Right to food obligations of India and Bolivia under scrutiny

In its concluding observations on India, the committee notes “the absence of any factors and difficulties impeding the implementation of the Covenant”.  According to the CESCR, rapid and sustained growth in India has not translated into employment growth. Despite rapid economic growth, high levels of poverty, serious food insecurity and shortages persist. The definition of the poverty threshold has overlooked to fully integrate human rights. The CESCR is concerned about frequent farmers suicides caused by the extreme hardship faced by small farmers; displacements and forced evictions in the context of land acquisition for the purpose of development projects, affecting mainly scheduled castes and scheduled tribes; the creation of special economic zones and other projects, which have resulted in displacement of millions of families. Major concerns regard the lack of effective consultations and legal redress for persons affected by displacement and forced evictions, and inadequate measures to provide sufficient compensation. Also, the UN Committee addresses the shortage of access to safe drinking water and presence of heavy metals in the ground water.
On the basis of these observations, amongst others, the Committee recommends to submit disaggregated data for its next report, with particular attention to marginalized individuals and groups; take urgent measures to address the issue of poverty and food insecurity; review the national poverty threshold; take immediate measures to enforce laws and regulations prohibiting forced evictions and ensure adequate compensation or alternative accommodation. State should undertake open, participatory and meaningful consultations with affected residents and communities and take effective measures to ensure equitable access to safe drinking water by rigorously enforcing laws on water treatment and effective monitoring compliance, amongst others.

In the case of Bolivia, the Committee recognizes the dialogue attitude of Bolivia, but expresses its concern regarding the lack of effective measures to guarantee economic, social and cultural rights before the approval of the proposed new Bolivian constitution. Concerning issues regarding the right to adequate food are the persistence of malnutrition, the lacking guarantee for the realization of the right to food of vulnerable groups, and the increasing plots of land dedicated to agrofuels production, which negatively affects food availability for human consumption. Regarding land tenure, the CESCR is concerned about the lack of any effective guarantee of ancestral lands for indigenous peoples and the highly unequal distribution of land with 70 percent of the land in the hands of seven percent of the population The UN Human Rights body also highlights the need to mainstream gender equality in the policies and programmes adopted for the realization of all ESC rights. On this basis the CESCR recommends inter alia, to adopt human rights indicators and benchmarks disaggregated to regions and vulnerable groups, allowing a monitoring of the effective realization of ESC Rights; to adopt measures to avoid forced evictions of peasant families; to ensure that the judicial power takes into account the Covenant in its decisions; to investigate and prosecute forced evictions and other violations of the Covenant rights; to continue working for the respect and equality of indigenous peoples’ rights, including the human rights to education, housing, food and health. It is to be highlighted that the Committee recommended the state to continue adopting measures in order to guarantee food availability for the population and asks the country to implement the programme “Desnutrición Cero” with other measures addressed to facilitate the access of people to productive resources in a sustainable way, as well as to increase education on nutritional issues.

In both cases, FIAN International has been actively working with other NGOs and the Committee to make sure that the right to adequate food will enjoy a better realization. This work will continue especially at the national level where civil society will closely monitor state action to implement the recommendations made by the UN Committee.

More information with Sandra Ratjen, at Press Release on severe violations of the right to food in India