Right to food in Zambia awaits for national recognition
FIAN International urges the Zambian government to recognize the fundamental right to food in the draft constitution, other national legislation and policies towards the overarching goal of achieving food security for all.
On June 3rd 2014, the Vice president Dr. Guy Scott made comments in Livingstone before a Patriotic Front (PF) party meeting at the Civic Centre stating that the “[Zambian] government is strongly opposed to enacting ideological fantasies from the draft constitution such as the right to food because they are unrealistic and inapplicable”. FIAN International has issued a letter in response to these comments and urged the Zambian government to recognize the fundamental right to food in the draft constitution, other national legislation and policies towards the overarching goal of achieving food security for all.
The comments made in Livingstone before a Patriotic Front (PF) party meeting at the Civic Centre contradict the state of Zambia’s human rights obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the right to food. In 2004, Zambia, as one of the 187 Member States of the General Council of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), adopted the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security, which are meant to provide guidance on adopting framework laws and integrating the right to food into economic development policies, the regulation of markets and resources such as labor, water and land, and programs that support vulnerable groups.
Accordingly, the Open Letter exhorts the Zambian government to progressively achieve the realization of the right to food by giving proper recognition of it in the national legislation to guarantee its full implementation and ensure the accountability in case of its violation. Moreover, FIAN highlights this recognition would improve the governance of natural resources such as a land, water, fisheries, forests, etc, would allow government officers to have a clear mandate in giving priority to the right to food when it is conflicting with other legal regulations, and would facilitate the work of judges in adjudicating cases related to right to food violations.