freedom from want Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food by George Kent is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/freedom-want. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://press.georgetown.edu/georgetown/about-press/rights/permissions. advancing human rights sumner b. twiss, john kelsay, terry coonan, series editors Breaking Silence: The Case That Changed the Face of Human Rights richard alan white For All Peoples and All Nations: The Ecumenical Church and Human Rights john s. nurser Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food george kent Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food by George Kent is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/freedom-want. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://press.georgetown.edu/georgetown/about-press/rights/permissions. freedom from want The Human Right to Adequate Food george kent foreword by jean ziegler georgetown university press washington, d.c. Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food by George Kent is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/freedom-want. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://press.georgetown.edu/georgetown/about-press/rights/permissions. Georgetown University Press, Washington, D.C. © 2005 by Georgetown University Press. all rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2005 This book is printed on acid-free, recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials and that of the Green Press Initiative. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kent, George, 1939– Freedom from want : the human right to adequate food / George Kent. p. cm. — (Advancing human rights series) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 1-58901-055-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 1-58901-056-6 (paper : alk. paper) 1. Food supply. 2. Hunger. 3. Human rights. I. Title. II. Series. hd9000.5.k376 2005 363.8—dc22 2004025023 Design and composition by Jeƒ Clark at Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food by George Kent is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/freedom-want. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://press.georgetown.edu/georgetown/about-press/rights/permissions. Dedicated to the hundreds of millions of people who suƒer because of what governments do, and fail to do. Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food by George Kent is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/freedom-want. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://press.georgetown.edu/georgetown/about-press/rights/permissions. Creo que el mundo es bello, que la poesía es como el pan, de todos. I believe the world is beautiful and that poetry, like bread, is for everyone. —martín espada Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food by George Kent is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/freedom-want. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://press.georgetown.edu/georgetown/about-press/rights/permissions. Contents List of Tables and Figures xiii Foreword by Jean Ziegler xv Acknowledgments xvii Introduction: Taking Rights Seriously 1 part i π foundations chapter 1Food and Nutrition 7 Malnutrition 7 Causes of Malnutrition 9 Growth Measurement 12 Numbers of Malnourished People 14 Malnutrition and Mortality 15 Comparative Mortality 17 Food and Nutrition Security 21 Varieties of Government Action 23 chapter 2 The International Human Rights System 25 Historical Foundations 25 International Humanitarian Law 26 The International Bill of Human Rights 28 Children’s Rights 32 Regional Human Rights Agreements 33 Human Rights Agencies 34 United Nations Charter Bodies 37 United Nations Treaty Bodies 40 Civil Society Organizations 41 Informal Civil Society 42 chapter 3 Adequate Food Is a Human Right 45 Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights 45 Food in International Human Rights Law 47 Food in International Humanitarian Law 49 Global Declarations and Commitments 50 Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food by George Kent is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/freedom-want. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://press.georgetown.edu/georgetown/about-press/rights/permissions. x General Comment 12 54 The Special Rapporteur 56 The Voluntary Guidelines 58 part ii π human rights systems chapter 4 Human Rights, Governance, and Law 63 Human Rights and Governance 63 Studying Human Rights in National Governance 66 The Role of National Law 70 Universal Human Rights and the Role of International Law 77 chapter 5 Rights and Entitlements 80 Definition 80 Moral versus Legal Rights 81 Soft versus Hard Rights 83 Rights as Goals 85 Rights Imply Entitlements 91 Determining Local Entitlements 94 Having versus Realizing Rights 96 chapter 6 Obligations and Commitments 98 Moral Responsibilities 98 When Do Governments Do Human Rights Work? 101 Levels of Government Obligation 103 Economic Rights 110 The Obligation of Good Governance 113 Obligations of Nonstate Actors 116 Questionable Charity 120 chapter 7Accountability Mechanisms 126 Varieties of Accountability 126 Justiciability 129 Remedies for Rights Holders 132 National and Local Human Rights Agencies 134 Accountability through Public Action 137 Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food by George Kent is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/freedom-want. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://press.georgetown.edu/georgetown/about-press/rights/permissions. xi part iii π applications chapter 8 India 143 The Supreme Court Case 144 Starvation Is Not the Problem 145 The Missing Piece in India’s Rights System 146 The Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Project 147 chapter 9 Brazil 151 chapter 10 The United States 156 chapter 11 Feeding Infants 163 Breast-Feeding Rights 164 Infants’ Human Right to Adequate Food 165 Principles 167 Women’s Right to Breast-Feed versus Infants’ Right to Be Breast-Fed 170 chapter 12 Feeding Infants of hiv-Positive Mothers 173 O~cial Guidance on hiv/aids and Infant Feeding 173 Issues 174 A Court Case 180 Informed Choice 182 Principles 185 chapter 13 Water 187 The Household Water Problem 187 Water Rights Are Diƒerent 189 General Comment 15 191 chapter 14 Trade 193 Issues 193 The Human Right to Adequate Food in Relation to Trade 196 Reconciling Diƒerent Frameworks 197 Food Sovereignty 199 Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food by George Kent is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/freedom-want. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://press.georgetown.edu/georgetown/about-press/rights/permissions. xii chapter 15 Refugees 201 Issues in Refugee Nutrition 201 Explanations and Justifications for Uneven Services 202 The Human Right to Adequate Food 205 The Adequacy Question 206 Specifying the Obligations 209 Limiting the Obligations 211 The Work Ahead 212 chapter 16 International Humanitarian Assistance 214 Issues 214 Rights to Assistance 217 The Provider’s Motivation 218 Implementation 219 chapter 17 Global Human Rights 221 Global Rights and Global Obligations 221 Global Accountability 224 Strategic Planning 225 Sources 233 References 237 Index 257 Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food by George Kent is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/freedom-want. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://press.georgetown.edu/georgetown/about-press/rights/permissions. [...]... The rights holders and their rights; b The duty bearers and their obligations corresponding to the rights of the rights holders; and c The agents of accountability, and the procedures through which they assure that the duty bearers meet their obligations to the rights holders The accountability mechanisms include, in particular, the remedies available to the rights holders themselves Freedom from Want: ... practical Human rights can make a diƒerence It is time to make the right to food a reality jean ziegler United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food by George Kent is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License Based on a work at http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown /freedom- want Permissions... government of the United States results from a systematic and sustained misunderstanding of the meaning of the right to adequate food He also moves the human rights debate forward by challenging the view that human rights obligations stop at each country’s borders He argues that governments must recognize their human rights obligations not only to their own people but also to the citizens of other countries... with their own and their community’s well-being This book can be used to introduce human rights as a new and diƒerent approach to dealing with social issues At a deeper level, its purpose is to help expand the base of shared understandings of human rights in general and the human right to adequate food in particular Human rights work is, in part, the eƒort to reconcile diƒerences in understandings of the. .. the realization of human rights Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food by George Kent xv is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License Based on a work at http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown /freedom- want Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://press.georgetown.edu/georgetown/about-press /rights/ permissions... reports of the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food (e.g., United Nations, Economic and Social Council 2003a, 2003b) listed in the references at the end of this book The chapter on food in the South African Human Rights Commission’s annual Economic and Social Rights Report provides accounts of the status of the human right to adequate food in that country (South African Human Rights Commission... of Human Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and several other international instruments States and the governments that represent them, and other parties as well, have obligations to ensure that the right is realized States that are parties to these agreements have made a commitment to ensure the realization of the right. .. countries and in the common fight against hunger, the right to adequate food entails responsibilities and obligations of all of us to all of us Kent’s important book is a part of a growing movement to construct a strong and coherent understanding of the right to food Taking us through the history and politics of the human right to adequate food, he urgently calls for a true rights- based approach to development... in the most important human rights document, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights The right to food reflects President Franklin Roosevelt’s declaration that freedom from want was one of the four fundamental freedoms that informed our original understanding of universal human rights George Kent’s new book outlines the. .. that others have specific obligations to assure the realization of this right It also implies the establishment of concrete institutional arrangements to ensure the realization of the right This book explores the meaning of the claim that adequate food is a human right People have a right to adequate food, and to be free from hunger, as a matter of international law The right is articulated in the Universal . have adequate food. and this one: Everyone has the right to adequate food. The meaning of the human right to adequate food is to be found in the diƒer- ence. action. The right to adequate food is a human right for all people everywhere. The right to adequate food is laid out in the most important human rights