IV-b. Global Standards
Alongside the developments in international law described in the preceding subsection, numerous conferences and non-binding international declarations and resolutions have helped to shape the emerging international consensus on norms regarding the human right to food and nutrition.
On March 14, 1963 a Special Assembly on Man's Right to Freedom from Hunger met in Rome and "issued an historic Manifesto calling on the governments and people of the world to unite in the struggle against man's common enemy–hunger." The manifesto described the character and scope of hunger in the world, and asserted that "freedom from hunger is man's first fundamental right." A variety of action programs such as increasing agricultural productivity and improving trade relations were suggested and moral concerns were expressed, but the idea that "freedom from hunger is man's first fundamental right" was not elaborated.
In 1974 the World Food Conference issued a Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition. It asserted that "Every man, woman and child has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition in order to develop fully and maintain their physical and mental faculties." That declaration was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 3348 (XXIX) of December 17, 1974.
In response to concerns about inappropriate marketing and promotion, the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes was adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in 1981. The WHA has approved a series of resolutions in subsequent years to further clarify and strengthen the code.
In November 1984 the World Food Assembly, comprised primarily of representatives of nongovernmental organizations, met in Rome. Its purpose was to call attention to the fact that the promise made at the 1974 World Food Congress that "within a decade no child will go to bed hungry" had not been fulfilled. Its final statement asserted that "the hungry millions are being denied the most basic human right—the right to food."
On August 1, 1990 the Innocenti Declaration on the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding was adopted by participants at a meeting on Breastfeeding in the 1990s held at the International Child Development Centre in Florence, Italy. The declaration stated a variety of specific global goals, including the goal that "all women should be enabled to practice exclusive breastfeeding and all infants should be fed exclusively on breast-milk from birth to 4-6 months of age". In 1991 the UNICEF Executive Board passed a resolution (1991/22) saying that the Innocenti Declaration would serve as the "basis for UNICEF policies and actions in support of infant and young child feeding". In May 1996 the World Health Assembly passed a resolution on Infant and Young Child Nutrition (WHA49.15) in which it confirmed its support for the Innocenti Declaration.
At the World Summit for Children held at the United Nations in New York in September 1990, most heads of state signed the Plan of Action for Implementing the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children. Among the Major Goals specified in the plan was: "Between 1990 and the year 2000, reduction of severe and moderate malnutrition among under-5 children by half." Supporting goals specifically related to nutrition were:
(i) Reduction in severe, as well as moderate malnutrition among under-5 children by half of 1990 levels;
(ii) Reduction of the rate of low birth weight (2.5 kg or less) to less than 10 per cent;
(iii) Reduction of iron deficiency anemia in women by one third of the 1990 levels;
(iv) Virtual elimination of iodine deficiency disorders;
(v) Virtual elimination of vitamin A deficiency and its consequences, including blindness;
(vi) Empowerment of all women to breast-feed their children exclusively for four to six months and to continue breast-feeding, with complementary food, well into the second year;
(vii) Growth promotion and its regular monitoring to be institutionalized in all countries by the end of the 1990s;
(viii) Dissemination of knowledge and supporting services to increase food production to ensure household food security.
These goals have been endorsed repeatedly, both before and after the World Summit for Children, by many international bodies including the World Health Organization Assembly in 1990, the UNICEF Board Session of 1990, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992.
An International Conference on Nutrition, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, was held in Rome in December 1992. The rights idea was frequently endorsed. In his address opening the conference His Holiness Pope John Paul II said:
It is up to you to reaffirm in a new way each individual's fundamental and inalienable right to nutrition. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights had already asserted the right to sufficient food. What we must now do is ensure that this right is applied and that everyone has access to food, food security, a healthy diet and nutrition education.
In the conference's concluding World Declaration on Nutrition, the nations of the world agreed that "access to nutritionally adequate and safe food is a right of each individual." The conference also endorsed the nutrition goals set out at the 1990 World Summit for Children, and added two more goals:
To end famine and famine-related deaths; and
To end starvation and nutritional deficiency diseases in communities afflicted by natural and man-made disasters.
The goals set out at the 1990 and 1992 conferences have been supported by many nations in the National Programmes of Action they prepared in fulfillment of their commitments at the World Summit for Children.
In the late 1990s, FIAN, the Foodfirst International Action Network, an international nongovernmental organization, working in consultation with the World Alliance on Nutrition and Human Rights and the Jacques Maritain Institute, prepared a Draft International Code of Conduct on the Human Right to Adequate Food. The draft produced at a meeting in Geneva in May 1997 has been endorsed by hundreds of nongovernmental organizations.
In November 1996 the World Food Summit concluded with agreement on the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and World Food Summit Plan of Action. The first paragraph declared: "We, the Heads of State and Government, or our representatives, gathered at the World Food Summit at the invitation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, reaffirm the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger." The summit called for further specification of the meaning of the right to food, through a process described in the following subsection.
Several nations have articulated nutrition rights in some form in their laws. Cuba's constitution assures that "no child be left without schooling, food and clothing." The Italian, Spanish, and Greek constitutions assure a right to health. In many countries there is language referring to other sorts of assurances, such as the right to social security (as in the Netherlands and Spain) that can be interpreted as implying nutrition rights. In most cases, however, the assurances have not yet been concretized, and they have not been enforced through the courts or through other kinds of administrative measures. The meaning of the right to food at the national level still needs to be elaborated through national policy and national legislation.
Continue to IV-c. Objective 7.4
Subsection IV-b last updated on September 26, 1999