United Nations System
Standing Committee on Nutrition

Report from the fifth meeting of the SCN Working Group on Nutrition, Ethics and Human Rights

Sunday, 11 April 1999, UNHCHR, Geneva
Chairperson: Urban Jonsson, UNICEF/ESARO
Rapporteurs: Wenche Barth Eide and Uwe Kracht, WANAHR

1.  Introduction by the WG Chairman

In his introduction, the Working Group Chairman pointed to the significant progress that has occurred over the last few years in advancing understanding, acceptance and action in the field of a rights based approach to nutrition problems with emphasis on its three main elements: food, health and care.

The dedication of the symposium at the 26^th SCN Session to the theme of nutrition and human rights, was evidence that human rights are taking hold in the development work of the SCN and its member agencies. The question was no longer whether a rights-based approach should be adopted, but rather how it should be applied. The World Food Summit’s renewed focus on the right to adequate food and the UN Secretary-General's reform proposals calling for the mainstreaming of human rights in all UN activities, have significantly contributed to creating an overall environment conducive to bringing an ethics and rights dimension to the fight against hunger and poverty.

The Chairman referred to his paper on the "Work of the SCN Working Group on Nutrition, Ethics and Human Rights" prepared for the 26^th session of the SCN and the 5^th meeting of the WG. In this paper, he synthesizes the efforts by the WG since its creation in 1993 and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Main discussion items at the WG's fifth meeting were:

• Developments since the SCN’s 25^th Session and work in progress

• Human rights based programming

• Future tasks for the WG and the SCN

2. Developments since the 25^th SCN Session

2.1 General overview

In his general overview, Uwe Kracht of WANAHR and joint secretary/rapporteur of theWG, summarized developments since the last SCN session in three categories: (i) events directly related to the World Food Summit Objective 7.4, (ii) country level developments and (iii) other activities. He recalled that the World Food Summit objective 7.4 had invited the UNHCHR to clarify the content of the right to adequate food and identify ways of its implementation and realization, also raising the possibility of developing voluntary guidelines in this regard. In response, the High Commissioner for Human Rights had organized two consultations, the first one in Geneva in December 1997, and the second in Rome in November 1998 co-hosted by FAO. The reports of these two consultations were submitted to the respective subsequent sessions of the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Also in relation to WFS Objective 7.4, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had drafted a Draft General Comment on the Right to Adequate Food, providing the Committee’s interpretation of this right as stipulated in article 11, 1 and 2 of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This draft had been widely circulated for comments, to be considered at the Committee’s session in May 1999. It is expected that the Committee will also consider, at a later stage, the adequacy of the existing guidelines for the obligatory state reporting on compliance with the right to adequate food, as part of the international monitoring and supervision of State Party performance and accountability.

The Committee had also considered, at its 18^th Session in April/May 1998 the role of a human rights based programming approach within the UNDAF process. It made a strong call for incorporating economic, social and cultural rights into the UNDAF framework and specifically recommended that the UNDAF guidelines be revised to allow for a rights-based UNDAF programming. At the same session the Committee had also considered the risks of globalization in terms of "downgrading the central place accorded to human rights by the United Nations Charter in general and the International Bill of Human Rights in particular".

On the part of civil society and NGOs, efforts included the drafting of an International Code of Conduct on the Right to Adequate Food, an initiative spearheaded by FIAN, WANAHR and Jacques Martian International. The unique feature of that code consists in its going beyond defining state obligations and encompasses obligations of civil society, private sector actors, and international agencies. After endorsement by over 800 NGOs, the next step of moving this code forward would include efforts to build political support in intergovernmental fora such as the UN Commission on Human Rights, and the competent intergovernmental bodies of FAO including especially its Committeeon Food Security.

At the country level there have been encouraging activities in developing a human rights based approach to nutrition problems in South Africa and Brazil.

Members of the WG and its support network contributed to the substantive initial planning of these activities, and participated in preliminary meetings in Brasilia in 1998 and in the consultative conference on Food Security and Nutrition as Human Rights organized by the South African Human Rights Commission in Johannesburg in March 1999. They also facilitated contact between South Africa and Brazil to encourage information and exchange between the two countries, including Brazil’s participation in the South African conference.

The experiences of both countries were presented to the SCN Symposium on the following day.

Among the many other events reference was made to the Sympsoium on Human Development and Human Rights, organized by the UNDP and the UNHCHR and co-hosted by the Government of Norway in Oslo in October 1998. It was also pointed out that the World Bank had recently issued a publication on Development and Human Rights. Moreover the Working Group’s active role in providing advice and inputs into the planning of the SCN Symposium was noted.

2.2 Activities of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

In his report on UNHCHR activities, Mr. Carlos Villain Duran highlighted recommendations of specific relevance to the SCN from the second consultation in Rome in November 1998. These included:

• A call for institutionalizing the working relationships between the SCN and Committee on ESCR with a view to ensuring the flow of information between the two bodies; such institutionalization should also take place in the case of the other relevant treaty bodies o convention committees: the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Committee on Eradication of Racial Discrimination.

• The need for collaboration of improved indicators to be used in State Party reporting on rights compliance to those committees; to this end a workshop should be organized between SCN members and the members of the respective Committees.

• The need for training and the development of support material for rights-based approaches to nutrition.

• Support for the proposal by the Chairpersons of the Committees for a seminar with the international financial institutions to enhance dialogue and encourage consultations on a regular basis, to prevent activities with a negative impact on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights.

Mr. Villan Duran also underlined the importance of improved collaboration among SCN member agencies at the country level, particularly in the context of UNDAF.

2.3 Highlights from FAO’s rights-related activities

Mr. Hartwig de Haen, Assistant Director-General of FAO, introduced the publication "The Right to Food in Theory and Practice" prepared by FAO on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, with contributions from the other food agencies in Rome and a few invited experts. In this connection he highlighted a number of concerns to FAO. First a recent FAO study found that only a small number of countries have a reference to the right to food and nutrition in their constitutions, and not a single country currently disposes of national legislation pertaining to the right to food. Other FAO concerns point to the need for more attention to the right to food and nutrition in emergency situations, and to the role of effective safety nets in the realization of food and nutrition rights. Moreover, the feminization of poverty in general and of agriculture in particular, is a prominent area for exploring the value of rights-based approaches to development and would help clarify and operationalize the right to food.

The publication also highlights the main elements of the aforementioned International Code of Conduct on the Human Right to Adequate Food.

For FAO the right to food and nutrition is of major importance, and the Organization is interested in a wide range of activities including the organization of workshops at country level and the provision of relevant policy advice, notably in the area of developing national "framework legislation".

2.4 Building human rights understanding among the development and human rights communities – the example of the Draft Tutorial on Fundamentals of the Human Right to Food and Nutrition….

Throughout its work, the WG has expressed concern for the need of building understanding of a human rights approach to nutrition, through various methods of information, education and communication – IEC – and related capacity-building efforts. An important activity in this area has been the HCHR’s initiative for disseminating human rights training material throughout the UN system. On the part of NGOs, a WANAHR affiliate undertook a noteworthy educational effort by developing a web-based interactive tutorial on the "Fundamentals of the Human Right to Food and Nutrition". This tutorial was introduced to the Working Group by George Kent of the University of Hawaii. Its objective is to help its users understand the meaning of economic, social and cultural rights through the study of one aspect of these rights, i.e. the human right to food and nutrition. It is designed to help in formulating suggestions for improved policy or legislation with regard to this right in a country or agency. It suggests how users might formulate recommendations to adapt their countries’ or agencies’ activities to conform more closely to the human rights framework. At the deeper level, the purpose of the tutorial is to help expand the shared understanding of human rights in general and the right to food and nutrition in particular. The tutorial is not to be seen as a final product but will be continuously adjusted as experience accumulates. In this way tutorial users will actively mould the future shape of this tool.

3. Human rights based programming

Urban Jonsson shared with the Working Group the experiences in advancing human rights based understanding and programming in the context of UNICEF’s activities. He synthesized for the participants the fundamental differences between the conventional basic needs strategy with its frequent overtones of charity, and a rights-based approach with its emphasis on entitlements, rights and obligations. He illustrated some of the central concepts such as rights holders /duty-bearers, and the different levels of obligations now commonly agreed on, namely respect, protect, facilitate and fulfill human rights. He also emphasized that these concepts would apply to all sectors of society: state, civil society and the private sector, at all levels of organization – national, community, household/individual.

A rights-based approach has major implications for policy development and programming. Major elements of a rights-based programming are: causality analysis, role analysis, claims/duty analysis, accountability analysis, and action analysis. This programming approach would lead to more appropriate generic strategies built around the major pillars of advocacy, capacity building and service delivery.

In the ensuing lively discussion, a number of critical issues in relation-based approaches were raised, including:

• the importance of a rights approach within the total framework of governance at national and international levels; UNDP is developing a number of country projects to test effective approaches to human rights in the context of improved governance; UNDP also intends to involve its next Human Development Report to human rights;

• Concern over the impact over the globalization and global governance on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights; in this context reference was made to the request by the British Government to the World Bank to develop social indicators of the globalization process, which is seen as significant for the restructuring of global governance. It is not yet clear to what extent human rights will be incorporated in this venture.

• The importance of promoting a human rights approach among non-state actors such as Parliaments and civil society at large.

• Emphasis on the importance of a human rights approach as a common framework for UN agencies; at the same time concern was expressed that agencies become more accountable and that they do themselves what they recommend to governments; there was also a call for better documentation on countrywise national assessments of fulfilment of economic, social and cultural rights in relation to the relative degree of democratic governance.

• The neeed for more examples of processes and modařities at countrylevel for applying a human rights apporach to solving food and nutrition problems.

• The need for greater attention to the realization of the right to food and nutrition in emergency situations.

4. Conclusions and recommendations for priority action for the WG and the SCN

As a general conclusion it can be said that the Working Group’s fifth meeting had achieved a remarkable consensus on the importance of a human rights approach to development in general and to nutrition improvements in particular. This consensus occurred in the context of an increasingly human rights-friendly overall environment. Nevertheless, effectively mainstreaming human rights in all UN activities, as called for by the UN Secretary-General, remains a challenge of enormous dimensions. For the contribution that the SCN is called upon to make in this specific field of nutrition with its main components of food, health and care, the unfinished agenda remains considerable.

4.1 Overall recommendation

To live up to the challenge of completing its unfinished agenda, the SCN needs to lift its human rights concerns from an isolated working group activity into the mainstream of its overall work program. This must also be reflected in SCN’s resource mobilization and allocation within the work program.

4.2 Specific recommendations

The Working Group recommends specifically that:

1. The SCN should now institutionalize collaborative mechanisms with the HCHR to advance human rights approaches to nutrition problems. Through the HCHR, this collaborative mechanism should also extend to collaboration with the relevant Convention Committees (treaty bodies) of the human rights machinery. This activity should be a continuing part of the work plan of the SCN Secretariat.

2. An important element of this activity would consist in facilitating the flow of information regarding the experiences of SCN member agencies in adopting a human rights approach, including agency initiatives for internal capacity building. The Working Group should assist the secretariat in compiling these experiences and report to the SCN annual sessions.

3. The Working Group should coordinate the work of developing appropriate indicators for monitoring the right to nutrition, in particular the right to food, by SCN member agencies and the HCHR.

4. In response to the recommendation by the chairpersons of the Committees and of the Second Consultation organized by the HCHR and co-hosted by FAO in November 11998, the Working Group should collaborate in the preparation of a meeting on the role of the IFIs (international financing institutions) in the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. The discussion of the relevant issues should be placed in the context of global governance.

5. The Working Group should prepare a report for the next annual SCN session on the experience from the UNDAF process in adopting a human rights approach to nutrition.

6. The Working Group should pay special attention to the realization of the right to nutrition in emergency situations as part of its activities in between annual SCN sessions.