WORKING TOOLS

ACCESS TO LAND

RIGHT TO WATER

EXTRATERRITORIAL STATE OBLIGATIONS

MONITORING

JUSTICIABILITY OF THE RIGHT TO FOOD

GENDER

PROGRAM AREAS

FAO Right to Food Guidelines

The Right to Food Guidelines are also know as Voluntary Guidelines. At the World Food Summit of 1996 hosted by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) in Rome, a consensus emerged that the persistence of hunger and malnutrition is a consequence of the lack of political will amongst states. In response to the summit's call for clarification of the content of the right to food, FIAN, WANAHR and the Jacques Maritain International Institute in 1997 elaborated the Draft Code of Conduct on the Right to Adequate Food. The text was discussed widely among experts and civil society actors and brought together close to 1000 organisations and associations from all over the world, generating a momentum that was to be crucial to the elaboration of a set of the Voluntary Guidelines. Between 2002 and 2004, the negotiation process contributed to strengthen the alliance of NGOs which had been committed to the promotion of the guidelines since 1997. During the last years, several events have brought these NGOs together to strategize and coordinate work. Communication has been organised around an e-mail list serve which can be subscribed to by any organisation interested in promoting the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines and the right to food. The Guidelines were adopted by 187 FAO member states in November 2004, after twenty months of intensive negotiation. They are an international legal instrument that clarifies the content of the right to food, enumerates the state obligations deriving from that right and provides guidance on the implementation of the right to food. It is important to point out that their 'voluntary nature' in no way diminishes existing international legal obligations of States regarding the right to food. A number of provisions, such as a national framework law and monitoring mechanisms, are contained in General Comment No. 12, an authoritative interpretation of the right to adequate food as laid down in Art. 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). They are thus legally binding for states parties to the ICESCR, that is, to currently 151 out of the 187 states that adopted the Guidelines. A few years back, FIAN had already participated in the development of an authoritative legal interpretation of the right to food - the so-called "General Comment No. 12", adopted in 1999 by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This text replied to the request of the 1996 World Food Summit for a clarification by the UN Human Rights System of the definition of the right to adequate food and found great inspiration in the Code of Conduct proposed by the NGOs. The Voluntary Guidelines go further. They stress the operational aspect of the right to food by giving guidance on what should be done by governments to implement the right to food, and how to go about it. Most importantly, it commits governments and international institutions such as the FAO to placing the human rights framework at the centre of the struggle against hunger and malnutrition. The Guidelines provide for a holistic and comprehensive national strategy to realize the right to food, covering policy areas such as economic development, market systems, agriculture, nutrition, social policy, education, and emergency measures in food crises. A successful strategy to realize the right to food should consist of the following steps: In line with a rights-based approach, a careful analysis of the causes of hunger and malnutrition and the identification of vulnerable groups stand at the outset. On this basis, an assessment of the existing legislative and policy framework is conducted in order to identify problematic legislation or areas. All policy measures should be screened so as not to contribute to violations of the right to adequate food. A functioning monitoring mechanism needs to be installed in order to examine progress of the implementation of the right to food and to detect violations of the right to food. In such cases, effective recourse procedures have to be provided so that individuals can claim their rights and be given access to adequate remedies. The Guidelines are a valuable instrument for future human rights work on the right to food and provide the blueprint for similar instruments on economic, social and cultural rights.