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Chapter 5 The Right to Adequate Food and to be Free from Hunger (excerpts) I. The Issues and the Mandate The issues 1. The Commission on Human Rights has repeatedly afWrmed that hunger constitutes an outrage and a violation of human dignity. The present update of my previous study on the right to adequate food is based on the conviction that the widespread failure by States and the international community to ensure freedom from hunger and enjoyment by all of the right to food constitutes one of the most serious shortcomings of the human rights agenda. The adoption of urgent measures is required at the national, regional and international levels for the elimination of hunger and the creation of conditions in which all people can enjoy their right to food and nutrition. Unless this is done, the credibility of the human rights ediWce is in serious doubt. 2. There is no disagreement that the right to food and nutrition is a core human right. On the occasion of the 1998 World Food Day (16 October) the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, referred to the right to food as the most basic human right. Freedom from want was one of the four fundamental freedoms referred to by an earlier United States President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his famous “four freedoms” address in 1941, which sparked the preparation of the Charter of the United Nations and later the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The States parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have recognized that freedom from hunger is a fundamental human right, and have undertaken to take the necessary steps, to the maximum of their available resources, to eliminate hunger. 3. And yet more than 800 million people do not have food to meet their basic nutritional needs. This is a frighteningly high number, and hard to reconcile with the expressed commitment by States to ensure the enjoyment of human rights by everyone . There is a vast task to be completed before everyone can enjoy this fundamental human right. It is necessary, therefore, to examine the existing gap between the human rights commitments and the reality of today. Report submitted by Mr. Asbjørn Eide, Special Rapporteur to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, 1998. E/CN.4/Sub. 2/1998/9. . . . The outline 6. Chapter II of the present report describes the scope and consequences of malnutrition and hunger. The major purpose of that chapter is to create awareness of the seriousness of the situation. Recent scientiWc studies have led to the conclusion that the long-range consequences of malnutrition are much more serious than previously known. 7. Chapter III points out that the human rights issues are now taken seriously. SigniWcant commitments were made at the World Food Summit in 1996, and special attention is given to the objectives set out its Plan of Action which calls for clariWcation of the right to food and the preparation of a coordinated strategy for its implementation. The follow-up is described, leading up to the adoption on 12 May 1999 of General Comment No. 12 by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (annex). Chapter IV explores the interpretation of relevant human rights provisions with particular attention to Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, drawing on General Comment No. 12. 8. Chapter V discusses the steps to be taken by States in order to ensure freedom from hunger and to implement the right to food. It also gives two examples of country situations where efforts to develop a human rights strategy to food have been started. 9. Chapter VI examines the treatment of the right to food and nutrition in relevant treaty bodies, while chapter VII reviews the treatment of the right by the Commission on Human Rights and its special rapporteurs on country situations. 10. Chapter VIII examines the evolving roles of the specialized agencies and other bodies in regard to the right, and shows that there has been a great increase in support for a human rights approach to food and nutrition issues. 11. Chapter IX brieXy examines the right to food in the context of ongoing processes of globalization, and points out that these processes have created new challenges and dangers as well as new opportunities; corrective action has to be taken in order to prevent avoidable negative consequences. 12. Chapter X contains the conclusions and the recommendations. Some of...

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