A Human Rights Approach to the Health Implications of Food and Nutrition Insecurity

Ana Sumei Ayala,Benjamin Mason Meier

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2938024

Abstract

Food and nutrition insecurity continues to pose a serious global challenge, reflecting government shortcomings in meeting international obligations to ensure the availability, accessibility, and quality of food and to ensure the highest attainable standard of health of their peoples. With global drivers like climate change, urbanization, greater armed conflict, and the globalization of unhealthy diet, particularly in under-resourced countries, food insecurity is rapidly becoming an even greater challenge for those living in poverty. International human rights law can serve a critical role in guiding governments that are struggling to protect the health of their populations, particularly among the most susceptible groups, in responding to food and nutrition insecurity. This article explores and advocates for a human rights approach to food and nutrition security, specifically identifying legal mechanisms to “domesticate” relevant international human rights standards through national policy. Recognizing nutrition security as a determinant of public health, this article recognizes the important links between the four main elements of food security (i.e., availability, stability, utilization, and access) and the normative attributes of the right to health and the right to food (i.e., availability, accessibility, affordability, and quality). In drawing from the evolution of international human rights instruments, official documents issued by international human rights treaty bodies, as well as past scholarship at the intersection of the right to health and right to food, this article interprets and articulates the intersectional rights-based obligations of national governments in the face of food and nutrition insecurity.

Highlights

Food insecurity—defined as a “situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life” [1]—sits firmly at the intersection of the rights to food and health, creating intersectoral opportunities for the implementation of rights-based legislation, policies, and programs for the realization of food security
Food security is not limited to ensuring the sufficient production of food; it encompasses the need to guaranteed access and availability of nutritious food, a characteristic that has been stressed by international organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), World Food Programme (WFP), as well as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Through this focus on the development and implementation of a human right to food and nutrition security, the article concludes by emphasizing the importance of food and nutrition security to human dignity, the very foundation of human rights, and the opportunities that a human rights-based approach offers to improve the lives of vulnerable populations in a rapidly changing world

Summary

Introduction

Food insecurity—defined as a “situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life” [1]—sits firmly at the intersection of the rights to food and health, creating intersectoral opportunities for the implementation of rights-based legislation, policies, and programs for the realization of food security. This article reviews the birth of a human right to food and nutrition security as a basis for public health, addressing its development under international law, its implementation in national policy, and its accountability through treaty bodies. Through this focus on the development and implementation of a human right to food and nutrition security, the article concludes by emphasizing the importance of food and nutrition security to human dignity, the very foundation of human rights, and the opportunities that a human rights-based approach offers to improve the lives of vulnerable populations in a rapidly changing world

Discussion

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Conclusion

Funding None