Human Right to Food - Instrument for Fighting Hunger

Dr. Rafaël Schneider

Together with its partner organisations,
Welthungerhilfe lobbies for the right to food.
© Weische

963 million people (FAO, Dec. 2008) suffer from hunger worldwide. This means that every seventh person is denied the right to food.

Do these starving people know their rights?

Do they and their fellow human beings know that hunger represents a violation of human rights?

Are governments doing enough to realise the right to food?

There is enough food

Simply being a human being entitles every person to food. Enough food can be produced worldwide to appropriately feed everyone. The problem is the poor distribution of food. And the lack of purchasing power. This is because recently food prices have not only risen considerably in Europe but also in developing countries. Hunger is a political problem, which has to be fought at its social, political and economic roots – the victims have a right to this. 



Corn and beans - for many
people the only daily meal.
© Wernet

State Obligations

Human rights are not negotiable. States must

• respect, protect and implement the right to appropriate food for all people.
• ensure that every person has regular and unrestricted access to quantitatively, qualitatively and culturally appropriate food, which ensures a healthy and dignified life.
• protect the right to food against violation by third parties
• prevent the violation of this human right through, for instance, robbery, expulsion or dispossession.
• provide direct support where self-support is temporarily or permanently impossible because of physical, psychological or material reasons.

Lunch in Cambodia. © Wilde

Voluntary guidelines of the FAO

In November 2004 187 countries unanimously approved the voluntary guidelines on the right to adequate food in the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN). This new legal text on the right to food was worked out in an interstate working group of the FAO Committee on World Food Security (CFS) during a negotiating process lasting almost two years. Germany was the driving force in this process. During the entire process the German Federal Government was advised by a core group consisting of government and civilian organisations. The two civilian organisations in the core group were Deutsche Welthungerhilfe and FIAN International.

Because they were unanimously approved, the voluntary guidelines carry great weight for the future interpretation of the right to food. They provide orientation and a basis

• in the work of international human rights commissions which monitor political measures for the right to food.
• for appropriate legal procedures
• for civilian society, to check whether governments take their state obligations seriously regarding the right to food.

The text now enables the advancement of a human rights-based approach to the issue of hunger and food security at an international and national level.

An important task for civil society actors like Welthungerhilfe is to ensure that the text of the voluntary guidelines is actually used at state level, whether this is by government institutions or by civilian society. If this does not succeed, the text will lose its meaning in the long term.

Monitoring right to food:

Screen state action against hunger!