WUNRN
PWESCR - Programme on Women's
Economic, Social & Cultural Rights
WOMEN'S PRODUCTIVE RESOURCES:
REALISING RIGHT TO FOOD FOR ALL
Direct Link to Full 85-Page PWESCR
Report:
Women’s Productive Resources: Realising the Right to Food
for All was a one-day roundtable with Olivier De Schutter, the U.N.
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, organized by PWESCR in Chennai, India,
on March 30, 2010.
The roundtable was an attempt to situate the right to food
within the larger but less talked about context of productive resources and to
raise the visibility of the gender dimension within this forum. The goal was to
engage with the Rapporteur on the gender aspects of productive resources and
their links to the right to food and provide him with recommendations from the
ground. Understanding the gender dimensions of access to
resources is vital in promoting the right to food in a way that both protects
women and facilitates their important contributions to the realisation of the
right.
To realise the right to food, it
is essential to move beyond the stereotyping of women as ‘poor victims’ who
need to be protected and taken care of and recognize them as economic agents --
producers and workers – playing a crucial role in averting starvation and also
contributing to the well being of their families and communities.
The roundtable provided an
opportunity for an extensive discussion on a wide range of issues such as land,
agriculture, food, water, forests, natural resources, social security and
microcredit, with a particular focus on situations of women from
vulnerable/marginalized communities such as tribals and Dalits.
Impact of climate change on women’s productive resources in context of
livelihoods was also highlighted.
The roundtable was an attempt to bring within the purview of the present debates on the right to food, issues of vital importance, such as access to productive resources including land, forests and natural resources, water and credit. It was an endeavour to recognize and carry forward the gender dimension within each of these categories. Presentations by experts from across the country on a wide range of issues showcased the need of the ongoing dialogue on the right to food to be contextualized in the backdrop of livelihoods. The UN Special Rapporteur’s mandate on the right to food must recognize the importance of the fact that without engaging with the lived realities of women’s lives- the denial of women’s ownership, access, control and management of productive resources, non-recognition of their livelihoods and unpaid work, non-entitlement to social security benefits- the right to food cannot be realized. It was hoped that this roundtable would inform the Rapporteur’s mandate of the hitherto neglected gender dimensions of the right to food.
The report also has a Forward by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter.
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