Flere lande har gennem de seneste ti år indskrevet retten til mad i deres lovgivning. Og det virker, for i flere tilfælde har domstole tvunget stater til at sikre fødevaresikkerhed for udsatte grupper. Sådan lyder det fra FNs Special Rapporteur on the right to food.
NEW YORK, 25. oktober 2013 (SRFOOD): In his final report to the UN General Assembly, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, today welcomed “the rights resurgence” he has seen across the world over the past decade.
“At a time when multiple, conflicting visions for food security have been put on the table, it is impressive to see so many States adopting laws, policies and strategies to realize the right to food, and so many people driving forward what is now a global right to food movement,” he stressed.
Mr. De Schutter said: “Treating food as a human right brings coherence and accountability. It helps to close the gaps by putting food security of all citizens at the top of the decision-making hierarchy, and making these decision-making processes participatory and accountable.”
“What I have seen is that food security laws and policies based on rights and entitlements – to productive resources, to accessing foodstuffs, to social protection – is ‘food security-plus’. It can transcend changes in the political, economic and agricultural landscape and make lasting inroads against hunger,” he stressed.
Mr. De Schutter used his final report to the UN General Assembly, after six years as Special Rapporteur, to identify where and how progress had been made in implementing the right to food, and to outline further steps that must be taken to make it a fully operational right.
His report was based on eleven country missions, submissions from a range of States from all regions, and regional right to food consultations in Latin America and the Caribbean (2011), Eastern and Southern Africa (2012) and West Africa (2013).
“Where progress has been made in realizing the right to food, it is down to the multiple interlocking contributions of different State and non-State actors who make each other accountable,” the UN expert said.
The role of Governments
“The first step is for Governments to give the right to food legal grounding, by writing it into constitutions and into law. Over the past decade, countries in Latin America and Africa have blazed a trail that others can now follow.”
- South Africa, Kenya, Mexico, the Ivory Coast and Niger have already given direct constitutional protection to the right to food, while reform processes are underway in El Salvador, Nigeria, and Zambia.
- Right to food framework laws, often taking the shape of ‘Food and Nutrition Security’ laws, have been adopted in Argentina, Guatemala, Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, and Honduras, with several other Latin American countries in the process of adopting similar measures.
- Countries including Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal and Mali have adopted, or are in the process of adopting, framework legislation for agriculture, food and nutrition that enshrines rights-based principles of entitlements and access to food.
However, the UN expert explained that giving the right to food legal protection is not an end in itself for Governments, who must put national right to food strategies in place.
Succes in court
“Often we labor under the misconception that the right to food is not like political rights such as freedom of speech. But economic and social rights – to food, water, housing, social protection – are just as real, just as binding, and can be upheld just as legitimately in court.”
“By further upholding this right, national and regional courts can help to set important precedents and make the right to food fully justiciable,” Mr. De Schutter stated, highlighting some landmark rulings for the right to food:
- The South African High Court ordered a revision of the Marine Living Resources Act and the creation of the Small-Scale Fishers Policy to ensure the socio-economic rights of small-scale fishers (2012).
- The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the ECOWAS Court of Justice ECOWAS ruled that Nigeria violated the right to food of the Ogoni people by failing to protect their land from environmental damage in the Niger delta (2012).
- Following public interest litigation, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that various social programmes should be expanded and implemented to provide a basic nutritional floor, based on the constitutionally protected ‘right to life’ (2001).
- In Nepal, the Supreme Court issued an interim order in 2008 for the immediate provision of food in a number of districts which food distribution programs were not reaching, in line with constitutional requirements.
Læs hele pressemeddelelsen: http://www.srfood.org/en/no-longer-a-forgotten-right-un-expert-hails-a-decade-of-right-to-food-progress (læs videre fra ”National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs)”
Download rapporten “Assessing a decade of right to food progress”. http://www.srfood.org/images/stories/pdf/officialreports/20131025_rtf_en.pdf
