Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
have brought about. Laws would be designed to protect people and regulate cor-
porations, rather than protecting corporations and regulating people. Governments
would be held accountable for the starvation of their people, and for the failures in
policy-making that have led to reliance on unsustainable levels of food imports. Cor-
porations and international financial institutions would be held accountable for their
involvement in undermining the realization of the right to food, and adequate reg-
ulatory systems would be embraced, including those required to end harmful com-
modities trading and the diversion of food production into bio-fuels.
A human rights-based approah to food and agriculture would mean that com-
munities would 'have a say' and be involved in designing the agricultural policies
that work for their society, rather than having these policies dictated by a central
government - or worse, an international lender. It would mean that women would
have a real opportunity to become equal players in an industry that significantly
affects them, and small-scale landowners would not be passed over in favour of
engagement with large corporations or foreign land-grabbers. The relationship
between the various actors would fundamentally hange - greater coordination
would be necessary between different governments (to ensure real international co-
operation); the private sector would be controlled through regulation rather than
controlling through the market; and civil society would play a role in protecting the
rights of those forgoten by the system. he future of food and agriculture under
a human rights-based approah would fundamentally shit through the recognition
that the realization of the right to food crosses borders and cuts through political pri-
orities in multiple arenas: it is everyone's responsibility as muh as everyone's right.
Notes
1.
Senior Researher and Joint Coordinator of the Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights; former advisor to
the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Mr Jean Ziegler; Adjunct Clinical Professor
of Law, University of Mihigan Law Shool. With thanks to Ms Ioana Cismas for her researh
assistance. his hapter is based on a presentation delivered at the 2009 New Zealand Foreign
Policy Shool, Otago.
2.
Unless stated otherwise, all references to global hunger figures are from this report.
3.
Personal communication from World Bank, 14 April 2008.
4.
uote translated from Frenh.
