WUNRN
Please See 2 Parts of This WUNRN
Release on:
RIGHT TO FOOD - WOMEN - MDG'S -
RIGHTS - INTERSECTIONALITIES - REALITIES
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FIAN - Fighting Hunger with Human
Rights
RIGHT TO FOOD FROM A GENDER
PERSPECTIVE
Although formal gender
equality has been enshrined in international law and many national
constitutions and legislations, the de facto enjoyment of the right to food is
all too often gender biased. Where the human right to food is violated or
threatened, women and girls are often specifically or more severely affected.
The right to food is impaired for women by
various factors: Limited access to and control over resources, lower salaries,
insecure and unstable labour conditions, gender biased labour markets,
discrimination in laws, regulations and programmes, limited enjoyment of the
right to education, inadequate public health care, and exclusion from decision
making processes. In addition, intra household food discrimination prevails in
many regions of the world. The specific needs of women who require special
protection are often neglected, e.g. through lack of protection of pregnant
workers, insufficient maternity leave or discrimination in social transfer
programmes. 
The
struggle against all forms of discrimination, including gender discrimination,
is integral part of FIAN's mandate. FIAN applies a dual track gender approach,
aiming at both gender mainstreaming through different working areas and a focus
on gender issues and on women's right to food in order to overcome existing
inequalities.
The World Food Crisis since 2008 effects women particularly, as
shown in a background paper Gender vulnerabilities, food price
shocks and social protection responses.
Documents on Gender and Women
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RIGHT TO FOOD - MDG'S
- HUMAN RIGHTS - INTERSECTIONALITY - REALITIES
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http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/odeschutter1/English
DEMOCRATIZING THE
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
By Olivier De
Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food - 2010-09-18
PARIS –
On September 20-22, world leaders gathered in New York to encourage progress
towards meeting the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals – a set of
eight objectives, ranging from eradicating extreme poverty and hunger to reducing
child mortality and achieving universal primary education, that are to be
achieved by 2015. The summit’s purpose was to take stock of successes and
failures, and to move towards “concrete strategies for action.” But this summit
would have done the entire world a great service by acknowledging
what has gone so wrong with the MDGs, and choosing a radically different
approach.
The MDGs,
as they are currently conceived, address the symptoms of poverty and
underdevelopment, but mostly ignore the deeper causes. They draw attention to
18 targets in total – those for which data are most easily compiled. But the
result is that the MDGs may divert attention from the mechanisms that produce
underdevelopment.
Instead
of vowing to support humanitarian objectives and throwing money at poverty’s
symptoms, the rich countries must recognize the urgency of removing the
obstacles to development that they have the power to address. Each year, for
example, developing countries miss out on $124 billion in revenue from offshore
assets held in tax havens. By not closing down such tax havens, we actively
encourage corrupt elites in these countries to continue cheating their
populations.
Moreover,
the current system of international trade is deeply inequitable: it exposes developing
countries to unfair competition, and discourages diversification of their
economies. These countries face a burden of foreign debt – estimated at $500
billion for poor countries – that is simply incompatible with the pursuit of
development goals.
Addressing
these issues is vital for development objectives to have any chance to succeed.
Yet, although Goal 8 is to achieve a global partnership for development, and
although some progress has been made on the debt issue, too little in fact has
been done to give this initiative concrete meaning.
Another
major deficiency of the MDGs is their failure to recognize human rights as
essential to any sustainable development strategy. But human rights are not
just symbols; they are also tools. They are valuable because they are
operational.
The
world’s one billion hungry people do not deserve charity: they have a human
right to adequate food, and governments have corresponding duties, which are
enshrined in international human rights law. Governments that are serious about
making progress on development objectives should be asked to adopt a
legislative framework for the realization of economic and social rights such as
the right to food or the right to health care.
That
framework should be designed through a participatory process involving civil
society. It should define which actions should be taken, by whom, within which
timeframe, and with which resources. The intended beneficiaries of these
actions should be defined as rights-holders.
Accountability
mechanisms should be established, allowing victims to hold governments
responsible for their failure to take action. This removes the stigma of
charity, and it is empowering for victims. Instead of being helped because they
have unsatisfied needs, they are granted remedies because their rights are
being violated.
The
framework also should include a non-discrimination requirement, ensuring that
we focus our attention on the most vulnerable groups – not just the
well-connected, the literate, and the favorites of the regime, and not just
groups for which quick wins can be achieved.
Because
participation should be ensured in the process, the people whom we seek to
support will co-design and co-improve the systems that are meant to serve them.
They become actors rather than passive recipients of aid, and aid is more
effective as a result.
All
democratic revolutions begin with human rights. The MDG summit is missing an
opportunity to begin this much-needed revolution in our understanding of
economic development as well.
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