Special Report: The Right to Food Is A Basic Human Right

Introduction--The Right to Food, Considered on the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights  (June, 1998)

This issue of Hunger Notes is dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UNDHR) and to the United Nations. The creation of a statement of rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the United Nations, which establishes means by which the nations of the world may take steps to protect these rights, together represent a fundamental step forward for mankind. (Continued)

The World Food Summit: A Milestone in Developing a Human Rights Approach to Food (June, 1998)

Arne Oshaug and Wenche Barth Eide

The access to adequate food and nutrition is denied for a large proportion of the inhabitants of this globe, perhaps 800 million people of the world's population of 3.5 billion.

This calls for a radical new approach-- a human rights approach. (Continued)

The Code of Conduct on the Right to Adequate Food: A Tool for Actors in the Civil Society (June, 1998)

Michael Windfuhr

The Right to Adequate Food is a fundamental human right firmly established in international law. This right flows from the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of 1966. The Right to Adequate Food has been reaffirmed in many pronouncements of the international community over the last 50 years. It is the UDHR that clarifies that the realization of all human rights-- civil, cultural, economic, political and social-- is needed to guarantee a life in dignity for all members of the human family. A life in dignity requires that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing..." (Article 25, UDHR). (Continued)

Food is a Human Right (June, 1998)

Uwe Kracht

The World Food Summit (WFS), which gathered in Rome two years ago, will hardly enter history as a landmark conference like the 1974 World Food Conference or the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. But it did open a few windows of opportunity, which could have a fundamental impact on the way we deal with food and development problems in the future. (Continued)

Human Rights and Nutrition Practice after the Cold War (June, 1998)

Thomas J. Marchione

As we approach the next millennium, food and nutrition professionals and others searching for solutions to the world’s widespread undernutrition and hunger find themselves within a new post-Cold War development era. With the diminution and conclusion of the Cold War as a global conflict over the last quarter century, the international development environment changed profoundly while hundreds of millions still remain undernourished. (Continued)

Creation of Human Rights Communities as a Means to Fight Hunger and Malnutrition (June, 1998)

Shulamith Koenig

This issue of Hunger Notes honors the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Analyzing 50 years of human rights treaties and subsequent commitments is an important responsibility for all human rights organizations and social justice activists. (Continued)

Human Rights Treaty Compliance (June, 1998)

Ellen Messer

For 50 years the legal and political concept of human rights has been evolving as a set of universal norms for the international community and its component states. Paragraph 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) declares: "...everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food..." Article 11 of the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1966) adds: "...State parties to the present Covenant recognize the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger..." and "...to take steps to the maximum of...available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized." Approximately 200 additional UN instruments address the right to adequate food and nutrition within civil-political, economic-social-cultural, development, and indigenous rights constructions. (Continued)

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE RIGHT TO FOOD AS A
BASIC HUMAN RIGHT

A right to food implies that the very existence of hunger is a violation of human rights.

The concept of a right to food is too theoretical: It is food that is needed.

There is no need to establish a right to food.  Rights make people lazy.

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