SECTION IV:
THE HUMAN RIGHT TO FOOD AND NUTRITION
IV-a. Food and Nutrition Rights in International Law
Historically, national and international responses to problems of malnutrition have been based on compassion and the recognition that reducing malnutrition can be of considerable social benefit. These responses have ranged from small local feeding programs to large-scale international actions involving the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Bank, the World Food Program, the World Health Organization, and many nongovernmental organizations. Now, however, there is increasing recognition that food and nutrition is a human right, and thus there is a legal obligation to assure that all people are adequately nourished.
The articulation of food and nutrition rights in modern international human rights law begins with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The declaration asserts in article 25(1) that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food . . . ."
The right was reaffirmed in two major binding international agreements. In the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (which came into force in 1976), article 11 says that "The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing, and housing . . ." and also recognizes "the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger . . . "
In the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which came into force in 1990), two articles address the issue of nutrition. Article 24 says that "States Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health . . .(paragraph 1)" and shall take appropriate measures "to combat disease and malnutrition . . . . through the provision of adequate nutritious foods, clean drinking water, and health care (paragraph 2c)." Article 24 also says that States Parties shall take appropriate measures . . . "To ensure that all segments of society, in particular parents and children, are informed, have access to education and are supported in the use of basic knowledge of child health and nutrition [and] the advantages of breastfeeding . . . ." Article 27 says in paragraph 3 that States Parties "shall in case of need provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing, and housing."
Henry Shue defines basic rights as those necessary for the enjoyment of all other rights (Shue 1996). In these terms, there can be no question that the human right to food and nutrition is a basic right.
Thus, the human right to food and nutrition is well established in international law. Even if the right had not been stated directly, it would be strongly implied in other provisions such as those asserting the right to life and health, or the Convention on the Rights of the Child’s requirement (in article 24, paragraph 2a) that States Parties shall "take appropriate measures to diminish infant and child mortality". The human right to food and nutrition has been reaffirmed at the international level in many different settings.
The foundations for the international human right to food and nutrition lie in the binding international human rights instruments in which they are explicitly mentioned, primarily the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Other binding international human rights agreements such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women contribute to the articulation of relevant rights.
Thus, the human right to food and nutrition has a long history, and it is well established in internatonal law. Apart from the development of formal international law, the international community has taken several other initiatives to spell out commonly agreed standards with regard to food and nutrition, as described in the following subsection, IV-b. Then Subsection IV-c describes developments of the late 1990s in international law relating to food rights. During this period the work has not been about the formulation of new law, but rather about further elaboration of the meaning of the right to food.
On reviewing the hunger data, Philip Alston and Katarina Tomaševski observed that "these statistics make hunger by far the most flagrant and widespread of all serious human rights abuses." Alston added that "the right to food has been endorsed more often and with greater unanimity and urgency than most other human rights, while at the same time being violated more comprehensively and systematically than probably any other right (Alston and Tomaševski 1984, pp. 7, 9)." There is no need to propose the human right to food; it is already well established in international law. The task now is assure the universal realization of that right.
Continue to IV-b. Global Standards
Subsection IV-a last updated on September 26, 1999