RIGHT TO FOOD
“1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an
adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food...
2. The States Parties to the present Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of
everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international cooperation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed:
(a) To improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making full
use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the principles of
nutrition and by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the
most efficient development and utilization of natural resources;
(b) Taking into account the problems of both food-importing and food-exporting countries,
to ensure an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need.”
International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (article 11)
NORMATIVE CONTENT of the RIGHT TO FOOD
A wide variety of international instruments address the different dimensions of the right to adequate housing. 1 In
reaction to the World Food Summit organized by FAO in 1996, the Committee on Economic, Social and
Social Rights issued its general comment No. 12 (1999), which defines the right to food; The right to adequate
food is realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, has physical and
economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement. The Special Rapporteur on the
right to food – Jean Ziegler (2000) defined the right to food as; the right to have regular, permanent and free
access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and
sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer belongs, and which
ensures a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and dignified life free of fear. (United Nations
Special Rapporteur on the right to food-Jean Ziegler, 2000)
In the United Nations Millennium Declaration, adopted by the General Assembly in 2000, States committed
themselves to halving the proportion of people suffering from hunger by 2015.
In 2004, FAO’s member countries adopted the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of
the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security (Right to Food Guidelines), providing
practical guidance to States in their implementation of the right to adequate food. Articles 55 and 56 of the UN
Charter are relevant to the Right to Food Guidelines.
The right to food is an inclusive right. It is not simply a right to a minimum ration of calories, proteins and other
specific nutrients. It is a right to all nutritional elements that a person needs to live a healthy and active life, and
to the means to access them. The holders of the right to food are individuals. This means, in practice, that every
person is entitled to this fundamental human right.
The right to food encompasses two separate norms contained in Article 11 of the ICESCR: the right to adequate
food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger. It is not the same as a right to be fed and the
right to safe food. It is also different from food security and food sovereignty
1
Article 2 and 11 of International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention of the Rights of the
Child (CRC), article 12 and 14 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
Article 6 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) , article 24 and 27 of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child (CRC), article 25 and 28 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Article 20 of the Convention
relating to the Status of Refugees, article 20 of the Convention relating to the status of Stateless Persons, Food Aid Convention (1999),
Universal Declaration on the eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition (1974), article 8 of the Declaration on the Right to Development,
the four Geneva Conventions and their two Additional Protocols
It is important to emphasize certain core elements of the right to food. Food must be available, accessible and
adequate:
Availability requires on the one hand that food should be available from natural resources and that on the other
hand, it should be available for sale in markets and shops.
Accessibility requires economic and physical access to food to be guaranteed. Economic accessibility means that
food must be affordable. Physical accessibility means that food should be accessible to all, including to the
physically vulnerable, such as children, the sick, persons with disabilities or the elderly, for whom it may be
difficult to go out to get food. Access to food must also be guaranteed to people in remote areas and to victims of
armed conflicts or natural disasters, as well as to prisoners.
Adequacy (and acceptability) means that the food must satisfy dietary needs, taking into account the individual’s
age, living conditions, health, occupation, sex, etc. Food should also be safe for human consumption and free
from adverse substances, such as contaminants from industrial or agricultural processes, including residues from
pesticides, hormones or veterinary drugs. Adequate food should also be culturally acceptable. For example, aid
containing food that is religious or cultural taboo for the recipients or inconsistent with their eating habits would
not be culturally acceptable
The right to adequate food shall therefore not be interpreted in a narrow or restrictive sense which equates it with
a minimum package of calories, proteins and other specific nutrients. The right to adequate food will have to be
realized progressively. However, States have a core obligation to take the necessary action to mitigate and
alleviate hunger even in times of natural or other disasters.
STATE PARTIES’ OBLIGATIONS
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.
The obligation to respect requires States Parties to refrain from taking any measure – through actions, policies
or the failure to act of its own agencies and public officials – that may result in preventing or denying individuals
or groups to provide food for themselves.
The obligation to protect requires the adoption of specific legislative or other measures regulating third parties’
activities so as to ensure that they do not negatively affect peoples’ enjoyment of the right to food.
The obligation to fulfil means that States Parties must take positive measures to facilitate and provide for
individuals’ enjoyment of their rights. Facilitating the realization of the right to food requires more far reaching
measures on the part of the government in that it has actively to seek to identify vulnerable populations and
implement policies and programmes to improve these people’s access to food and their capacity to feed
themselves. The obligation to fulfil the right to food by providing food directly will only apply at times and for
persons or groups that are not able to exercise their right to food by their own means. The obligation to provide
also includes the obligation to ensure, as a minimum, that no one in a country suffers from hunger. In a number
of its recent General Comments, the CESCR considered that the obligation to fulfil also incorporates an
obligation to promote. The state should promote awareness of human rights among its own agents and private
actors. In recent years, the need to clarify state obligations and responsibilities for actions taken by themselves
and also by other actors outside their borders has become stronger.
Some measures at these different levels of obligations of States parties are of a more immediate nature, while
other measures are more of a long-term character, to achieve progressively the full realization of the right to
food.
The following are underlying determinants of the right to food;
 The right to health Nutrition is a component of both the right to health and the right to food.)
 The right to life When people are not able to feed themselves and face the risk of death by starvation,
malnutrition or resulting illnesses, their right to life would also be at stake.)
 The right to water The right to food cannot be realized if people lack access to safe drinking water for
personal and domestic uses
 The right to adequate housing When a house lacks basic amenities, such as for cooking or storing food,
the right to adequate food of its residents may be undermined
RESOURCE PERSONS SHOULD INTRODUCE HERE ANY COUNTRY SPECIFIC
RECOMMENDATIONS on the RIGHT TO FOOD