The Right to Food: A Resource Manual for NGOs Written by Rolf Künnemann & Sandra Epal-Ratjen The Right to Food: A Resource Manual for NGOs Written by Rolf Künnemann and Sandra Epal-Ratjen FIAN International The printing and dissemination of this manual was facilitated and financially supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Published by the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program 1200 New York Ave., NW Washington D.C. 20005 United States tel: +1 202 326 6790 fax: +1 202 289 4950 email: [email protected] http://shr.aaas.org The American Association for the Advancement of Science, “Triple A-S” (AAAS), is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science around the world by serving as an educator, leader, spokesperson and professional association. In addition to organizing membership activities, AAAS publishes the journal Science, as well as many scientific newsletters, books and reports, and spearheads programs that raise the bar of understanding for science worldwide. Published by HURIDOCS 48, chemin du Grand-Montfleury CH-1290 Versoix, Switzerland tel. 41.22.7555252 fax 41.22.7555260 e-mail : [email protected] http://www.huridocs.org/ HURIDOCS (Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, International), established in 1982, is a global network of human rights organisations concerned with human rights information. HURIDOCS champions effective documentation and information handling, including the use of information and communication technologies, as a force to defend, assert and promote human rights. HURIDOCS Cataloguing in Publications Data TITLE: The Right to Food: A Resource Manual for NGOs PERSONAL AUTHOR: Künnemann, Rolf; Epal-Ratjen, Sandra PLACE OF PUBLICATION: Washington D.C. PUBLISHER: AAAS Science and Human Rights Program ; HURIDOCS ADDRESS: 1200 New York Ave., NW, Washington D.C. 20005, United States ELECTRONIC MAIL: [email protected] DATE OF PUBLICATION: 20041200 PAGES: 118 ISBN: 0-87168-701-1 LANGUAGE: ENG BIBLIOGRAPHIES: Y INDEX: Right to food / Food / Nutrition / NGOs FREE TEXT: This manual is part of a series on how non-governmental organisations can monitor particular economic, social and cultural rights. It offers a step-by-step introduction to the right to food as a human right. It provides concepts that can be applied for analysis and action, as well as numerous examples and case studies, many of them taken from the work of FIAN International, the human rights organisation for the right to feed oneself. The Manual provides readers with strategies to strengthen the human right to food; it also provides resources that can be used to work for its realisation. Table of Contents Acknowledgements . .i Foreward . .ii 0. Introduction . .1 0.1 Still Hungry After All These Years?. 1 0.2 The Northern Side of Malnutrition . 2 0.3 Still Free in One’s Own Country? Food and Economic Power . 2 0.4 The Manual on the Right to Food: An Overview of Its Purpose and Structure. 4 REFERENCES. 5 Chapter 1 Food: Between Obsession and Oppression . .6 1.1 Food Satisfies More than Hunger . 6 1.2 From Spicy Colonialism to Globalisation . 7 1.3 Hunger and Famine: Beyond Statistics . 9 1.4 What Needs to Be Done? . 11 REFERENCES. 12 Chapter 2 Putting vulnerable people first . .13 2.1 Vulnerability as a Result of Poverty . 13 2.1.1 Focus on the Poor . 13 2.1.2 Focus on the Landless. 14 2.1.3 Focus on the Unemployed . 14 2.2 Vulnerability as a Result of Poverty and Discrimination. 15 2.2.1 Focus on indigenous people . 15 2.2.2 Focus on Women . 15 2.2.3 Focus on Children . 16 2.2.4 Focus on the Elderly . 16 2.2.5 Focus on People with Disabilities. 16 REFERENCES. 17 Chapter 3 Enough is enough: Food-related oppression . .18 3.1 Destroying people’s access to food . 18 3.1.1 Destroying access to food producing resources . 18 3.1.2 Destroying Access to Food. 20 3.2 Excluding People from Access to Food. 21 3.2.1 Exclusion from Food-Producing Resources . 21 3.2.2 Excluding People from Access to Food . 22 Chapter 4 Understanding Basic Human Rights Concepts . .23 4.1 The Key Elements of Human Rights . 23 4.2 Cases for Human Rights? Revisiting the Cases from Chapter 3. 26 Chapter 5 Using International Law to Respect, Protect, and Fulfill the Right to Food . .30 5.1 A Short Introduction to International Law. 30 5.2 Why Is International Law Important for the Right to Food? . 32 5.3 The Human Right to Food in International Law. 33 5.4 Normative Content of the Right to Food . 36 5.4.1 Minimum Core Content . 36 5.4.2 What is Adequate Food? . 37 5.4.3 What Does Proper Access to Food Mean?. 38 5.5 The General Nature of Obligations under the ICESCR . 39 REFERENCES. 41 Chapter 6 Fighting Violations and Abuses . .42 6.1 Obligations to Respect and Protect Access to Adequate Food . 42 6.2 Examples of Breaches of the Obligations to Respect and/or Protect. 43 6.2.1 Destruction of People’s Food-Producing Resources by the Effects of Activities such as Predatory Mining, Oil Exploitation, Dam Construction or Industrial Fishing . 43 6.2.2 Theft of People's Food-Producing Resources through Forcible Eviction of Peasants, Fisherfolk, and Nomadic and Indigenous People from their Land, Fishing Grounds or Forests. 45 6.2.3 Destroying People´s Food-Producing Resources through Ecological Destruction . 46 6.2.4 Withholding Water, Reducing Biodiversity and Destroying Access to Other Essential Inputs . 46 6.2.5 Dumping food on a local market of vulnerable producers . 47 6.2.6 Destroying a Person's or a Community's Food Supplies . 48 6.2.7 Dismantling Social Programmes or Legislation which Ensured Access to Food . 49 REFERENCES. 63 Chapter 7 Finding Allies: Related Human Rights . .64 7.1 Indivisibility . 64 7.1.1 The concept of indivisibility . 64 7.1.2 Sixteen Human Rights Groups . 65 7.2 Relationship to Other Economic, Social and Cultural Rights . ..