IV-c. Objective 7.4 of the World Food Summit
In the late 1990s nutrition rights work at the global level centered on a mandate from the World Food Summit held in Rome in 1996. In the Summit's concluding Plan of Action, Objective 7.4 called upon . . .
. . . the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in consultation with relevant treaty bodies, and in collaboration with relevant specialized agencies and programmes of the UN system and appropriate inter- governmental mechanisms, to better define the rights related to food in Article 11 of the Covenant and to propose ways to implement and realize these rights . . . (Rome Declaration on World Food Security and World Food Summit Plan of Action)
Several different initiatives were taken to respond to this call:
- On February 19, 1997 the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations submitted a statement on the right to food to the Commission on Human Rights.
- On April 3, 1997 the Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution (1997/8) endorsing the World Food Summit's request for clarification of the meaning of the right to food.
- On December 1, 1997 the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights held a Day of Discussion on the Right to Food.
- On December 2, 1997 the First Expert Consultation on the Right to Adequate Food as a Human Right was organized by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and held in Geneva.
- On January 15, 1998, the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report on the current state of clarification of The Right to Food.
- On April 17, 1998, the Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution (1998/23) endorsing the First Expert Consultation's proposal to continue the discussion in 1998.
- On June 29, 1998 the Commission on Human Rights' Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities released a Report Updating the Study on the Right to Food Prepared by Mr. Asbj�rn Eide.
- On November 18-19, 1998, a Second Expert Consultation on the Right to Adequate Food as a Human Right was held, in Rome. It was organized by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and co-hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
- In April 1999 the United Nations Administrative Committee on Coordination/Sub-Committee on Nutrition (ACC/SCN) focused its annual meeting on the human right to food and nutrition. It was held in Geneva under the auspices of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
- On April 26, 1999 the Commission on Human Rights passed Resolution 1999/24 on The Right to Food.
- On May 12, 1999 the United Nations’ Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights released its General Comment 12 on The Right to Adequate Food (Art. 11)
- On June 28, 1999 the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the UN's Commission on Human Rights released The Right to Adequate Food and to be Free from Hunger: Updated Study on the Right to Food, Submitted by Mr. Asbj�rn Eide in Accordance with Sub-Commission Decision 1998/106 (Eide, Asbj�rn 1999)
- On August 25, 1999 the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities adopted Resolution 1999/12 on The Right to Adequae Food and to be Free from Hunger, endorsing the recommendations of Eide's updated study.
Supporting all this, and providing a central source for many of the relevant documents, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations established a web page on The Right to Food.
Subsection IV-c last updated on September 26, 1999