RES/25/14 The right to food

GE.A/HRC/25/57 and Add.1 and 2. 4-13589

*1413589*

Human Rights Council Twenty-fifth session Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council

25/14. The right to food

The Human Rights Council,

Recalling all previous resolutions of the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council on the right to food, as well as all resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights on the issue,

Recalling also the seventh special session of the Human Rights Council, at which the Council analysed the negative impact of the worsening of the world food crisis on the realization of the right to food for all, and Council resolutions S-7/1 of 22 May 2008, 9/6 of 18 September 2008 and 12/10 of 1 October 2009,

Recalling further the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for her or his health and well-being, including food, the Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition and the United Nations Millennium Declaration, in particular Millennium Development Goal 1 on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by 2015,

Recalling the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in which the right of everyone to adequate food, including the fundamental right of every person to be free from hunger, is recognized,

Bearing in mind the Rome Declaration on World Food Security, the World Food Summit Plan of Action and the Declaration of the World Food Summit, adopted on 13 June 2002, the Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security, adopted on 16 November 2009, and the Marrakesh Ministerial Decision on Measures Concerning the Possible Negative Effects of the Reform Programme on Least Developed and Net Food-importing Countries, adopted on 15 April 1994,

Reaffirming the concrete recommendations contained in the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of

National Food Security, adopted by the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in November 2004,

Acknowledging that the right to food is the right of every individual, alone or in community with others, to have physical and economic access at all times to sufficient, adequate and culturally acceptable food that is produced and consumed sustainably, preserving access to food for future generations,

Reaffirming the Five Rome Principles for Sustainable Global Food Security contained in the Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security, adopted on 16 November 2009,

Reaffirming also that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated, and that they must be treated globally, in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing and with the same emphasis,

Reaffirming further that a peaceful, stable and enabling political, social and economic environment, at both the national and international levels, is the essential foundation that will enable States to give adequate priority to food security and poverty eradication,

Reiterating, as in the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the Declaration of the World Food Summit: five years later, that food should not be used as an instrument of political or economic pressure, and reaffirming in this regard the importance of international cooperation and solidarity, as well as the necessity of refraining from unilateral measures that are not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations and that endanger food security,

Convinced that each State must adopt a strategy consistent with its resources and capacities to achieve its individual goals in implementing the recommendations contained in the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action and, at the same time, cooperate regionally and internationally in order to organize collective solutions to global issues of food security in a world of increasingly interlinked institutions, societies and economies, where coordinated efforts and shared responsibilities are essential,

Recognizing that, despite the efforts made, the problems of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition have a global dimension and that there has been insufficient progress made in reducing hunger, and that they could increase dramatically in some regions unless urgent, determined and concerted action is taken,

Recognizing also the complex character of the global food crisis, in which the right to food is threatened to be violated on a substantial scale, as a combination of several major factors, such as the global financial and economic crisis, environmental degradation, desertification and the impacts of global climate change, as well as natural disasters and the lack of development in many countries and transfer of relevant technology to address this issue, particularly in developing countries, least developed countries and small island and vulnerable developing States, that are having a negative impact on the realization of the right to food, in particular in the said countries,

Convinced that the elimination of the current distortions in the agricultural trading system will allow local producers and poor farmers to compete and sell their products, thereby facilitating the realization of the right to adequate food,

Resolved to act to ensure that the full realization of all human rights, including the right to development, is taken into account at the national, regional and international levels in addressing the global food crisis,

Recognizing the importance and positive role of smallholder farmers, including women farmers, family farmers and farmers in less favour areas, cooperatives and indigenous and local communities in developing countries,

Expressing its deep concern at the number and scale of natural disasters, diseases and pests and their increasing impact in recent years, which have resulted in massive loss of life and livelihood and threatened agricultural production and food security, in particular in developing countries,

Stressing the importance of reversing the substantial decline in assistance devoted to agriculture, both in real terms and as a share of total official development assistance,

Recalling the pledges made to increase official development assistance devoted to agriculture, as well as that the realization of the right to food not only entails a sustainable increase in productivity but also a holistic approach that includes a focus on smallholder and traditional farmers, in particular women farmers, family farmers and farmers in less favoured areas, and groups in the most vulnerable situations, as well as national and international policies that are conducive to the realization of this right,

Recognizing the need to increase sustainable private and public investments in agriculture from all relevant sources for the realization of the right to food,

Recalling the endorsement of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security by the Committee on World Food Security at its thirty-eighth session, held on 11 May 2012, and by the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations at its 144th session,

Recalling also the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, entitled “The future we want”, endorsed by the General Assembly in its resolution 66/288 on 27 July 2012,

Recognizing the ongoing inclusive consultative process within the Committee on World Food Security to develop voluntary and non-binding principles for responsible agricultural investments, intended for all stakeholders that are involved in, benefit from or are affected by those principles,

1. Reaffirms that hunger constitutes an outrage and a violation of human dignity and therefore requires the adoption of urgent measures at the national, regional and international levels for its elimination;

2. Also reaffirms the right of everyone to have access to safe, sufficient and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger so as to be able to fully develop and maintain his or her physical and mental capacities;

3. Considers it intolerable that, as estimated by the United Nations Children’s Fund, more than one third of the children who die every year before the age of 5 do so from hunger-related illness, that, as estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the number of people who are chronically undernourished is about 842 million worldwide, and that an additional 1 billion people are suffering from serious malnutrition, including as a result of the global food crisis, while, according to the latter organization, the planet could produce enough food to feed everyone around the world;

4. Expresses its deep concern that, according to the report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations entitled The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013, the number of hungry people in the world remains unacceptably high and 98 per cent of undernourished people in the world live in developing countries;

5. Expresses its concern at the fact that the effects of the world food crisis continue to have serious consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable people, particularly in developing countries, which have been further aggravated by the world financial and economic crisis, and at the particular effects of this crisis on many net food- importing developing countries, especially on least developed countries;

6. Also expresses its concern that women and girls are disproportionately affected by hunger, food insecurity and poverty, in part as a result of gender inequality and discrimination, that in many countries girls are twice as likely as boys to die from malnutrition and preventable childhood diseases, and that it is estimated that almost twice as many women as men suffer from malnutrition;

7. Encourages all States to take action to address de jure and de facto gender inequality and discrimination against women, in particular where it contributes to the malnutrition of women and girls, including measures to ensure the full and equal realization of the right to food and ensuring that women have equal access to social protection and to resources, including income, land and water and their ownership, as well as full and equal access to education, science and technology, to enable them to feed themselves and their families;

8. Recognizes the importance of smallholder and subsistence farmers in developing countries, including women and local and indigenous communities, in ensuring food security, reducing poverty and preserving ecosystems, and the need to assist their development;

9. Encourages the Special Rapporteur on the right to food to continue to mainstream a gender perspective in the fulfilment of his mandate, and encourages the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and all other United Nations bodies and mechanisms that address the right to food and food insecurity to integrate into, and effectively implement a gender perspective and a human rights perspective in, their relevant policies, programmes and activities regarding access to food;

10. Reaffirms the need to ensure that programmes delivering safe and nutritious food are inclusive and accessible to persons with disabilities;

11. Encourages States to take steps with a view to progressively achieve the full realization of the right to food for all, and to take steps to promote the conditions for everyone to be free from hunger and, as soon as possible, to enjoy fully the right to food and, where appropriate, to consider establishing appropriate institutional mechanisms and to adopt national plans to combat hunger;

12. Underlines the significance of national government policies and strategies in food production, poverty alleviation and social protection;

13. Recognizes the advances made through South-South cooperation in developing countries and regions in connection with food security and the development of agricultural production for the full realization of the right to food, and encourages States to increase such cooperation as a complement to North-South cooperation and to promote triangular cooperation further;

14. Recognizes the importance of traditional sustainable agricultural practices, inter alia, traditional seed supply systems, including for many indigenous peoples and local communities;

15. Stresses that the primary responsibility of States is to promote and protect the right to food and that the international community should provide, through a coordinated response and upon request, international cooperation in support for national and regional efforts by providing the assistance necessary to increase food production and access to

food, particularly through agricultural development assistance, the transfer of technology, food crop rehabilitation assistance and food aid ensuring food security, with special attention to the specific needs of women and girls, support for the development of adapted technologies, research on rural advisory services and support for access to financing services, and ensure support for the establishment of secure land tenure systems;

16. Calls upon States parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to fulfil their obligations under article 2, paragraph 1 and article 11, paragraph 2 thereof, in particular with regard to the right to adequate food;

17. Calls upon States, individually and through international cooperation and assistance, relevant multilateral institutions and other relevant stakeholders, to take all the measures necessary to ensure the realization of the right to food as an essential human rights objective, and to consider reviewing any policy or measure that could have a negative impact on the realization of the right to food, particularly the right of everyone to be free from hunger, before instituting such a policy or measure;

18. Stresses that improving access to productive resources and investment in rural development is essential for eradicating hunger and poverty, in particular in developing countries, through, inter alia, the promotion of investments in appropriate, small-scale irrigation and water management technologies in order to reduce vulnerability to droughts, as well as in programmes, practices and policies to scale up agroecological approaches;

19. Recognizes that 80 per cent of hungry people live in rural areas and 50 per cent are small-scale farm-holders, and that these people are especially vulnerable to food insecurity given the increasing cost of inputs and the fall in farm incomes; that access to land, water, seeds and other natural resources is an increasing challenge for poor producers; that sustainable and gender-sensitive agricultural policies are important tools for promoting land and agrarian reform, rural credit and insurance, technical assistance and other associated measures to achieve food security and rural development; and that support by States for small farmers, fishing communities and local enterprises, including through the facilitation of access of their products to national and international markets and empowerment of small producers, particularly women, in value chains, is a key element for food security and the provision of the right to food;

20. Stresses the importance of fighting hunger in rural areas, including through national efforts supported by international partnerships to stop desertification and land degradation and through investments and public policies that are specifically appropriate to the risk of drylands, and in this regard calls for the full implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa;

21. Recalls the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and acknowledges that many indigenous organizations and representatives of indigenous peoples have expressed in different forums their deep concern over the obstacles and challenges they face to the full enjoyment of the right to food, and calls upon States to take special actions to combat the root causes of the disproportionately high level of hunger and malnutrition among indigenous peoples and the continuous discrimination against them;

22. Requests all States and private actors, and international organizations within their respective mandates, to take fully into account the need to promote the effective realization of the right to food for all, including in ongoing negotiations in different fields;

23. Encourages all relevant international organizations and agencies to bring a human rights perspective and the need for the realization of the right to food for all to their studies, research, reports and resolutions on the issue of food security;

24. Recognizes the need to strengthen national commitment as well as international assistance, upon the request of and in cooperation with affected countries, towards the full realization and protection of the right to food and, in particular, to develop national protection mechanisms for people forced to leave their homes and land because of hunger or humanitarian emergencies affecting the enjoyment of the right to food;

25. Takes note with appreciation of the growing movement, in different regions of the world, towards the adoption of framework laws, national strategies and measures in support of the full realization of the right to food for all;

26. Stresses the need to make efforts to mobilize and optimize the allocation and utilization of technical and financial resources from all sources, including external debt relief for developing countries, and to reinforce national actions to implement sustainable food security policies;

27. Calls for the early conclusion to and a successful, development-oriented outcome of the Doha Round of trade negotiations of the World Trade Organization as a contribution to creating international conditions permitting the full realization of the right to food;

28. Stresses that all States should make every effort to ensure that their international policies of a political and economic nature, including international trade agreements, do not have a negative impact on the right to food in other countries;

29. Encourages the Special Rapporteur to continue to cooperate with States in order to enhance the contribution of development cooperation and food aid to the realization of the right to food, within existing mechanisms, taking into account the views of all stakeholders;

30. Recalls the importance of the New York Declaration on Action against Hunger and Poverty, and recommends the continuation of efforts aimed at identifying additional sources of financing for the fight against hunger and poverty;

31. Recognizes that the commitments made at the World Food Summit in 1996 to halve the number of people who are undernourished are not being fulfilled, while recognizing the efforts of Member States in that regard, and urges all States and international financial and development institutions, as well as relevant United Nations agencies and funds, to give priority to and provide the necessary funding to realize the aim of halving by 2015 the number, or at least the proportion, of people who suffer from hunger, as stated in Millennium Development Goal 1, as well as the right to food, as set out in the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the United Nations Millennium Declaration;

32. Reaffirms that integrating food and nutritional support, with the goal that all people at all times will have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life, is part of a comprehensive effort to improve public health, including the response to the spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases;

33. Calls upon all States and, if appropriate, relevant international organizations:

(a) To combat the different forms of malnutrition as a means to realize the right to adequate food, including, if appropriate, by adopting a national strategy in this regard;

(b) To take measures and support programmes that are aimed at combating the irreversible effects of chronic undernutrition in early childhood, in particular by targeting the first thousand days of a child’s life;

(c) To support the national plans and programmes of countries to improve nutrition in poor households, in particular plans and programmes that are aimed at combating undernutrition in mothers and children, and those targeting the irreversible effects of chronic undernutrition in early childhood, from gestation to the age of 2 years;

34. Urges States to give adequate priority in their development strategies and expenditures to the realization of the right to food;

35. Stresses the importance of international cooperation and development assistance as an effective contribution to both the expansion and improvement of agriculture and its environmental sustainability, and the provision of humanitarian food assistance in activities relating to emergency situations for the realization of the right to food and the achievement of sustainable food security, while recognizing that each country has the primary responsibility for ensuring the implementation of national programmes and strategies in this regard;

36. Invites all relevant international organizations, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to promote such policies and projects that have a positive impact on the right to food, to ensure that partners respect the right to food in the implementation of common projects, to support strategies of Member States aimed at the fulfilment of the right to food and to avoid any actions that could have a negative impact on the realization of the right to food;

37. Encourages the Special Rapporteur on the right to food and the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises to cooperate on the subject of the contribution of the private sector to the realization of the right to food, including the importance of ensuring sustainable water resources for human consumption and agriculture;

38. Encourages the Special Rapporteur to continue his collaboration with relevant international organizations and United Nations agencies, programmes and funds, in particular the Rome-based ones, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme, in order to contribute to ensuring that the right to food is promoted further within these organizations, in accordance with their respective mandates, including for the advancement of smallholders and agricultural workers in both developing and least developed countries;

39. Expresses concern at the negative impact on the full enjoyment of the right to adequate food of insufficient purchasing power and the increased price volatility of agricultural commodities on international markets, particularly on people in developing countries and on net food-importing countries;

40. Stresses the need to address the root causes of excessive food price volatility, including its structural causes, at all levels, and the need to manage the risks linked to still high and excessively volatile prices in agriculture commodities and their consequences for global food security and nutrition, as well as for smallholder farmers and poor urban dwellers;

41. Reaffirms that all States should take steps, individually and through international assistance and cooperation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the right to food by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures;

42. Encourages the Special Rapporteur, within his existing mandate, to explore, in consultation with Member States and relevant stakeholders, ways and means of raising the capacity of countries, particularly developing countries, including least developed and

net food-importing developing countries, to ensure the realization and protection of the right to adequate food for their populations, and to report on his findings to the Human Rights Council;

43. Welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur;1

44. Supports the fulfilment of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, as established by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 6/2 of 27 September 2007, and takes note with appreciation of the work conducted by the Special Rapporteur in the fulfilment of the mandate;

45. Requests the Special Rapporteur, as part of the mandate, to continue to monitor the evolution of the world food crisis and, in the context of the mandate and regular reports, to keep the Human Rights Council informed of the impact of the crisis on the enjoyment of the right to food and to alert it to possible further actions in this regard;

46. Requests the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to provide all the human and financial resources necessary for the continuation of the effective fulfilment of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur;

47. Welcomes the continued cooperation of the High Commissioner, the Advisory Committee and the Special Rapporteur, and encourages them to continue their cooperation;

48. Calls upon all Governments to cooperate with and assist the Special Rapporteur in his or her task by supplying all necessary information requested by the mandate holder and to give serious consideration to responding favourably to the requests of the Special Rapporteur to visit their countries to enable him or her to fulfil his or her mandate more effectively;

49. Recalls the requests made by the General Assembly in its resolution 68/177 of 18 December 2013 that the Special Rapporteur submit to the Assembly an interim report at its sixty-ninth session on the implementation of that resolution, and to continue his work, including by examining the emerging issues with regard to the realization of the right to food within the existing mandate;

50. Invites Governments, relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, treaty bodies and civil society actors, including non-governmental organizations, as well as the private sector, to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur in the fulfilment of his or her mandate through, inter alia, the submission of comments and suggestions on ways and means of realizing the right to food;

51. Requests the Special Rapporteur to submit a report on the implementation of the present resolution to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-eighth session;

52. Decides to continue consideration of this matter under the same agenda item at its twenty-eighth session.

54th meeting 27 March 2014

[Adopted without a vote.]