also in french and spanish – Linked with Jean Ziegler – Switzerland and its links.
- On 26 March 2008, the UN Human Rights Council approved the President’s proposal to appoint Prof. Olivier De Schutter the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Prof. De Schutter thus succeeds to Prof. Jean Ziegler, who had been holding this mandate since 2000.
- Under the terms of the resolution it adopted on the mandate on 26 September 2007 (A/HRC/6/L.5/Rev.1), the Special Rapporteur is expected: … (full text Special Raporteur).
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Adresse: Olivier De Schutter, Rapporteur Spécial des Nations Unies pour le Droit à l’Alimentation, Collège Thomas More, Place Montesquieu 2, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique;
Contact: Fax: +32 10 47 24 03, e-mail.
Right to Food – The meaning of the right to food as a human right: The right to adequate food is recognized in specific instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Art. 24(2)(c) and 27(3)), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Art. 12(2)), or the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Art. 25(f) and 28(1)).
But it is stated most explicitly, at a more general level, under Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by G.A. Res. 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948 and under Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted on 16 December 1966.
In 1996, the World Food Summit convened in Rome. It requested that the right to food be given a more concrete and operational content. A number of initiatives were taken as a result. In 1999, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the body of independent experts monitoring States’ compliance with the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted General Comment No. 12 on the right to food. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food was established by the Commission on Human Rights by resolution 2000/10 of 17 April 2000.
Following the request of the 2002 World Food Summit – five years later, an Intergovernmental Working Group was established under the auspices of the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO) in order to prepare a set of guidelines on the implementation of the right to food. This process led to the adoption on 23 November 2004, by the 187 Member States of the General Council of the FAO, of the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security.
The Guidelines are a set of recommendations States have chosen to adopt to assist in the implementation of the human right to adequate food. They offer practical guidance to States about how best to implement their obligation, under international law, to respect the right to adequate food and to ensure freedom from hunger … (full long text).
Link: One Table Blog.