International Law as a Meta-Framework for the Protection of the Right to Food (original) (raw)
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Reflection of the UN Special Rapporteur on right to food.pdf
In March 2015, international law and human rights scholars, practitioners,and students participatedin a symposium at the UCLA School of Law focusing on the challenges and opportunitiesin realizingthe rightto food in the 21"' Century. I delivered the keynote address at this event, in which I utilized my experience as the UN Special Rapporteuron the Right to Food to reflect on the current status of the right to food worldwide. In this Essay, I further elucidate issues confronting the right to food. I begin by emphasizing the importance of adopting a human rights based approach to addressinghungerandfood security. Next, I explore the development of the right to food, and the implementation of that right domestically through an analysisofthejusticiabilityoftherighttofood.I identify globalchallenges affecting the eradicationof hunger, and examine alternativesto the current food system. Finally, I conclude this Essay by offering my recommendations for fostering a coordinated internationalresponse aimed at ensuring the protectionandimplementationofthe righttofood.
Right to Adequate Food: National Implementation and Extraterritorial Obligations
Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law Online
Foundations for Extraterritorial Obligations II. Legal Basis III. Practical Implications for the Right to Food IV. Remedies V. Concluding Remarks The implementation of human rights standards is imperative if individuals are to enjoy the human rights that international human rights law guarantees. The standards are set through the conventions that states have ratified and through the customs of states' international interaction, and are intended to have effect for individuals within states' territories. Whether or not this implementation is "national" or "international" depends on the perspective taken. If it is an individual that is looking to having his/her human rights implemented, this will by its nature be "national" implementation, as we all operate in a territorial setting: we are citizens or residents 2 of a state in which we have a right to have our human rights respected and protected. However, if the perspective is from a state or a government, the implementation of human rights may not necessarily be national only, or at least not only refer to 1 Professor Skogly is also coordinator of the International Human Rights Obligations Network (IntHRON) <http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/organisati ons/humanrights/inthron/index.htm>. 2 Many of us are residents in a state other than that of our nationality. However, due to the universality of human rights, we are entitled to rights protection both from the state of our nationality and that of our residence.
The Right to Food: A Global Overview
Access to food is essential to human survival and the "right to food" is a fundamental human right whose fulfillment impinges on the realization of most other human rights. Yet the pervasiveness of human hunger worldwide starkly illustrates the ongoing failure to fulfill the "right to food." This chapter defines the right and analyzes its evolution in international human rights law. It then examines the extent to which commitments to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to food at the international and national levels are upheld in practice. The chapter finds that failure to fulfill the right to food in part reflects old challenges including the failure to integrate human rights law with the commitments, agendas, and laws governing international financial institutions, transnational corporations, trade agreements, and other aspects of the international economic governance architecture. Additionally, however, it reflects new challenges posed by climate change, increased meat consumption on the part of a growing global middle class, and the shift toward biofuel production.
The Right to Food in International Law with Case Studies from the Netherlands and Belgium
International Food Law and Policy, 2016
In this chapter, the enforceability of the right to adequate food is discussed in the context of industrialized countries. The right to food as a human right can be considered the fundament of food law. Human rights in themselves occupy a special position in the field of law. On the one hand they encompass rights of a high moral value which goes beyond the boundaries of a State or the consent of a State to be bound by it. On the other hand, human right agreements are put in the form of international treaties, whose effect is greatly depending on the willingness of its member States to act in compliance with their commitments. Therefore, enforcing an international human right in a domestic court, such as the right to adequate food, is not per se a matter of course. Two issues appear to be highly influential in determining whether an international human right can be effectively invoked in a domestic court. The first is the alleged difference between civil and political rights on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other hand. Traditionally, it is assumed that the first type of rights require government abstaining and are therefore enforceable. The latter type implies government action and are not enforceable due to a margin of discretion the national governments enjoy in implementing these rights. However, there are sound arguments to oppose this traditional approach in human rights typology. These arguments are frequently pointed out in the context of the United Nation's specialized institutions as well as in literature. The second issue is the working of the domestic constitution that usually regulates the effect of international law in the domestic legal order. A case study of two industrialized countries who are favorable to human rights-the Netherlands and Belgium-was conducted. Where normally the right to food is addressed in the context of developing countries, poverty and large scale hunger, the selected countries do not suffer such constraints. Instead, the circumstances within these countries would allow an enforceable right to food to work. The case
The paper focuses on the problem of hunger. Hunger can be challenged, and the outcome of this challenge depends a great deal on domestic policies targeted at food security. Consequently, the role of international law in facilitating and spurring this process through the affirmation of the human right to food is examined. The right to food has developed from the formal expression embodied in the United Nations International Covenant on Economics, Social and Cultural Rights to a substantive, well-built and comprehensive legal concept also enshrined in customary norm. Its prescriptive reach spans the conduct of States in their national and international affairs; of international organizations; of transnational corporations; of individuals in their official and private capacity. A synopsis of some issues arising at the national and international level relating to agriculture and development – the principal means, in my view, for the realization of the right to food – is provided. Finally, the enforcement mechanisms for ensuring the right to food are assessed.
Right to Food and Food Security: A Comparative Perspective
International Food Law How Food Law Can Balance Health, Environment and Animal Welfare, 2021
FIn the past three decades, the right to food has evolved, multiplied and diversified in such a way that it has led to an innovative definition of food security, also in the light of global health emergencies. This has also revealed the multisectorial and multidi- mensional aspects of the rights related to food, whose implementation requires the appropriate use of new technologies and scientific innovations and the benefits of which should be available for the whole society, including future generations. In this chapter, the author focuses on the attention of the essential features of the international human right to food, its evolution and its impact on regional and national legal systems. This enhances the role of the framework laws regulating the monitoring and evaluation mechanisms of the right to food and food security which, on the other hand, explains the function of the judiciary and the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights. That implies the right to equal access to adequate food and the right to live in an inclusive, safe, non-polluted environment.
The Right to Food Sovereignty in International Law
The Right to Food Sovereignty in International Law, Ordine internazionale e diritti umani, (4/2021). , 2021
ABSTRACT With the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) in 2018, the right to food sovereignty was officially included in an international legal document for the first time. The concept of food sovereignty has been widely analyzed in sociology and politics, whilst it is rarely described in the legal context. This article aims to clarify the relationship among existing norms of international law such as the right to self-determination, the right to development and the right to adequate food with the right to food sovereignty. In order to clarify this relationship the article compares them with food sovereignty as described in the UNDROP and it highlights the similarities and the differences among each of these norms. The article also includes an analysis of the concept of food sovereignty as included in national legal systems.
THE FIRST STAGE OF A LONG MARCH TO A SPECIAL LAW OF FOOD SECURITY, 2013
The fact that a concept is long in forming in the mind of Man and to bear fruit in his world does not mean that it is, in principle, unworthy of legal study. It is sometimes important to know how to look beyond legal concepts with deep historical roots, in order to distinguish what exactly makes new concepts singular and worthwhile. Gilles Martin, who explored the realm that slowly but surely became environmental law, saw that very early on. He showed the way. And he paid the price that explorers pay. It is a pleasure to pay tribute to him as we set out on a long march along a path that, as we will see, crosses his.
Cibo e diritto: dalla Dichiarazione Universale alla Carta di Milano
Looking back at the mandates of the two former UN Special Rapporteurs on the right to food – Jean Ziegler (2000-2008) and Olivier de Schutter (2008-2014) – and at the work undertaken by the current mandate-holder – Hilal Elver, since 2014 – one can observe that much of their efforts are devoted to the goal of clarification. In turn, this clarification serves to legitimatize the right to food in governmental circles, among civil society organizations (CSOs) and other non-state actors, and in international law more broadly. This contribution will first provide a macro picture and a brief history of Special Procedures in the UN system with focus on those Special Procedures that hold economic, social and cultural rights (ESC rights) mandates. The aim of this section is to emphasize that clarification is a common endeavour of socio-economic Special Procedures, including thus of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food. The second part of this study will discuss the clarification work of the former and current right to food mandate-holders and the two forms which this work takes: demythification of the right to food and practical guidance. Lastly, the role of Special Rapporteurs in the process of legitimation of the right to food will be addressed.
International Economic Law and the Right to Food
Rethinking Food Systems: Structural Challenges, New Strategies, and the Law (Nadia Lambek, Adrienna Wong, Leah Brilmayer & Priscilla Claeys, eds.), 2014
This chapter examines the historic and current policies and practices that have contributed to food insecurity in the global South. It analyzes the impact of international economic law on the patterns of trade and production that perpetuate food insecurity, and recommends concrete measures that the international community might take through law and regulation to promote the fundamental human right to food. Part I provides a short introduction to the right to food framework and its implications for international trade, investment, and finance. Part II places the current food crisis in historical perspective by discussing the trade and aid policies that laid the foundation for food insecurity in the global South from colonialism until the early 1980s. Part III explains how food insecurity was exacerbated by the free market reforms implemented in the global South in the last three decades pursuant to structural adjustment programs mandated by international financial institutions and to multilateral and bilateral trade agreements. Part IV discusses the impact on food security of the financial crisis, the climate crisis, and the growing acquisition of agricultural lands in the global South by foreign investors. Part V describes concrete steps that states could take to respect, protect and fulfill the right to food, both nationally and globally. Part VI concludes with a variety of proposals to better integrate human rights law, environmental law, and international trade and investment law, so as to create a more enabling global environment for the realization of the right to food.