires.
What are the two types of accessibility in relation to the right to food?
Physical & Economic Accessibility
Physical Accessibility: implies that adequate food must be accessible to everyone, including physically vulnerable individuals, such as infants and young children, elderly people, the physically disabled, the terminally ill and persons with persistent medical problems, including the mentally ill. Victims of natural disasters, people living in disaster-prone areas and other specially disadvantaged groups may need special attention and sometimes priority consideration with respect to accessibility of food. A particular vulnerability is that of many indigenous population groups whose access to their ancestral lands may be threatened.
Economic Accessibility: implies that personal or household financial costs associated with the acquisition of food for an adequate diet should be at a level such that the attainment and satisfaction of other basic needs are not threatened or compromised. Economic accessibility applies to any acquisition pattern or entitlement through which people procure their food and is a measure of the extent to which it is satisfactory for the enjoyment of the right to adequate food. Socially vulnerable groups such as landless persons and other particularly impoverished segments of the population may need attention through special programmes.