Within the framework of Human Rights Council resolution 51/21, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, has identified analyzing the progress and challenges to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as one of the strategic priorities during her tenure, along with analysing the role of the underlying determinants of health, such as climate change and environment, water and sanitation, education and gender equality (See:A/HRC/47/28 para. 108). In compliance with her mandate and in line with these priorities, she has decided to devote her next thematic report to the General Assembly, to be held in October 2023, to the issue of “Food, nutrition and the right to health”.

Objectives of the report

In the report, the Special Rapporteur will turn her attention to the underlying determinants of health, with a focus on how food and nutrition positively or negatively impact the right to health. In particular, she will rely on the frameworks of the social and commercial determinants of health to address how colonialism, racism, and other power asymmetries continue to build and maintain inequitable food systems and environments, influencing activities across the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food products,¹ and ultimately shaping  the context in which consumers acquire, prepare, and consume food.² The Special Rapporteur’s analysis will consider the double burden of malnutrition,³ which refers to the co-existence of undernutrition with diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. In this sense, she will emphasize that rights-based approaches to food and nutrition must reconcile and address both concerns, often misconstrued as competing. The Special Rapporteur will also report on new and emerging trends related to the impact of climate change, conflict, and COVID-19 on food and nutrition, as well as related responses.

Importantly, the Special Rapporteur will adopt an intersectional approach and consider the multiple forms of discrimination affecting persons in the context of food and nutrition. She will analyse the links between inequities in accessing adequate food and sex, gender, poverty, class, and the rural and urban divide, as well as related systems of oppression.

The Special Rapporteur intends to analyse the obligations and responsibilities of actors, such as States and corporations respectively, in relation to food and nutrition under the framework of the right to health. The Special Rapporteur would therefore like to identify specific challenges and opportunities related to food and nutrition in countries and within communities around the world. She would also like to identify good practices that affirm the right to health in this context, as well as seek examples of how to combat discrimination in accessing adequate food.

Glossary of definitions for the purpose of this questionnaire:

1. Double burden of malnutrition:refers to “the coexistence of undernutrition along with overweight, obesity or diet-related NCDs, within individuals, households and populations, and across the life-course.”⁴

1. Food environments: refer to “the physical, economic, political and socio-cultural context in which consumers engage with the food system to make their decisions about acquiring, preparing and consuming food.”⁵

1. Food systems: refer to “the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities involved in the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal of food products. Food systems comprise all food products that originate from crop and livestock production, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as the broader economic, societal and natural environments in which these diverse production systems are embedded.”⁶

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

The questionnaire can be downloaded below in English (original language), French and Spanish (unofficial translations). Responses can address some of the questions or all of them, as feasible or preferred.

1. Download the questionnaire (Word):
   English | Français | Español

How inputs will be used

Please note that all responses will be published on the official webpage of the Special Rapporteur by default unless it is indicated that the submission and/or the supporting documentation should be kept confidential.