CESCR
General Comment No. 12
The right to adequate food (Art. 11)
Twentieth session 1999
E/1991/23
Introduction
and basic premises
1. The human
right to adequate food is recognized in several instruments under
international law. The International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights deals more comprehensively than any other instrument
with this right. Pursuant to article 11.1 of the Covenant, States
parties recognize “the right of everyone to an adequate standard
of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing
and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions”,
while pursuant to article 11.2 they recognize that more immediate
and urgent steps may be needed to ensure “the fundamental right
to freedom from hunger and malnutrition”. The human right to adequate
food is of crucial importance for the enjoyment of all rights. It
applies to everyone; thus the reference in article 11.1 to “himself
and his family” does not imply any limitation upon the applicability
of this right to individuals or to female-headed households.
2. The Committee has accumulated significant information pertaining
to the right to adequate food through examination of State parties’
reports over the years since 1979. The Committee has noted that
while reporting guidelines are available relating to the right to
adequate food, only a few States parties have provided information
sufficient and precise enough to enable the Committee to determine
the prevailing situation in the countries concerned with respect
to this right and to identify the obstacles to its realization.
This general comment aims to identify some of the principal issues
which the Committee considers to be important in relation to the
right to adequate food. Its preparation was triggered by the request
of Member States during the 1996 World Food Summit for a better
definition of the rights relating to food in article 11 of the Covenant,
and by a special request to the Committee to give particular attention
to the Summit Plan of Action in monitoring the implementation of
the specific measures provided for in article 11 of the Covenant.
3. In response to these requests, the Committee reviewed the relevant
reports and documentation of the Commission on Human Rights and
of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection
of Minorities on the right to adequate food as a human right; devoted
a day of general discussion to this issue at its seventh session
in 1997, taking into consideration the draft international code
of conduct on the human right to adequate food prepared by international
non-governmental organizations; participated in two expert consultations
on the right to adequate food as a human right organized by the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR), in Geneva in December 1997, and in Rome in November 1998
co-hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO), and noted their final reports. In April 1999 the
Committee participated in a symposium on “The substance and politics
of a human rights approach to food and nutrition policies and programmes”,
organized by the Administrative Committee on Coordination/Sub-Committee
on Nutrition of the United Nations at its twenty-sixth session in
Geneva and hosted by OHCHR.
4. The Committee affirms that the right to adequate food is indivisibly
linked to the inherent dignity of the human person and is indispensable
for the fulfilment of other human rights enshrined in the International
Bill of Human Rights. It is also inseparable from social justice,
requiring the adoption of appropriate economic, environmental and
social policies, at both the national and international levels,
oriented to the eradication of poverty and the fulfilment of all
human rights for all.
5. Despite the fact that the international community has frequently
reaffirmed the importance of full respect for the right to adequate
food, a disturbing gap still exists between the standards set in
article 11 of the Covenant and the situation prevailing in many
parts of the world. More than 840 million people throughout the
world, most of them in developing countries, are chronically hungry;
millions of people are suffering from famine as the result of natural
disasters, the increasing incidence of civil strife and wars in
some regions and the use of food as a political weapon. The Committee
observes that while the problems of hunger and malnutrition are
often particularly acute in developing countries, malnutrition,
under-nutrition and other problems which relate to the right to
adequate food and the right to freedom from hunger also exist in
some of the most economically developed countries. Fundamentally,
the roots of the problem of hunger and malnutrition are not lack
of food but lack of access to available food, inter alia because
of poverty, by large segments of the world’s population.
Normative content of article 11, paragraphs 1 and 2
6. The right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman
and child, alone or in community with others, have physical and
economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.
The right to adequate food shall therefore not be interpreted in
a narrow or restrictive sense which equates it with a minimum package
of calories, proteins and other specific nutrients. The right to
adequate food will have to be realized progressively. However, States
have a core obligation to take the necessary action to mitigate
and alleviate hunger as provided for in paragraph 2 of article 11,
even in times of natural or other disasters.
Adequacy and sustainability of food availability and access
7. The concept of adequacy is particularly significant in relation
to the right to food since it serves to underline a number of factors
which must be taken into account in determining whether particular
foods or diets that are accessible can be considered the most appropriate
under given circumstances for the purposes of article 11 of the
Covenant. The notion of sustainability is intrinsically linked to
the notion of adequate food or food security, implying food being
accessible for both present and future generations. The precise
meaning of “adequacy” is to a large extent determined by prevailing
social, economic, cultural, climatic, ecological and other conditions,
while “sustainability” incorporates the notion of long-term availability
and accessibility.
8. The Committee considers that the core content of the right to
adequate food implies:
The availability
of food in a quantity and quality sufficient to satisfy the dietary
needs of individuals, free from adverse substances, and acceptable
within a given culture;
The accessibility of such food in ways that are sustainable and
that do not interfere with the enjoyment of other human rights.
9. Dietary needs
implies that the diet as a whole contains a mix of nutrients for
physical and mental growth, development and maintenance, and physical
activity that are in compliance with human physiological needs at
all stages throughout the life cycle and according to gender and
occupation. Measures may therefore need to be taken to maintain,
adapt or strengthen dietary diversity and appropriate consumption
and feeding patterns, including breastfeeding, while ensuring that
changes in availability and access to food supply as a minimum do
not negatively affect dietary composition and intake.
10. Free from adverse substances sets requirements for food safety
and for a range of protective measures by both public and private
means to prevent contamination of foodstuffs through adulteration
and/or through bad environmental hygiene or inappropriate handling
at different stages throughout the food chain; care must also be
taken to identify and avoid or destroy naturally occurring toxins.
11. Cultural or consumer acceptability implies the need also to
take into account, as far as possible, perceived non-nutrient-based
values attached to food and food consumption and informed consumer
concerns regarding the nature of accessible food supplies.
12. Availability refers to the possibilities either for feeding
oneself directly from productive land or other natural resources,
or for well-functioning distribution, processing and market systems
that can move food from the site of production to where it is needed
in accordance with demand.
13. Accessibility encompasses both economic and physical accessibility:
Economic accessibility
implies that personal or household financial costs associated
with the acquisition of food for an adequate diet should be at
a level such that the attainment and satisfaction of other basic
needs are not threatened or compromised. Economic accessibility
applies to any acquisition pattern or entitlement through which
people procure their food and is a measure of the extent to which
it is satisfactory for the enjoyment of the right to adequate
food. Socially vulnerable groups such as landless persons and
other particularly impoverished segments of the population may
need attention through special programmes.
Physical accessibility implies that adequate food must be accessible
to everyone, including physically vulnerable individuals, such
as infants and young children, elderly people, the physically
disabled, the terminally ill and persons with persistent medical
problems, including the mentally ill. Victims of natural disasters,
people living in disaster-prone areas and other specially disadvantaged
groups may need special attention and sometimes priority consideration
with respect to accessibility of food. A particular vulnerability
is that of many indigenous population groups whose access to their
ancestral lands may be threatened.
Obligations
and violations
14. The nature of the legal obligations of States parties is set
out in article 2 of the Covenant and has been dealt with in the
Committee’s general comment No. 3 (1990). The principal obligation
is to take steps to achieve progressively the full realization of
the right to adequate food. This imposes an obligation to move as
expeditiously as possible towards that goal. Every State is obliged
to ensure for everyone under its jurisdiction access to the minimum
essential food which is sufficient, nutritionally adequate and safe,
to ensure their freedom from hunger.
15. The right to adequate food, like any other human right, imposes
three types or levels of obligations on States parties: the obligations
to respect, to protect and to fulfil. In turn, the obligation to
fulfil incorporates both an obligation to facilitate and an obligation
to provide.* The obligation to respect existing access to adequate
food requires States parties not to take any measures that result
in preventing such access. The obligation to protect requires measures
by the State to ensure that enterprises or individuals do not deprive
individuals of their access to adequate food. The obligation to
fulfil (facilitate) means the State must proactively engage in activities
intended to strengthen people’s access to and utilization of resources
and means to ensure their livelihood, including food security. Finally,
whenever an individual or group is unable, for reasons beyond their
control, to enjoy the right to adequate food by the means at their
disposal, States have the obligation to fulfil (provide) that right
directly.
This obligation also applies for persons who are victims of natural
or other disasters.
16. Some measures at these different levels of obligations of States
parties are of a more immediate nature, while other measures are
more of a long-term character, to achieve progressively the full
realization of the right to food.
17. Violations of the Covenant occur when a State fails to ensure
the satisfaction of, at the very least, the minimum essential level
required to be free from hunger. In determining which actions or
omissions amount to a violation of the right to food, it is important
to distinguish the inability from the unwillingness of a State party
to comply. Should a State party argue that resource constraints
make it impossible to provide access to food for those who are unable
by themselves to secure such access, the State has to demonstrate
that every effort has been made to use all the resources at its
disposal in an effort to satisfy, as a matter of priority, those
minimum obligations. This follows from article 2.1 of the Covenant,
which obliges a State party to take the necessary steps to the maximum
of its available resources, as previously pointed out by the Committee
in its general comment No. 3, paragraph 10. A State claiming that
it is unable to carry out its obligation for reasons beyond its
control therefore has the burden of proving that this is the case
and that it has unsuccessfully sought to obtain international support
to ensure the availability and accessibility of the necessary food.
18. Furthermore, any discrimination in access to food, as well as
to means and entitlements for its procurement, on the grounds of
race, colour, sex, language, age, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth or other status with
the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the equal enjoyment
or exercise of economic, social and cultural rights constitutes
a violation of the Covenant.
19. Violations of the right to food can occur through the direct
action of States or other entities insufficiently regulated by States.
These include: the formal repeal or suspension of legislation necessary
for the continued enjoyment of the right to food; denial of access
to food to particular individuals or groups, whether the discrimination
is based on legislation or is proactive; the prevention of access
to humanitarian food aid in internal conflicts or other emergency
situations; adoption of legislation or policies which are manifestly
incompatible with pre-existing legal obligations relating to the
right to food; and failure to regulate activities of individuals
or groups so as to prevent them from violating the right to food
of others, or the failure of a State to take into account its international
legal obligations regarding the right to food when entering into
agreements with other States or with international organizations.
20. While only States are parties to the Covenant and are thus ultimately
accountable for compliance with it, all members of society individuals,
families, local communities, non-governmental organizations, civil
society organizations, as well as the private business sector have
responsibilities in the realization of the right to adequate food.
The State should provide an environment that facilitates implementation
of these responsibilities. The private business sector national
and transnational should pursue its activities within the framework
of a code of conduct conducive to respect of the right to adequate
food, agreed upon jointly with the Government and civil society.
Implementation at the national level
21. The most appropriate ways and means of implementing the right
to adequate food will inevitably vary significantly from one State
party to another. Every State will have a margin of discretion in
choosing its own approaches, but the Covenant clearly requires that
each State party take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that
everyone is free from hunger and as soon as possible can enjoy the
right to adequate food. This will require the adoption of a national
strategy to ensure food and nutrition security for all, based on
human rights principles that define the objectives, and the formulation
of policies and corresponding benchmarks. It should also identify
the resources available to meet the objectives and the most cost-effective
way of using them.
22. The strategy should be based on a systematic identification
of policy measures and activities relevant to the situation and
context, as derived from the normative content of the right to adequate
food and spelled out in relation to the levels and nature of State
parties’ obligations referred to in paragraph 15 of the present
general comment. This will facilitate coordination between ministries
and regional and local authorities and ensure that related policies
and administrative decisions are in compliance with the obligations
under article 11 of the Covenant.
23. The formulation and implementation of national strategies for
the right to food requires full compliance with the principles of
accountability, transparency, people’s participation, decentralization,
legislative capacity and the independence of the judiciary. Good
governance is essential to the realization of all human rights,
including the elimination of poverty and ensuring a satisfactory
livelihood for all.
24. Appropriate institutional mechanisms should be devised to secure
a representative process towards the formulation of a strategy,
drawing on all available domestic expertise relevant to food and
nutrition. The strategy should set out the responsibilities and
time frame for the implementation of the necessary measures.
25. The strategy should address critical issues and measures in
regard to all aspects of the food system, including the production,
processing, distribution, marketing and consumption of safe food,
as well as parallel measures in the fields of health, education,
employment and social security. Care should be taken to ensure the
most sustainable management and use of natural and other resources
for food at the national, regional, local and household levels.
26. The strategy should give particular attention to the need to
prevent discrimination in access to food or resources for food.
This should include: guarantees of full and equal access to economic
resources, particularly for women, including the right to inheritance
and the ownership of land and other property, credit, natural resources
and appropriate technology; measures to respect and protect self-employment
and work which provides a remuneration ensuring a decent living
for wage earners and their families (as stipulated in article 7
(a) (ii) of the Covenant); maintaining registries on rights in land
(including forests).
27. As part of their obligations to protect people’s resource base
for food, States parties should take appropriate steps to ensure
that activities of the private business sector and civil society
are in conformity with the right to food.
28. Even where a State faces severe resource constraints, whether
caused by a process of economic adjustment, economic recession,
climatic conditions or other factors, measures should be undertaken
to ensure that the right to adequate food is especially fulfilled
for vulnerable population groups and individuals.
Benchmarks and framework legislation
29. In implementing the country-specific strategies referred to
above, States should set verifiable benchmarks for subsequent national
and international monitoring. In this connection, States should
consider the adoption of a framework law as a major instrument in
the implementation of the national strategy concerning the right
to food. The framework law should include provisions on its purpose;
the targets or goals to be achieved and the time frame to be set
for the achievement of those targets; the means by which the purpose
could be achieved described in broad terms, in particular the intended
collaboration with civil society and the private sector and with
international organizations; institutional responsibility for the
process; and the national mechanisms for its monitoring, as well
as possible recourse procedures. In developing the benchmarks and
framework legislation, States parties should actively involve civil
society organizations.
30. Appropriate United Nations programmes and agencies should assist,
upon request, in drafting the framework legislation and in reviewing
the sectoral legislation. FAO, for example, has considerable expertise
and accumulated knowledge concerning legislation in the field of
food and agriculture. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
has equivalent expertise concerning legislation with regard to the
right to adequate food for infants and young children through maternal
and child protection including legislation to enable breastfeeding,
and with regard to the regulation of marketing of breast milk substitutes.
Monitoring
31. States parties shall develop and maintain mechanisms to monitor
progress towards the realization of the right to adequate food for
all, to identify the factors and difficulties affecting the degree
of implementation of their obligations, and to facilitate the adoption
of corrective legislation and administrative measures, including
measures to implement their obligations under articles 2.1 and 23
of the Covenant.
Remedies and accountability
32. Any person or group who is a victim of a violation of the right
to adequate food should have access to effective judicial or other
appropriate remedies at both national and international levels.
All victims of such violations are entitled to adequate reparation,
which may take the form of restitution, compensation, satisfaction
or guarantees of non-repetition. National Ombudsmen and human rights
commissions should address violations of the right to food.
33. The incorporation in the domestic legal order of international
instruments recognizing the right to food, or recognition of their
applicability, can significantly enhance the scope and effectiveness
of remedial measures and should be encouraged in all cases. Courts
would then be empowered to adjudicate violations of the core content
of the right to food by direct reference to obligations under the
Covenant.
34. Judges and other members of the legal profession are invited
to pay greater attention to violations of the right to food in the
exercise of their functions.
35. States parties should respect and protect the work of human
rights advocates and other members of civil society who assist vulnerable
groups in the realization of their right to adequate food.
International obligations
States parties
36. In the spirit of Article 56 of the Charter of the United Nations,
the specific provisions contained in articles 11, 2.1, and 23 of
the Covenant and the Rome Declaration of the World Food Summit,
States parties should recognize the essential role of international
cooperation and comply with their commitment to take joint and separate
action to achieve the full realization of the right to adequate
food. In implementing this commitment, States parties should take
steps to respect the enjoyment of the right to food in other countries,
to protect that right, to facilitate access to food and to provide
the necessary aid when required. States parties should, in international
agreements whenever relevant, ensure that the right to adequate
food is given due attention and consider the development of further
international legal instruments to that end.
37. States parties should refrain at all times from food embargoes
or similar measures which endanger conditions for food production
and access to food in other countries. Food should never be used
as an instrument of political and economic pressure. In this regard,
the Committee recalls its position, stated in its general comment
No. 8, on the relationship between economic sanctions and respect
for economic, social and cultural rights.
States and international organizations
38. States have a joint and individual responsibility, in accordance
with the Charter of the United Nations, to cooperate in providing
disaster relief and humanitarian assistance in times of emergency,
including assistance to refugees and internally displaced persons.
Each State should contribute to this task in accordance with its
ability. The role of the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and
increasingly that of UNICEF and FAO is of particular importance
in this respect and should be strengthened. Priority in food aid
should be given to the most vulnerable populations.
39. Food aid should, as far as possible, be provided in ways which
do not adversely affect local producers and local markets, and should
be organized in ways that facilitate the return to food self-reliance
of the beneficiaries. Such aid should be based on the needs of the
intended beneficiaries. Products included in international food
trade or aid programmes must be safe and culturally acceptable to
the recipient population.
The United Nations and other international organizations
40. The role of the United Nations agencies, including through the
United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) at the country
level, in promoting the realization of the right to food is of special
importance. Coordinated efforts for the realization of the right
to food should be maintained to enhance coherence and interaction
among all the actors concerned, including the various components
of civil society. The food organizations, FAO, WFP and the International
Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in conjunction with the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF, the World Bank
and the regional development banks, should cooperate more effectively,
building on their respective expertise, on the implementation of
the right to food at the national level, with due respect to their
individual mandates.
41. The international financial institutions, notably the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, should pay greater attention
to the protection of the right to food in their lending policies
and credit agreements and in international measures to deal with
the debt crisis. Care should be taken, in line with the Committee’s
general comment No. 2, paragraph 9, in any structural adjustment
programme to ensure that the right to food is protected.
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