Interim report on Legal Framework

Summary

The present report outlines the contours of an emerging global right to food movement, focused over the past 10 years on the practical aspects of realizing the right to adequate food through appropriate legal, policy and institutional frameworks.

The report takes stock of important progress made since the 1996 World Food Summit, highlighting emerging best practices and the role of key actors: Governments, Parliaments, courts, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations and social movements. A growing number of national right to food framework laws combined with rights-based national strategies seek to coordinate efforts across multiple sectors, improve accountability, and enable the participation of civil society and those affected by hunger and malnutrition in decision-making and the monitoring of results.

At the same time, social protection systems are being redefined in terms of rights, moving away from the conception of social benefits as charitable handouts. Courts and other forms of grievance redress mechanisms, such as social audits, are playing an instrumental role in bringing about this change.

Methodology

To inform this report, the Special Rapporteur sought inputs from States, NGOs, private sector actors, academic institutions and all relevant stakeholders, through responses to the following questionnaire. Inputs are published below.

Questionnaire

1. Please indicate whether provisions in the national constitution and/or other domestic law, such as food and nutrition security framework laws, provide specific protection for the right to food and its progressive realization.
2. If so, please indicate whether such legal provisions have been invoked before administrative, quasi-judicial and judicial mechanisms, and with which results.
3. Please clarify whether consideration is currently being given to the inclusion of such provisions in domestic law.
4. Please indicate whether a national human-rights based strategy (or policy/programme) for the progressive realization of the right to adequate food has been adopted.
5. If such national strategy (policy/programme) is in place, please provide information on:
   • The process through which objectives, targets, benchmarks and time frames are set, including the role of civil society actors;
   • Mechanisms to ensure adequate funding for the implementation of the strategy (cf. Right to Food Guidelines, Guideline 12);
   • Mechanisms to ensure adequate targeting to improve the situation of the groups most affected by food insecurity, such as women, children, and small-holder farmers (cf. Right to Food Guidelines, Guideline 13).
   • Mechanisms to ensure monitoring of the implementation of the strategy concerned, and whether such monitoring mechanisms are independent from the Executive (cf. Right to Food Guidelines, Guideline 17).
6. Please indicate whether inclusive, intersectoral coordination mechanisms been set up to:
   • Coordinate the efforts of relevant Government ministries and agencies and ensure the concerted implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, plans and programmes;
   • Improve accountability, including through the allocation of specific responsibilities to different actors and the setting of precise timeframes for the realization of the dimensions of the right to food which require progressive implementation (cf. Right to Food Guidelines, Guideline 17);
   • Enable full and transparent participation of the private sector and of civil society, in particular representatives of the groups most affected by food insecurity (cf. Right to Food Guidelines, Guideline 6).
7. Do national human rights institutions or ombudspersons, which are independent and autonomous from the Government, have a mandate to monitor the implementation of the right to adequate food (cf. Right to Food Guidelines, Guideline 18).
8. What are the main challenges encountered and lessons learned from national efforts to strengthen the legal, policy and institutional framework for the realization of the right to adequate food?

Inputs Received

• Albania
• Argentina
• Azerbaijan
• Cameroon
• Colombia
• Cuba
• Germany
• Honduras
• Mexico
• Norway
• Qatar
• Slovenia
• Turkey
• Ukraine
• United States of America
• Uzbekistan
• Venezuela