HUMAN-RIGHTS - A NORMATIVE BASIS FOR FOOD AND NUTRITION-RELEVANT POLICIES

This paper explores human rights as a basis for policy formulation and planning of programmes and activities that will enhance food and nutr ition security. The right to adequate food and to be free from hunger forms part of the contemporary International Bill of Human Rights as a dopted by the United Nations. It is expressely provided for in the Uni versal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and in the International Co nvenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966, as well as in other more recent instruments such as the Convention of the Rights of the Child of 1989. However, neither the right to food nor other right s pertaining to nutrition as an ultimate human development objective h ave so far been given sufficient attention by agencies dealing with fo od, health and nutrition. The paper discusses the right to food as rec ently elaborated within the human rights bodies of the United Nations, including the notion of the three levels of state obligations: to res pect, to protect and to fulfil or assist the realization of the right to food. Furthermore, the paper considers an analytical framework for food security and its expansion into 'nutrition security' which can fo rm a basis for translating food and nutrition development goals into r ights and obligations as they are embedded in international legal inst ruments. The paper proposes a framework for analysing, at household, c ommunity and national levels, both causes of and solutions to food ins ecurity and malnutrition, as a basis for identifying state obligations to address food and nutrition security from a human rights perspectiv e. The centrepiece of the paper is a 'Food and nutrition security matr ix' that can help clarify state obligations, and which countries may f ind useful in their attempts to find effective solutions to the nutrit ional problems of their people. It may also serve in the dialogue betw een partners of official and non-governmental development operation, s o as to identify where, how, and, especially, at what level external a ssistance can best support integrated government efforts. The paper co ncludes with a set of general policy recommendations.