WUNRN
Multiple components important for women and girls and the Right to Food.
Website of UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Ms. Hilal Elver - http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Food/Pages/FoodIndex.aspx
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United Nations |
A/HRC/28/L.16 |
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General
Assembly |
Distr.: Limited 24 March 2015 Original: English |
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Human Rights Council
Twenty-eighth session
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Algeria, Andorra,* Bahrain* (on behalf of the Group of Arab States), Belarus,* Bolivia
(Plurinational State of),* China, Croatia,* Cuba, Cyprus,* Ecuador,* El
Salvador, Ethiopia, Greece,* Luxembourg,* Monaco,* Nicaragua,* Pakistan,
Panama,* Paraguay, Peru,* Portugal, San Marino,* South Africa, Spain,* Sri
Lanka,* Sudan,* Syrian Arab Republic,* Thailand,* Turkey,* Venezuela
(Bolivarian Republic of): draft resolution
28/…The right to food
The Human
Rights Council,
Recalling all previous resolutions of the General
Assembly and the Human Rights Council on the right to food, as well as all
resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights on the issue,
Recalling also the seventh special session of the Human
Rights Council, at which the Council analysed the negative impact of the
worsening of the world food crisis on the realization of the right to food for
all, and Council resolutions S-7/1 of 22 May 2008, 9/6 of 18 September 2008 and
12/10 of 1 October 2009,
Recalling further the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which provides that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for
her or his health and well-being, including food, the Universal Declaration on
the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition and the United Nations Millennium
Declaration, in particular Millennium Development Goal 1 on eradicating extreme
poverty and hunger by 2015,
Recalling the provisions of the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in which the right of everyone to
adequate food, including the fundamental right of every person to be free from
hunger, is recognized,
Bearing in mind the Rome Declaration on World Food Security,
the World Food Summit Plan of Action and the Declaration of the World Food
Summit, adopted on 13 June 2002, the Declaration of the World Summit on Food
Security, adopted on 16 November 2009, and the Marrakesh Ministerial Decision
on Measures Concerning the Possible Negative Effects of the Reform Programme on
Least Developed and Net Food-importing Countries, adopted on 15 April 1994,
Reaffirming the concrete recommendations contained in the
Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to
Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security, adopted by the Council
of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in November
2004,
Acknowledging that the right to food is the right of every
individual, alone or in community with others, to have physical and economic
access at all times to sufficient, adequate and culturally acceptable food that
is produced and consumed sustainably, preserving access to food for future
generations,
Reaffirming the Five Rome Principles for Sustainable Global
Food Security contained in the Declaration of the World Summit on Food
Security, adopted on 16 November 2009,
Reaffirming also that all human rights are
universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated, and that they must be
treated globally, in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing and with the
same emphasis,
Reaffirming further that a peaceful, stable and enabling
political, social and economic environment, at both the national and
international levels, is the essential foundation that will enable States to
give adequate priority to food security and poverty eradication,
Reiterating, as in the Rome Declaration on World Food
Security and the Declaration of the World Food Summit: five years later, that
food should not be used as an instrument of political or economic pressure, and
reaffirming in this regard the importance of international cooperation and
solidarity, as well as the necessity of refraining from unilateral measures
that are not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United
Nations and that endanger food security,
Convinced that each State must adopt a strategy
consistent with its resources and capacities to achieve its individual goals in
implementing the recommendations contained in the Rome Declaration on World
Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action and, at the same time,
cooperate regionally and internationally in order to organize collective
solutions to global issues of food security in a world of increasingly
interlinked institutions, societies and economies, where coordinated efforts
and shared responsibilities are essential,
Reaffirming that food security is a national
responsibility and that any plan for addressing food security challenges must
be nationally articulated, designed, owned and led, and built on consultation
with all key stakeholders, and recognizing the commitment to strengthening the
multilateral system in the channelling of resources and in the promotion of
policies dedicated to fighting hunger and malnutrition,
Recognizing that, despite the efforts made, the problems
of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition have a global dimension and that
there has been insufficient progress made in reducing hunger, and that they
could increase dramatically in some regions unless urgent, determined and
concerted action is taken,
Recognizing also the complex character of the global food
crisis, in which the right to food is threatened to be violated on a
substantial scale, as a combination of several major factors, such as the
global financial and economic crisis, environmental degradation,
desertification and the impacts of global climate change, as well as natural
disasters and the lack of development in many countries and transfer of
relevant technology to address this issue, particularly in developing
countries, least developed countries and small island and vulnerable developing
States, that are having a negative impact on the realization of the right to
food, in particular in the said countries,
Convinced that the elimination of the current
distortions in the agricultural trading system will allow local producers and
poor farmers to compete and sell their products, thereby facilitating the realization
of the right to adequate food,
Resolved to act to ensure that the full realization of
all human rights, including the right to development, is taken into account at
the national, regional and international levels in addressing the global food
crisis,
Recognizing the importance and positive role of
smallholder and subsistence farmers, including women farmers, young farmers,
family farmers and farmers in less favoured areas, cooperatives and indigenous
and local communities in developing countries,
Expressing its deep concern at the number and
scale of natural disasters, diseases and pests and their increasing impact in
recent years, which have resulted in massive loss of life and livelihood and
threatened agricultural production and food security, in particular in
developing countries,
Stressing the need to increase official development
assistance devoted to agriculture, both in real terms and as a share of total
official development assistance,
Recognizing the need to increase sustainable private and
public investments in agriculture from all relevant sources for the realization
of the right to food,
Recalling the endorsement of the Voluntary Guidelines on
the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the
Context of National Food Security by the Committee on World Food Security at
its thirty-eighth session, held on 11 May 2012, and by the Council of the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations at its 144th session,
Recalling also the Principles for Responsible Investment in
Agriculture and Food Systems, which were transmitted to the governing bodies of
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for consideration
by the Committee on World Food Security at its forty-first session, held in
October 2014,
Recalling further the tenth anniversary in 2014 of the adoption
of the Voluntary Guidelines
to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the
Context of National Food Security, and the reaffirmation by the Committee
on Food Security at its forty-first session of the commitment to implement the
Guidelines and to strive for the realization of the right to adequate food for
all in the years to come,
Stressing the importance of the second International
Conference on Nutrition, hosted by the World Health Organization and the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome from 19 to
21 November 2014, at which the two main outcome documents, namely, the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and
the Framework for Action, were endorsed, committing countries to eradicate hunger and to prevent all
forms of malnutrition worldwide, particularly undernourishment, through national and international actions.
Recognizing the importance of the protection and
preservation of agrobiodiversity in guaranteeing food security and the right to
food for all,
Recognizing also the role of the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations as the key United Nations agency for rural
and agricultural development and its work in supporting the efforts of Member
States to achieve the full realization of the right to food, including through
its provision of technical assistance to developing countries in support of the
implementation of national priority frameworks,
Recalling the outcome document of the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development, entitled “The future we want”, endorsed
by the General Assembly in its resolution 66/288 on 27 July 2012, and
reaffirming the principles contained therein,
1. Reaffirms
that hunger constitutes an outrage and a violation of human dignity and
therefore requires the adoption of urgent measures at the national, regional
and international levels for its elimination;
2. Also
reaffirms the right of everyone to have access to safe, sufficient and
nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental
right of everyone to be free from hunger, so as to be able to fully develop and
maintain his or her physical and mental capacities;
3. Considers
it intolerable that, as estimated by the United Nations Children’s Fund,
more than one third of the children who die every year before the age of 5 die
from hunger-related illness, and that, as estimated by the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, about 805 million people worldwide
suffer from chronic hunger, including as one of the effects derived from the
global food crisis, while, according to the latter organization, the planet
could produce enough food to feed everyone around the world;
4. Expresses
its deep concern that, according to the report of the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations entitled The State of Food Insecurity in
the World 2013, the number of hungry people in the world remains
unacceptably high and the vast majority of hungry people live in developing
countries;
5. Expresses
its concern at the fact that the effects of the world food crisis
continue to have serious consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable
people, particularly in developing countries, which have been further
aggravated by the world financial and economic crisis, and at the particular
effects of this crisis on many net food-importing developing countries,
especially on least developed countries;
6. Also
expresses its concern that women and girls are disproportionately
affected by hunger, food insecurity and poverty, in part as a result of gender
inequality and discrimination, that in many countries girls are twice as likely
as boys to die from malnutrition and preventable childhood diseases, and that
it is estimated that almost twice as many women as men suffer from malnutrition;
7. Encourages
all States to take action to address de jure and de facto gender inequality and
discrimination against women, in particular where it contributes to the
malnutrition of women and girls, including measures to ensure the full and
equal realization of the right to food and ensuring that women and girls have
equal access to social protection and resources, including income, land and
water and their ownership, as well as full and equal access to health
care, education, science and technology, to enable them to feed themselves and
their families, and in this regard stresses the need to empower women and
strengthen their role in decision-making;
8. Recognizes
the importance of smallholder and subsistence farmers in developing countries,
including women and local and indigenous communities, in ensuring food
security, reducing poverty and preserving ecosystems, and the need to assist
their development;
9. Encourages
the Special Rapporteur on the right to food to continue to mainstream a gender
perspective in the fulfilment of her mandate, and encourages the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and all other United Nations
bodies and mechanisms that address the right to food and food insecurity to
integrate and effectively implement a gender perspective in their relevant
policies, programmes and activities regarding access to food;
10. Reaffirms the need
to ensure that programmes delivering safe, sufficient, nutritious and
culturally accepted food are inclusive and accessible to persons with
disabilities;
11. Encourages States
to take steps with a view to progressively achieve the full realization of the
right to food for all, and to take steps to promote the conditions for everyone
to be free from hunger and, as soon as possible, to enjoy fully the right to
food and, where appropriate, to consider establishing appropriate institutional
mechanisms and to adopt national plans to combat hunger;
12. Underlines the
significance of national government policies and strategies in food production,
poverty alleviation and social protection;
13. Recognizes the
advances made through South-South cooperation in developing countries and
regions in connection with food security and the development of agricultural
production for the full realization of the right to food, and encourages States
to increase such cooperation as a complement to North-South cooperation and to
promote triangular cooperation further;
14. Also recognizes
the importance of traditional sustainable agricultural practices, inter alia,
traditional seed supply systems, including for many indigenous peoples and
local communities;
15. Stresses that the
primary responsibility of States is to promote and protect the right to food
and that the international community should provide, through a coordinated
response and upon request, international cooperation in support for national
and regional efforts by providing the assistance necessary to increase food
production and access to food, particularly through agricultural development
assistance, the transfer of technology, food crop rehabilitation assistance and
food aid ensuring food security, with special attention to the specific needs
of women and girls, support for the development of adapted technologies,
research on rural advisory services and support for access to financing
services, and ensure support for the establishment of secure land tenure
systems;
16. Calls upon States
parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
to fulfil their obligations under article 2, paragraph 1 and article 11,
paragraph 2 thereof, in particular with regard to the right to adequate food;
17. Calls upon States,
individually and through international cooperation and assistance, relevant
multilateral institutions and other relevant stakeholders, to take all the
measures necessary to ensure the realization of the right to food as an
essential human rights objective, and to consider reviewing any policy or
measure that could have a negative impact on the realization of the right to
food, particularly the right of everyone to be free from hunger, before
instituting such a policy or measure;
18. Stresses that
improving access to productive resources and investment in rural development is
essential for eradicating hunger and poverty, in particular in developing
countries, through, inter alia, the promotion of investments in appropriate,
small-scale irrigation and water management technologies in order to reduce
vulnerability to droughts, as well as in programmes, practices and policies to
scale up agroecological approaches;
19. Recognizes that 70
per cent of hungry people live in rural areas and 50 per cent are small-scale
farm-holders, and that these people are especially vulnerable to food
insecurity given the increasing cost of inputs and the fall in farm incomes;
that access to land, water, seeds and other natural resources is an increasing
challenge for poor producers; that sustainable and gender-sensitive
agricultural policies are important tools for promoting land and agrarian
reform, rural credit and insurance, technical assistance and other associated
measures to achieve food security and rural development; and that support by
States for small farmers, fishing communities and local enterprises, including
through the facilitation of access of their products to national and
international markets and empowerment of small producers, particularly women,
in value chains, is a key element for food security and the provision of the right
to food;
20. Stresses the
importance of fighting hunger in rural areas, including through national
efforts supported by international partnerships to stop desertification and
land degradation and through investments and public policies that are specifically
appropriate to the risk of drylands, and in this regard calls for the full
implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in
Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification,
Particularly in Africa;
21. Recalls the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and acknowledges that
many indigenous organizations and representatives of indigenous peoples have
expressed in different forums their deep concern over the obstacles and challenges
to the full enjoyment of the right to food that indigenous peoples face, and
calls upon States to take special actions to combat the root causes of the
often disproportionately high level of hunger and malnutrition among indigenous
peoples and the continuous discrimination against them;
22. Welcomes the
outcome document of the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly
known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples,[1] held on 22 and 23 September 2014,
and the commitment to developing, in conjunction with the indigenous peoples
concerned and where appropriate, policies, programmes and resources to support
indigenous peoples’ occupations, traditional subsistence activities, economies,
livelihoods, food security and nutrition;
23. Requests all
States and private actors, and international organizations and agencies within
their respective mandates, to take fully into account the need to promote the
effective realization of the right to food for all, including in ongoing
negotiations in different fields;
24. Encourages all
relevant international organizations and agencies to bring a human rights
perspective and the need for the realization of the right to food for all to
their studies, research, reports and resolutions on the issue of food security;
25. Recognizes the
need to strengthen national commitment as well as international assistance,
upon the request of and in cooperation with affected countries, towards the
full realization and protection of the right to food and, in particular, to
develop national protection mechanisms for people forced to leave their homes
and land because of hunger or humanitarian emergencies affecting the enjoyment
of the right to food;
26. Takes note with
appreciation of the growing movement, in different regions of the world,
towards the adoption of framework laws, national strategies and measures in
support of the full realization of the right to food for all;
27. Stresses the need
to make efforts to mobilize and optimize the allocation and utilization of
technical and financial resources from all sources, including external debt
relief for developing countries, and to reinforce national actions to implement
sustainable food security policies;
28. Encourages States
to consider developing their legal structures in order to protect resources
directly related to the right to food, such as water resources, access to land
and seed production;
29. Calls for the
early conclusion to and a successful, development-oriented outcome of the Doha
Round of trade negotiations of the World Trade Organization as a contribution
to creating international conditions permitting the full realization of the
right to food;
30. Stresses that all
States should make every effort to ensure that their international policies of
a political and economic nature, including international trade agreements, do
not have a negative impact on the right to food in other countries;
31. Encourages the
Special Rapporteur to continue to cooperate with States in order to enhance the
contribution of development cooperation and food aid to the realization of the
right to food, within existing mechanisms, taking into account the views of all
stakeholders;
32. Recalls the
importance of the New York Declaration on Action against Hunger and Poverty,
and recommends the continuation of efforts aimed at identifying additional
sources of financing for the fight against hunger and poverty;
33. Recognizes that
the commitments made at the World Food Summit in 1996 to halve the number of
people who are undernourished are not being fulfilled, while recognizing the
efforts of Member States in that regard, and urges all States and international
financial and development institutions, as well as relevant United Nations
agencies and funds, to give priority to and provide the necessary funding to
realize the aim of halving by 2015 the number, or at least the proportion, of
people who suffer from hunger, as stated in Millennium Development Goal 1, as
well as the right to food, as set out in the Rome Declaration on World Food
Security and the United Nations Millennium Declaration;
34. Reaffirms that
integrating food and nutritional support, with the goal that all people at all
times will have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their
dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life, is part of a
comprehensive effort to improve public health, including the response to the
spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases;
35. Calls upon all
States and, if appropriate, relevant international organizations:
(a) To combat
the different forms of malnutrition as a means to realize the right to adequate
food, including, if appropriate, by adopting a national strategy in this
regard;
(b) To take
measures and support programmes that are aimed at combating the irreversible
effects of chronic under-nutrition in early childhood, in particular by
targeting the first thousand days of a child’s life;
(c) To support
the national plans and programmes of countries to improve nutrition in poor households,
in particular plans and programmes that are aimed at combating under-nutrition
in mothers and children, and those targeting the irreversible effects of
chronic under- -nutrition in early childhood, from gestation to the age of 2
years;
(d) To implement policies and programmes to reduce
and eliminate preventable mortality and morbidity, as a result of malnutrition,
of children under 5 years of age;
36. Urges States to
give adequate priority in their development strategies and expenditures to the
realization of the right to food;
37. Stresses the
importance of international cooperation and development assistance as an
effective contribution to both the expansion and improvement of agriculture and
its environmental sustainability, and the provision of humanitarian food
assistance in activities relating to emergency situations for the realization
of the right to food and the achievement of sustainable food security, while
recognizing that each country has the primary responsibility for ensuring the
implementation of national programmes and strategies in this regard;
38. Invites all
relevant international organizations, including the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund, to promote such policies and projects that have a
positive impact on the right to food, to ensure that partners respect the right
to food in the implementation of common projects, to support strategies of
Member States aimed at the fulfilment of the right to food and to avoid any
actions that could have a negative impact on the realization of the right to
food;
39. Encourages the
Special Rapporteur on the right to food and the Working Group on the issue of
human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises to
cooperate on the subject of the contribution of the private sector to the
realization of the right to food, including the importance of ensuring
sustainable water resources for human consumption and agriculture;
40. Encourages the
Special Rapporteur to continue her collaboration with relevant international
organizations and United Nations agencies, programmes and funds, in particular
the Rome-based ones, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the
World Food Programme, in order to contribute to ensuring that the right to food
is promoted further within these organizations, in accordance with their
respective mandates, including for the advancement of smallholders and
agricultural workers in both developing and least developed countries;
41. Reaffirms that all
States should take steps, individually and through international assistance and
cooperation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of available
resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the
right to food by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of
legislative measures;
42. Encourages all States to consider developing awareness-raising campaigns to ensure that rights holders have access to information pertaining to the right to food and any obligation pertaining thereto;
43. Underlines the importance of effective remedies for violations of the right to food;
44. Encourages the
Special Rapporteur, within his her existing mandate, to explore, in
consultation with Member States and relevant stakeholders, ways and means of
raising the capacity of countries, particularly developing countries, including
least developed and net food-importing developing countries, to ensure the realization
and protection of the right to adequate food for their populations, and to
report on her findings to the Human Rights Council;
45. Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Special Rapporteur;[2]
46. Supports the fulfilment of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, as established by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 6/2 of 27 September 2007;
47. Requests the
Special Rapporteur, as part of the mandate, to continue to monitor the
evolution of the world food crisis and, in the context of the mandate and
regular reports, to keep the Human Rights Council informed of the impact of the
crisis on the enjoyment of the right to food and to alert it to possible
further actions in this regard;
48. Requests the
Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to
continue to provide all the human and financial resources necessary for the
continuation of the effective fulfilment of the mandate of the Special
Rapporteur;
49. Welcomes the
continued cooperation of the High Commissioner, the Advisory Committee and the
Special Rapporteur, and encourages them to continue their cooperation;
50. Calls upon all
Governments to cooperate with and assist the Special Rapporteur in her task by
supplying all necessary information requested by the mandate holder and to give
serious consideration to responding favourably to the requests of the Special
Rapporteur to visit their countries to enable her to fulfil her mandate more
effectively;
51. Recalls the
requests made by the General Assembly in its resolution 69/177 of 18 December
2014 that the Special Rapporteur submit to the Assembly an interim report at
its seventieth session on the implementation of that resolution, and to
continue her work, including by examining the emerging issues with regard to
the realization of the right to food within her existing mandate;
52. Invites
Governments, relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, treaty
bodies and civil society actors, including non-governmental organizations, as
well as the private sector, to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur in
the fulfilment of her mandate through, inter alia, the submission of comments
and suggestions on ways and means of realizing the right to food;
53. Requests the
Special Rapporteur to submit a report on the implementation of the present
resolution to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-first session;
54. Decides to
continue consideration of this matter under the same agenda item at its
thirty-first session.