Twenty-five years of the United Nations General Comment number 12 on the human right to adequate food – malnutrition continues to surge

Abstract

The human right to adequate food is one of the most fundamental human rights crucial for the sustenance of the planet, and the prosperity of all people. It is firmly established in international human rights instruments and is clarified in the United Nations’ General Comment 12 (GC 12). However, deep vulnerabilities and deprivation of the right to adequate food in the form of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition have persisted in many parts of the world. The climate-induced disasters also continues to devastate many communities, thereby depriving them of their rights including adequate food. This commentary provides a broader perspective on the 25 years of the GC 12 to stimulate further debate and actions to entrench human rights, especially the right to adequate food, at the centre of the food systems transformation and overall sustainable development agenda. This year 2024, marks 25 years of the Global Compact 12 on the human right to adequate food. While it is an important opportunity to celebrate this great achievement of engraining this right into the wider sphere of global reference at the United Nations level, the domestication in countries into actions that concretely address the problem of hunger and malnutrition has been slow in many countries. The world is now faced with the grim realities of starving populations arising from unnecessary and unjust wars, and food continues to be used as a weapon of war against international law and human imagination. Worse still, in the current environment of climate change and its adverse effects on food systems, SDG2 (Zero hunger by 2030), seems unrealistic. Finally, it is no longer a question of providing carbohydrates, as the need to address quality, safety, nutrition and cultural acceptability is ever so pressing. Going forward, there is a need to accelerate advocacy efforts, research and policy formulation that fully operationalise GC 12 in country-level food systems and nutrition interventions. Realization of the right to adequate food benchmarks in GC 12 should certainly be the penultimate of such interventions as strategic food reserves, poverty and hunger reduction programmes, humanitarian disaster preparedness, contingency funding, social protection and child care among others.