'The Human Right to Food and the Global Food Crisis'

Archived footage of the UN Event: 'The Human Right to Food and the Global Food Crisis: Root Causes and Responses'

On August 29th, some of the human rights world’s leading voices, working toward solutions to the global food crisis, gathered at the United Nations to discuss the root causes and responses to the global food crisis, and the human right to food

With recent increases in food prices pushing the number of people living without food security to as high as 1.7 billion people, the need for a human rights-based approach to understanding the root causes of (and solutions to) the food crisis has never been more pressing.

In his introductory remarks, Ngonlardje Mbaidjol of the OHCHR, who moderated the event, said: “The human rights dimension of the food crisis is the one that speaks with the voices of the poor and marginalized; and that empowers them to seek the fulfillment of their rights, and the right to food in particular, from states and other duty bearers.”

Mbaidjol said that of the many high profile efforts to address the food crisis over the last 6 months, very few that included the human rights perspective. His hope for the afternoon's discussion was to: “…openly and frankly examine if the right to food and the human rights based approach would lead us to a different analysis of the underlying root causes of the crisis, and then after, to devising more [efficacious] and just responses that allow human beings, from different parts of the world, to live a life of dignity and freedom from want – as the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights envisaged in 1948.”

Oliver De Schutter, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, emphasized the need to turn away from ready-made solutions to food production increases, which pay insufficient attention to the social and environmental dimensions of the crisis. Instead, he pointed to efforts that would help the small scale & local farmers, who constitute the majority of those who are hungry. De Schutter suggested that by applying a human rights framework to policies shaping the global food chain, we would develop better targeted solutions, more sustainably addressing the needs of those who are now hungry and malnourished.

Heather Grady, of Realizing Rights, put the failure of emphasizing the human rights aspect of the food crisis into the context of the broader failure to embed human rights standards and principles into international development discourse and practice. Grady's comments echoed that of De Schutter's, stating that: "First, a human rights approach to food security starts with mapping the problem to identify who are most vulnerable, and targeting the solutions to them. And second, that this is not about the amount of food produced, but far more about the power of those who produce food, the purchasing power of the poor, and about access to food."

Karen Hansen-Kuhn, of Action Aid, agreed with speakers like Flavio Valente, of FIAN International, who said that the core of the problem has it's roots in the structural adjustment programs and aggressive trade liberalization driven by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Association, dating back decades. Hansen-Kuhn suggested that many of these policy choices have stripped smaller-scale farmers of the tools they need to defend their livelihoods, and feed their families and their nations.

The event also included Themba Masuku of FAO; Joia Mukharjee of Partners In Health; and Sanjay Reddy of Columbia University.

Each participant took time to share their perspective on the causes of the global food crisis, and the solutions they propose as part of a more effective and human rights-based approach to achieving food security for the more than 1 billion people currently living without.

You can watch the whole event by pressing play on the video player embedded in this news-post or by visiting the UN Video Archive website; and you can learn more about the right to food at campaign's 'The Right to Freedom from Hunger' theme page.