Comment [Volume 24 No. 10 (2024)]
20 years of Right to Food Guidelines and the challenges of implementing normative frameworks
Food is not just sustenance, but essential for life, survival, dignity, well-being, and the socio-economic development of individuals, communities, and nations. The right to food is a legal right provided for in international law such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Over 30 countries globally have explicitly recognized the right to food in their constitutions directly or interpreted it within broader rights, such as the right to an adequate standard of living or health.
A human rights approach places on governments the responsibility to protect, respect and fulfill the right to food and for citizens to claim their rights and hold duty bearers accountable for the realization of this right.
Year 2024 marks 20 years of the Right to Food Voluntary Guidelines which were adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 2004. These guidelines represented the first attempt by governments to interpret an economic, social, and cultural right and to recommend actions to be undertaken for its realization. They are putting the entitlements of people firmly at the center of development and provide practical guidance to states on how to realize the Right to Food through the development of strategies, programs, policies, and legislation at the national and international levels.
The right to food guidelines have inspired an advanced normative framework in the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and the UN system such as guidelines on tenure, the rights of farmers, indigenous peoples’ rights, guidelines on gender in the context of food security, and farmers’ rights as relates to seeds.
However, there is a significant lack of implementation of the guidelines by governments. An analysis done by the Right to Food Coalition in Kenya revealed that there is low awareness of the guidelines (and generally right to food entitlements) by rightsholders such that they cannot hold the state accountable for their actions or inactions. Similarly, duty bearers have not owned and adopted the guidelines to inform policymaking.
Surprisingly, the guidelines have been appropriated by social movements to drive demand for public participation. Public participation is crucial for food systems transformation. The way you design and implement public participation will define its results (e.g. trust is built between governments and citizens or not). Some successes regarding the application of the guidelines in national-level policies include the Right to Food and Food Sovereignty Act in Nepal, the Agroecology Strategy in Burkina Faso and Zambia, and Brazil’s national food policy council CONSEA – the most inclusive body in political decision-making at national level worldwide.
As we mark 20 years of the right to food guidelines, governments must re-enforce their commitment by translating the advanced normative framework on the Right to Food into national legal, policy, and institutional frameworks. They must prioritize public investment in those areas that make a difference in the Right to Food, such as sustainable and equitable food systems that place a focus on the needs of both local small-holder farmers and poor consumers, and social safety nets. This also entails creating mechanisms for accountability and establishing transparent systems to monitor and redress instances of violations of the right to food.
By Njeri Karanu
Assistant Editor in Chief, AJFAND
National Coordinator, Right to Food Coalition Kenya
