1. The Right to Food Sisay Alemahu Yeshanew

2. What is the right to food?
What? There’s no such right – I can’t go to McDonalds to get a double-cheese burger as a matter of right
This is bogus – are poor people/countries going to claim right to get food from rich people/countries?
There is no (enough) food – what right are you talking about?
Yeah, yeah… we should give food for those who do not have any/enough

3. Human Rights Collective rights Peoples’ rights
Civil and Political Rights
Protect equality and liberty – mainly against invasion by state
justiciable
Rights to vote, expression, association
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Protect and advance adequate standards of living
Non-justiciable?
Rights to health, education, food
Collective rights
Peoples’ rights
environmental rights, self-determination
Interdependent, indivisible, universal

4. right to food
Entitlements
approach

5. human rights-based approach Charity/needs-based approach
rights and duties
to feed oneself in dignity
create enabling environment
respect
protect
facilitate
Provide
State and non-state actors
human rights-based approach
furthering the realization of human rights
human rights principles guide the processes (design, implementation, monitoring & evaluation)
development of capacity of duty-bearers to meet their obligations and of rights-holders to claim their rights
Charity/needs-based approach
charity mode: assumption of needs/material provision
needs-based approach hearing from the poor
discretionary interventions that may change with priorities
not addressing policy and regulatory issues for systemic change

6. The right to food is the right of every individual, alone or in a community with others, to have physical and economic access at all times to sufficient, adequate and culturally acceptable food that is produced and consumed sustainably, preserving access to food for future generations (CESCR Par. 6 and 7).
traditional social safety nets and humanitarian relief, where assistance was provided on a ‘discretionary’ basis, usually for a limited time period, often in the form of food, and recipients were pejoratively labelled as ‘aid beneficiaries’ –causes of poverty as rooted in the personal characteristics and circumstances of individuals and households
From helping people facing unequal power relationships and social relations (discrimination, exclusion), to empowering them to overcome these sources of inequity and vulnerability – from symptoms to structural causes of poverty

7. HRBA

9. challenges Entitlements as a façade for redistribution of wealth
Difficulty of addressing power relations, e.g., challenging existing access to land/irrigation regime
Discomfort with the human rights language
Double standards and interest-driven promotion

10. Strategic challenges
“where the law is not enough” - long years of work leads to human rights compatible land law – equality in ownership, title etc. but reality continued as earlier – capacity building/empowerment
Diversification of livelihoods – addressing conflict over limited and dwindling grazing land through support to fishing – problem of increase in electricity bill and connection to market

11. Different forms Traditional human rights project – targeting
Mainstreaming
Human rights dialogue and conditionality
Most development and humanitarian assistance policies integrate HRBA
Institutionalization/operationalization a problem
See “International Dimensions of the Right to Adequate Food” at

12. Mainstreaming conscious, systematic and concrete integration/infusion
Value (right to food); context (technical area of work); institution; authority
Targeting: human rights policy ➔ specialist unit/specialised organisation ➔ implementation
Mainstreaming: human rights policy ➔ specialist unit ➔ the entire organisation ➔implementation

13. Requisites of mainstreaming
Specialist body
Corporate strategy and tools
Capable and dedicated staff
Organizational support
+ political context/consensus; incentive structure in partnership

14. FAO – normative basis
The Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security (2004) - provide human rights- based practical tools for the achievement of food security
full range of actions to build an enabling environment for people to feed themselves in dignity and to establish appropriate safety nets for those who are unable to do so
Policy, legal, strategic and institutional frameworks, resource capacity, advocacy and monitoring ….
The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (CFS 2012) has the purpose of supporting the progressive realisation of the right to adequate food

15. Programming and strategic instruments
HRBA a principle in the FAO’s Country Programming Framework and Project Cycle Guide
FAO reviewed strategic framework (2010– 2019): the development and implementation of frameworks and mechanisms for the realisation of the right to adequate food is one of the main outputs under Strategic Objective 1(contributing to the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition)

16. Examples of FAO right to food work
Zanzibar – policy, legislative, strategy support
FAO provided human rights-based policy assistance and capacity strengthening support to the Government of Zanzibar from to 2013 in the formulation of legal, policy and operational frameworks for food security and nutrition (FSN).
The Zanzibar FSN Policy and Programme of 2008 and the Act that provides legal basis for the implementation of the policy, all integrate the HRBA that the policy assistance promoted.
The realization of the right to adequate food for all forms part of the overall policy objective, PANTHER are integrated as policy implementation principles and the rights of individuals and the duties and responsibilities of governmental institutions at national and district levels are spelt out.
The project further supported local level capacity strengthening and the development of district and sub- district FSN action plans which serve as frameworks for participatory community-based FSN projects and activities.

17. Program articulation
HRBA is NOT about the general contribution of a project to the achievement of human rights; they should inform goals and process – participatory situation analysis, stakeholder mapping, capacity gap analysis;
Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools in Mozambique aims to equip vulnerable children and youth with livelihood knowledge and skills that are important for the realization of their right to food; guided by principles of child protection, gender equality, non-discrimination, participation, inclusion and accountability;
children’s opinions are taken into consideration in planning and implementation of activities; and states and relevant international organizations are encouraged to support the enjoyment of the rights of vulnerable children while children are empowered to claim their rights

18. sustainability
Sustainability through institutionalization and local ownership: The School Feeding Programme in Brazil - human rights-based legal and institutional frameworks and streamlining inter- related initiatives over time
Ensures continuity through multi-stakeholder participation, the empowerment of vulnerable groups and the institutionalization of processes and benefits - the Hunger-Free Latin American and the Caribbean Initiative led to the establishment of the Parliamentary Front against Hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean and to the formation of a number of national fronts in the region, which now lead the agenda of fighting hunger with a focus on the right to food

19. Fainal reflections What is this gimmick called right to food now?
Is HRBA anything more than a “feel good rhetoric”?
Is the glass half-full or half-empty?