GEMUN 2015
SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND HUMANITARIAN COMMITTEE
Topic 1
THE QUESTION OF THE RIGHT TO FOOD: IMPROVING
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE FOR HUNGER REDUCTION
PROGRAMMES
REPORT RESEARCH
By Ann Hudson
I.
INTRODUCTION
Although the thought of not having access to food seems quite far reached to us, privileged
children of developed or developing societies, it is sadly still of actuality. Indeed, in 2013, the FAO
estimated that 842 million people were undernourished (which is to say 12% of the global population)
and that every year, malnutrition was the cause of death for more than 3.1 million of children under 5
years of age. UNICEF further estimated that 300 million children go to bed hungry each night; and that
8000 children under the age of 5 are estimated to die of malnutrition every day.
It is in such a context, that SocHum delegates are asked to find solutions to hunger, malnutrition
and food insecurity. Yet, the Right to Food is not about merely bestowing X annual amounts of food to
LEDCs. That is only a short-term solution, which does not protect the Right to Food on the long run.
Furthermore, the Right to Food is a complex topic raising environmental, humanitarian, economic and
cultural issues. In fact, it is in close correlation to the Right of the Indigenous Peoples, and gives tongue to
the growing reflexion on how LEDCs are to develop their countries whilst respecting the land, the
environment, the cultures and the populations that they represent.
The Right to Food around the WorldWide (as of 2011-2012)
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Adopted or drafting a framework law (19).
Constitutional, explicit as a right (23).
Constitutional, implicit in broader rights or as
directive principle (41).
Direct applicability via international treaties
(103).
Committed by ratifying the ICESCR (160).
No known right to food.
Note: The same country can fall in multiple categories; the colour given to a country corresponds to the
highest listed category in which a country falls.
I.
DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS AND ACRONYMS
RIGHT TO FOOD: Mr. Jean Ziegler (from Switzerland), Special Rapporteur to the UN on the Right to Food
from 2000 to 2008, defined in 2002 the Right to Food as " The right to have regular, permanent and
unrestricted 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 to, and which ensure a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and dignified life
free of fear."
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE: According to Andrew Heyward, author of Global Politics, global governance can
be defined as "the broad, dynamic and complex process of interactive decision-making at the global level
that involves formal and informal mechanisms as well as governmental and non-governmental bodies.
Sates and governments remain the primary institution for articulating public interests and those of the
global community as a whole, but global governance also involves intergovernmental and, sometimes,
supranational bodies. Global policy is made of a system of horizontal and vertical interactions in which
officials in different branches of government, work with counterparts in other countries, as well as with
activists, scientists, bankers and others outside government. The term 'Global Governance' is sometimes
used to refer to the institutions through which these interactions take place."
PRODUCTIVITY: Economic tool or device used for measuring the quantity produced per unit of
production. It thus expresses whether the labour (the human unit of production) is qualified enough or
whether the capital (all other units of production used to produce, such as the infrastructure or
machinery) is efficient enough. Productivity rates of change express whether productivity is increasing,
decreasing or staying constant through time. Productivity can be calculated in different ways.
 Work productivity measures the amount produced per head (ie: worker). It is calculated by
dividing the global production by the amount of workers.
 Hourly productivity expresses the amount produced per hour. This is calculated by dividing the
amount the global production by the amount of hours worked.
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Capital productivity measures the efficiency of the capital factor of production. It is calculated by
dividing the global production by the financial value of the capital used.
Global productivity expresses the efficiency of both factors of production. This is calculated by
dividing the global production by the financial value of all factors of production used.
FOOD DUMPING: Still according to Andrew Heyward, food dumping is to be explained as "the donation of
surplus food to poor countries for free or at cheap rates in order to maintain market shares or prop up
global prices". This international aid from MEDCs to LEDCs, apparently preventing hunger, is, in fact,
undercutting "local farmers who cannot compete and may be driven out of jobs and into poverty".
USEFUL ACRONYMS:
FAO
GMO
ICESCR
NGO
PRRO
UN
UNESCO
UNHCR
UNICEF
USDA
VAM
WFP
WHO
II.
Food & Agriculture Organisation of the UN
Genetically Modified Organism
International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights
Non-Governmental Organisation
Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation
United Nations
UN Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
UN's Children’s (Emergency) Fund
United States Department of Agriculture
Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping
World Food Programme
World Health Organization
MAIN ISSUES
Jean Ziegler further defined three dimensions to the Right to Food:
AVAILABILITY
This refers to the possibilities either of:
 Feeding oneself directly from productive land or other natural resources.
This is in correlation to the question on the Right of Indigenous Peoples. Indeed, some
populations who represent a minority (whilst comparing to the dominant culture of the populations'
countries), and who usually have historical ties to a certain area as well as a unique native language
and distinct cultural traditions, are regularly being oppressed by governments and transnational
firms into selling or losing legal control of their lands. This is most often considered as an affront to
their culture, to their history and to their identity, yet, under the perspective of the Right to Food,
losing one's land is seen as losing access to the food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the
people to which the consumer belongs to.
Furthermore, the question of preserving the environment and ecosystem in parallel to
growing crops is to be deepened. Indeed, most LEDCs have grown dependant on pesticides and GMOs
so to assure constant crops and less famines. Yet, many NGOs deplore these products as nonrespectful of the environment. It may be a long-term solution to install permaculture, or even agroforestry in developing countries. For example, this could enable indigenous populations to increase
their amount of crops or types of crops and still be respectful of their land and cultures. Yet, MEDCs
are strongly opposed to this idea as in delivers LEDCs from their pesticide dependence (resulting to
$34,396m of sales per year).
 Well functioning distribution, processing and market systems that can move food from the
site of production to where it is needed in accordance with demand.
This sub-division of the topic relies on improving transports, communication and basic
relations from one country's region to an other. Thus, it is often in places were religious or ethnical
conflicts have been raging for a long time (or still are) that hunger and malnutrition is the strongest.
There is therefore a primordial need to improve interstate relations as well as intrastate relations, so
to increase infrastructures and communications and finally eradicate hunger. This is also happens to
be one of the three main objectives of the United Nations (World Peace).
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ACCESSIBILITY:
This implies different types of access:
 On the one hand, economic access means that food should be affordable for an adequate
diet without compromising other basic needs.
There is therefore a need to improve agricultural productivity. This will either decrease
prices and make food available to the local populations, or increase the local farmers' profits and
therefore revive the local economy, thus enriching the whole village and making the prices affordable.
This can be done either by improving the labour's qualifications or by improving the capital used to
produce or both. Obviously these improvements go hand in hand as qualified labourers might invent
better-adapted (thus better-performing) equipment.
 On the other hand, physically vulnerable, such as sick, children, disabled or elderly should
also have access to food.
An obvious way to make sure all the population, and especially physically vulnerable
beings have access to food is to provide access them through the intermediary of the state and/or of
the non-governmental organisations. Food or community centres are perfect examples of this.
Furthermore, many programmes promoting the right to food have taken place through the
intermediary of state owned canteens.
However there can be a black side to International Aid: It "is invariably channelled
through recipient-country governments and bureaucracies in which power is often concentrated in
the hands of the few and the mechanisms of accountability are, at the best, poorly developed. This
tends to benefit corrupt leaders and elites rather than the people, projects and programmes for which
it was intended. Indeed aid may actually foster corruption and deepen oppression, as autocratic rulers
may use aid funds not only to support their own affluent lifestyles, but also to widen their own
political control by subverting opponents and benefitting favoured ethnic or tribal groups. What is
more, aid conditions related to 'good governance' are much easier to establish than to enforce."
ADEQUACY:
There are different meanings to adequate food:
 Adequate food might imply that the food must satisfy the dietary needs of every individual,
taking into account (for example) age, living conditions, diet, health, occupation, sex,
sexual orientation, culture and religion.
The Right to Food thus becomes a sub-division to the fights of all minorities for their
rights: Women's rights, LGBT Rights, the Rights of Indigenous Peoples etc. This can easily be
illustrated in every day life, even in developed countries.
For example, during his electoral campaign to become mayor of Marseilles, the French
extreme right candidate Stéphane Ravier, promised to abolish any type of halal and casher food from
state school canteens. This meant that Jewish and Islamic families could not profit of cheap, stateprovided food and clearly discouraged them to place their children in the French educational system.
It could have even discouraged these populations from immigrating to France.
 Adequate food also implies that food should be safe.
Therefore, adequate protective measures by both public and private means must be
taken to prevent contamination of foodstuffs through adulteration and/or through bad environmental
hygiene or inappropriate handling at different stages throughout the food chain. Care must also be
taken to identify and avoid or destroy naturally occurring toxins.
III.
THE UNITED NATIONS' INVOLVEMENT
A. RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS, CONVENTIONS, ORGANISATIONS AND
RESOLUTIONS
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1948: Implicit recognition of the Right to Food during the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1960's-70's: Technological advances made in developed countries. Yet, this has little to no effect
on the Third World.
1966: The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognises the right
"right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food", as well as the "fundamental
right to be free from hunger"
1990's: 900 million victims of hunger (worldwide)
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V.
Early 1990's: Indian welfare economist Amartya Sen publishes books and articles redefining
hunger as a result of social injustice, of governments not being held accountable to their
populations, of failing institutions and of poor governance.
1996: First World Food Summit demanding a legal clarification on the Right to Food for
International Law.
2000: Establishment of the Special Rapporteur to the Un on the Right to Food mandate - increase
in awareness on the Right to Food on a domestic scale with the help of NGOs - following the
Millennium Summit, Millennium Goals at eradicating hunger and poverty are established
2002: Second World Food Summit
2004: publication of a set of guidelines as recommendations for governments to follow in order
to implement the Right to Food and eradicate hunger and malnutrition. Text adopted by the
Committee on World Food Security (an intergovernmental committee of the FAO).
2011: The East Africa Food Crisis
RELIABLE USEFUL LINKS
It is advisable, before starting any research on specific issues on the agenda, to brows extensively
the WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs resources, one of the best portals with scores of valuable
links, as well as the main UN portal and the invaluable UN cyber-school-bus website. The THIMUN
Website also has an extensive and efficient research section worth browsing. The Crisis Group offers
numerous reports in PDF format for comprehensive academic documents on international crisis.
A most important document would be the short yet precise introduction to "the Right to Food",
made by the UN's former Special Rapporteur on the topic: Mr. Olivier de Schutter (from Belgium), in
service from 2008 to June 2014. The video of his introduction is on Youtube, yet, as he speaks with a
strong Belgium accent in English, we recommend reading his written introduction.
In this introduction, the Special Rapporteur mentions events happening in Nepal, Brazil and India,
closely linked to the Right to Food. We urge all delegates to inspire themselves of the laws and resolutions
passed in those respective countries, on the specific topic, when writing their resolutions, especially the
delegates of Nepal, Brazil and India.
For an even deeper insight into finding ways to promote the Right to Food, we recommend
skimming through the World Food Programme's "Learning From Experience", a report on "Good practices
From 45 Years Of School Feeding". Their case studies are most interesting, so we urge delegates of
countries mentioned (whish is to say: Afghanistan, Brazil, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Kenya, Laos, Malawi,
Pakistan and Uganda) to read the study of their respective countries, as it gives them their countries
policy.
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