FEATURES

The Substance and Politics of a Human Rights
Approach to food and Nutrition
Policies and Programmes

ACC/SCN SYMPOSIUM, PALAIS DES NATIONS
GENEVA 12-13 APRIL 1999

REMARKS IN THE OPENING CEREMONY OF SCN 26^TH SESSION

RICHARD JOLLY, SCN CHAIRMAN

The SCN is indeed a unique part of the coordinating machinery of the United Nations. Created in 1977 by ECOSOC, we are the only part of the UN system which has had a tripartite structure from its inception - combining the 17 UN agencies with direct responsibilities for nutrition, with 10 donor agencies and with the AGN. And in addition we have other non-governmental representatives - notably the IUNS, IFPRI and some 20 other NGOs. The SCN's tripartite structure is not only unique - it is a practical expression which connects the UN to civil society. It is the vision that our Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, frequently urges the UN agencies to develop. I am proud that senior people within the UN increasingly recognize that the SCN has led the way in this tripartite approach.

Nutrition and human rights serve as sharp reminders that people count...

Let us not underestimate the practical impact of our SCN discussions over the years. It was our Secretariat which:

· in 1985 first recognized the need for a global programme to eliminate iodine deficiency through salt iodization

· in 1986 in Tokyo first engaged the IMF in a discussion of how to embody nutrition in programmes of economic adjustment

· in 1987 first issued a report on the World Nutrition Situation

· in 1989 proposed the idea of a International Conference on Nutrition

· in the early 1990s helped quantify the impact of vitamin A deficiency on young child mortality

· helped to create the network of NGOs and UN agencies supporting nutrition for refugees and displaced persons

· continues to make important contributions through its publications - SCN News and the Nutrition Policy Papers now go out to over 10,000 eager readers.

Human rights are ever more important in this world of economic globalization. The structure of global governance adds more rules, regulations, practices and institutions on a daily basis. Most of these new initiatives have been driven by economics, finance, and by the belief that liberalization and open markets lead inexorably to greater economic efficiency and human welfare. Some of this can be valuable, but without a clear emphasis on human rights, global governance will be too narrow and simple.

In this context, human rights set limits to the sway of the market. Nutrition and human rights serve as sharp reminders that people count - and that outcomes must be judged in terms of their impact on people. If the outcome of the free market is that children or women, or anyone else is left malnourished, something is seriously wrong. As the late Mahbub ul Haq used to say, "One cannot be satisfied with balancing a country's economy if it leads to the unbalancing of its children's lives."

Never has any sub-committee of the ACC assembled such a galaxy of senior UN talent for one of its meetings. The SCN thus has a chance to make a contribution to rethinking governance at the highest level - as well as to make a contribution at the most practical level of encouraging coordination and action by agencies and countries.

SYMPOSIUM OVERVIEW AND SYNTHESIS

LAWRENCE HADDAD, DIRECTOR
FOOD CONSUMPTION AND NUTRITION DIVISION
INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The 26^th Session of the ACC/SCN was held in the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 12-15 April 1999, hosted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The subject of the symposium held on 12-13 April was The Substance and Politics of a Human Rights Approach to Food and Nutrition Policies and Programmes.

The keynote speech was given by Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the World Health Organization, addressed the topic of "Nutrition, Health and Human Rights". Senior officials from UNICEF, FAO, WFP, HCR and WB discussed the UN human rights framework. These UN agencies were challenged to action by Virginia Dandan, Chair of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), who explained how monitoring, supervision and dialogue works in the human rights system. Brazilian, South African and Indonesian country studies stimulated discussion regarding the possibilities for application of the human rights approach to food and nutrition. Legal developments were expertly presented by Asbjörn Eide, the world's foremost specialist on the right to food; Michael Windfuhr from FoodFirst Information and Action Network; and Urban Jonsson of UNICEF. The first day closed with the SCN Third Annual Abraham Horwitz Lecture given by Brigit Toebes, Research Co-ordinator at the TMC Asser Institute in The Netherlands.

This overview synthesizes the recurring themes presented and discussed during the symposium. We heard about milestones in the human rights movement (Box 1). It is important to remind ourselves of these milestones, because they indicate how far the human rights movement has advanced in a relatively short period of time; and that food and nutrition as a human right will take time to become embodied in other official documents and conventions.

We heard many new concepts and human rights terminology; and a number of constructs emerged from the presentations (Box 2): claim-holders; duty-bearers; the need for individuals, governments and civil society (including the private sector) to respect, protect and fulfil human rights. I would like to add that claim-holders and duty-bearers both need support. One needs resources to be able to stake a claim and to be able to bear the responsibility of that claim.

It is also important to note that individuals and institutions can simultaneously be duty-bearers and claim-holders.

The Context of Human Rights

In the context of human rights, Urban Jonsson of UNICEF posed the question: "Why is the human rights debate moving forward so rapidly now, especially in the area of food and nutrition?" We discussed market-led, technology-led global forces - sometimes called globalization - and a consensus emerged that these forces make the need for good governance ever more important. Professor Soekirman spoke about Indonesia's recent financial crisis, and how the quality of social safety nets may be affected by government corruption, collusion and nepotism. A strong adherence to human rights creates the context and framework for good governance. Good governance (transparency, participation and accountability) can shape globalization. Globalization is inevitable, but what it looks like is not - there are forces that can shape it, and human rights must be one of those forces.

In the context of the UN agencies, we became familiar with Secretary General Kofi Annan's reform programme and its emphasis on human rights; High Commissioner of Human Rights Mary Robinson's commitment to give equal importance to all human rights; WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland's optimism that "An explicit human-rights approach to...nutrition means that mechanisms and procedures are gradually put into place...incorporated into national laws, and thereby have a chance of becoming reality for greater numbers of people." We were informed about the new UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for strengthening inter-agency cooperation at country levels; and the World Bank Director of Health, Nutrition and Population, James Christopher Lovelace, alluded to the growing importance of participatory assessments and community participation in their projects.

Throughout the symposium, our Chairperson, Bertie Ramcharan, pushed us very hard to think about what each of us should do differently in our work as a result of adopting a human rights perspective. He reminded us that "feeling good is not enough", that we would have to produce real and meaningful strategies. I agree with him, but my overall sense from the presentations is that we are already struggling with many issues within a rights framework. HIV and breastfeeding, women's employment and care provisioning, and gender discrimination were all recognized as human rights issues at the symposium.

Indicators and Violations

What can we do to make the human rights approach more real? Our representative from Norway, Arne Oshaug, told us there is no simple answer; there is no universal blue print. One way, however, to make our human rights approach concrete, and to give it substance, is to address the plea from nearly every presenter: develop indicators of human rights that are pertinent to food and nutrition.

A number of indices for civil and political rights at the country level already exist. My IFPRI colleague, Dr Lisa Smith, and I have attempted to work with some of these indicators, and have found a positive correlation between democracy and avoidance of undernutrition, suggesting a plausible relationship between civil and political rights and good nutrition. Even though the right to food is actually embodied within the 1966 Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, I urge you not to forget about civil and political rights. The rule of law, freedom of assembly, and freedom of information (all civil and political rights) are, as Nobel laureate Amartya Sen reminds us, aspects of society that are crucial to the avoidance of famine and malnutrition.

Suggestions for food and nutrition related indicators included: indicators extracted from FAO's Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information Mapping System (FIVIMS); child malnutrition rates; measures of gender discrimination such as differentials in male-female wage rates or life expectancies; or Mary Robinson's characterization of a lack of human rights as "multiple denials" as a useful flag for recognizing an indicator.

Violations might be useful as indicators. Steven Lewis of UNICEF, and Namanga Ngongi of WFP highlighted the difficult decision of 'when to stay and when to go' in the face of gross violations of human rights. Dr Brigit Toebes, our Abraham Horwitz Lecturer, gave us several examples of violations as possible indicators: the denial of the right to grow crops; the denial of health services to women in Afghanistan; no provision of benefits to illegal immigrants; environmental dumping; and a lack of food safety. Dr Dandan, Chairperson of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, also gave us concrete examples from her experience of non-enforcement of covenants and laws on housing in the Philippines.

We first need to develop an explicit conceptual and legislative framework to clarify exactly what constitutes a violation, and then develop mechanisms to obtain information on violations. The role of civil society came out in every presentation, but was particularly strong from our country presentations. Dr Coitinho from Brazil stated that it was only when their human rights and the nutrition movements each became sufficiently mature, that they began to interact in a meaningful way. Mr Thipanyane from the South African Human Rights Commission documented the extensive consultations with the NGO community and civil society community about human rights violations.

Globalization is inevitable, but what it looks like is not - there are forces that can shape it, and human rights must be me of those forces.

The discussion of indicators and violations led participants to talk about the need for some kind of minimum standards of conduct. Michael Windfuhr from FIAN presented the International Code of Conduct prepared as a response to the World Food Summit Plan of Action Objective 7.4. It was suggested that the UN's 20/20 Initiative, linked to government budget allocations for health, education, agriculture and social welfare, could perhaps be another type of indicator leading to information about violations. Professor Michael Toole of Macfarlane Burnet Centre for Medical Research in Australia advised us of the need to check any proposed new codes of conduct in order that they do not conflict with existing rights. He gave the example of new international codes of conduct related to the World Trade Organization.

Regarding violations, I would like to encourage the SCN agencies - and it is easier for me as a representative of a non-SCN agency to say this - to be bold about exposing violations and about documenting violations of rights. I remind you that the SCN and the UN agencies are duty-bearers in this regard in terms of publishing indicators of human rights. Steven Lewis mentioned the "watchdog" function of the UN. I know it is not easy to rank your own member countries in this regard, but I believe this will greatly improve accountability and enforcement.

Values

Urban Jonsson and Steven Lewis both made the point that because human rights have a normative and a legal basis, economic justification for interventions and investments in nutrition is not the main reason, or even a reason, to make certain that children are adequately nourished. If this were the meeting of a Sub-Committee on Education or a Sub-Committee on Housing, however, we would be talking about the rights to education or the rights to housing. Competing obligations and competing rights for scarce resources that have alternative uses is the business of economics, and in my opinion we do need to justify the returns to nutrition in economic terms.

Value Added

Symposium participants kept asking, "What is the value added of the human rights approach?" Above all, we must remember that rights are an end in themselves. Beyond this, I think we are all positive that the approach can improve the effectiveness of nutrition interventions. It will be interesting to see in the next 5-10 years, where the greatest improvement in effectiveness emerges, in which countries, in which sectors, in which institutions, and in which types of programmes and projects.

Both Mrs Robinson and Dr Brundtland mentioned that human rights are invaluable for building coalitions with, and constituencies for, nutrition in other sectors. Drs Ngongi and Toole mentioned that the human rights approach empowers UN agencies to make claims on member countries and helps ensure that the universal definition of human rights is enforced for refugees and internally displaced people. The human rights approach also reminds us of the multi-sector, multilevel nature, causes and consequences of malnutrition; it exposes reckless choices by governments (as Stephen Lewis said), but also by other duty-bearers. Families, individuals, communities, local governments, NGOs often engage in reckless behaviour that has consequences for nutrition.

Can properly documented adherence to human rights become the basis for loans from the World Bank or others? That is a tricky issue because one does not wish to punish people for rights violations of their governments, but it is an issue that this group must address.

Unanswered Questions

Many unanswered questions emerged from this symposium. Of these, perhaps enforcement was the main issue. What are the mechanisms for enforcement? Exposing the violators helps, but given that we may need to guide national governments in how to carry out their obligations, we may first want to focus on the implementation of the law and accountability mechanisms.

Another unanswered question was posed by Dr Toole, who asked whether a human rights approach could help to derail the sequence of events that leads to an emergency, causing agencies to divert resources away from development to much-needed relief? The tenet that human rights provides a framework within which allocation takes place, and that the claim to nutrition rights is not necessarily a claim that is superior to other rights, however, did emerge from the symposium discussion.

Finally, does the business sector represent the toughest challenge of all in terms of enforcement of human rights?

Perhaps for multinationals, yes. Perhaps for small scale entrepreneurs and farmers, no. In the Brazilian case study, Dr Coitinho alluded to the challenge of interacting with the business sector in terms of the need for conflict resolution among the different development actors such as the government, business, and civil society.

...a good way of making the human rights approach better is to use it and not worry about getting it perfect before we do.

What's next?

Make human rights more explicit. At the symposium's opening the comment was made that "The human rights approach to nutrition is not even on the radar screen." We need more examples to use as building blocks to begin developing a language that we all understand, but from the bottom up. Asbjörn Eide showed us a livelihood security/human rights matrix; and earlier in the working group, Urban Jonsson had put up a similar matrix which focussed on breastfeeding. These matrices make the human rights approach to nutrition more real. Dr de Haen from FAO spoke about human rights framework legislation. The World Bank presentation by Mr Lovelace suggested that their country strategy documents would begin to explore the integration of a human rights perspective. Arne Oshaug talked about the importance of building awareness, knowledge and competence within institutions, particularly ministries. Mr Thipanyane from South Africa suggested ministry action plans for human rights. The South African case study made it clear that the development of such a plan would not be easy.

Obviously, it is important to establish national human rights commissions, but as we saw from the South African case study, this is not a straightforward process. Governments control funding to these bodies, either directly or indirectly; and once they have created them, governments might be quite active in frustrating their performance if the commission has the potential to be critical.

Both the Brazilian and South African case studies kept reminding us that taking the first steps are important, but that it is important to keep the effort going in order to advance the human rights approach to food and nutrition policies and programmes - there is no room for complacency.

Dr Dandan emphasized the need to improve the information flow from the UN agencies to the UN CESCR. She urged us to provide our valuable input into the General Comment on the Right to Adequate Food. Furthermore, I encourage SCN member agencies to accept Mary Robinson's offer to assist us with human rights-based training for duty bearers and claim-holders; and to help us establish a common human rights language for food and nutrition. Because sharing information and best practices is critical to moving forward with this approach, I suggest that the Working Group on Nutrition, Ethics and Human Rights focus on producing concrete examples of rights-based programming for the 27^th SCN Session.

Finally, a good way of making the human rights approach better is to use it and not worry about getting it perfect before we do. We need to engage every potential resource, every potential voice, and every potential construct to overcome malnutrition. I think this symposium has demonstrated the potential for the human rights approach to accelerate a decline in malnutrition rates. The challenge for all of us now is to make it real.

Box 1: Milestones for Human Rights
1948	Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1966	International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
1966	International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights
1969	Declaration on Social Progress and Development
1977	The Right to Development as a Human Right
1979	Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
1886	Declaration of the Right to Development
1989	Convention on the Rights of the Child
1992	World Declaration on Nutrition - FAO/WHO International Conference on Nutrition
1993	World Conference on Human Rights
1993	UN ACC/SCN Working Group on Nutrition, Ethics & Human Rights
1996	World Food Summit
1997	UN Secretary-General Reform Programme emphasizes human rights
1997-8	UNHCHR 1st & 2nd Expert Consultations on the Right to Food
1999	UNHCHR 55th Session adopted Resolution on the Right to Food
1999	CESCR adopts General Comment 12 on the Right to Food

Box 2: Human Rights Concepts & Definitions
Claim-holder	has legitimate claim to rights being upheld
Duty-bearer	obligated to uphold rights; usually the State
States' Obligations	to respect, protect and fulfil; the term fulfil incorporates both an obligation to facilitate and an obligation to provide
Civil Society	citizenry; not including government and business
Indivisibility of Rights	all rights are equally important: economic, social, cultural, political and civil

INVITED REMARKS

BERTIE RAMCHARAN

ASSISTANT SECRETARY-GENERAL
DEPUTY HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

The objective of this symposium is to advance our understanding of the substantive and political nature, and opportunities regarding the application of a human rights approach to food and nutrition policies and programmes.

I. Substantive aspects of a human rights approach to food and nutrition policies and programmes

The first thing to note about the right to food and nutrition is that it is grounded in the history of rights going back for centuries and is to be seen expressly or implicitly claimed in the revolutions that led to the great declarations of rights. In the Rights of Man, for example, Tom Paine championed the right to the means for a good life. Locke asserted that one could take from the state of nature that which one needed for one's well-being -provided that one left enough for one's brethren. Economic and social rights are inherent in the French Declaration and its successors. The message is clear: the people have asserted and vindicated a right to food.

The second thing to note is that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights applies the standards of the individual's health and well-being to the right to food. It also assigns to motherhood and childhood the entitlement to special care and assistance. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights brought in the standard of 'adequate food' and simultaneously asserted the 'fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger'.

The third thing to note is that the methodology laid down in the Covenant for the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to food, encompasses the following:

· Each government should take steps, to the maximum of available resources, for the progressive realization of the rights by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislation.

· There should be no discrimination in the exercise of the rights.

· Each government should ensure the equal right of men and women in the enjoyment of the rights.

· International action for the achievement of the rights includes such methods as the conclusion of conventions, the adoption of recommendations, the furnishing of technical assistance and the holding of regional meetings and technical meetings for the purpose of consultation and study organised in conjunction with the governments concerned.

1) Every government should have in place appropriate legislation to ensure freedom from hunger and enjoyment of the right to adequate food. Special provisions should be enacted to ensure there is no discrimination; to ensure equality between men and women; and to ensure enjoyment of the right to food by mothers and children.

2) The governmental agencies responsible for the food policies of every country should be inspired by, and demonstrate, an inherent rights-based approach in their policies.

3) The fundamental nature of the right to be free from hunger and the right to adequate food requires that suitable remedies should be available to those who feel their rights have been violated.

Sadly, the rights-based approach to food and nutrition is to be found in few countries. Unfortunately, notwithstanding the historic synthesis in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and despite the adoption of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, some governments continue to take a soft approach to the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights. Regrettably, also, corrupt and dictatorial governments have pillaged or squandered national resources, or diverted them to senseless conflicts or wars, with the result that fundamental rights such as freedom from hunger do not even feature on their radar screens.

III. The Opportunities

This symposium provides a welcome opportunity to lay the foundations for a new beginning at the turn of the century. In the course of the deliberations during the next two days let us try to identify opportunities for practical action nationally, regionally and internationally to pursue and implement a human rights approach to food and nutrition policies and programmes.

THE HUMAN RIGHT TO FOOD AND NUTRITION

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

MARY ROBINSON
UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to welcome so many eminent experts on food and nutrition as well as my colleagues from UN agencies and bodies at this symposium on a human rights approach to food and nutrition and the 26^th session of the ACC Sub-Committee on Nutrition. This meeting is a practical example of the extensive cooperation between your agencies and my office towards the full realization of the human right to food and nutrition.

Let me state my approach. I am committed to giving equal importance to all human rights, be they civil, cultural, economic, political or social rights. While it was reconfirmed by the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993, that "all human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated", economic, social and cultural rights in reality, have in the past received too little attention. This is being rectified and we now have numerous projects on the implementation of human rights on a broad front. These include the work of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), and implementation of a Memorandum of Understanding with UNDP and close working relations with ILO, WHO, FAO, UNESCO, the World Bank, other agencies and several rapporteurs of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Later this year, the Commission will be discussing the report of its expert on the right to development. If we are to treat all human rights on an equal footing, more attention needs to be paid to clarifying the minimum core content of economic, social and cultural rights. Meetings such as this one can help greatly.

Few economic rights are violated on such a scale as food and nutrition rights. According to UN estimates, approximately 841 million people in developing countries, mostly women and children, do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs, which infringes on their fundamental human rights.

Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the right to adequate food has been recognised as an important component of the right to an adequate standard of living. It has also been confirmed in the principal human rights conventions, in particular Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The right to adequate food derives from Article 11 (1), and that to freedom from hunger and malnutrition from Article 11 (2) of the ICESCR. While the first provision is much broader, the latter is a key element of the minimum core content of the right to adequate food. The right to adequate food is indivisibly linked to other human rights and its ultimate objective is to achieve nutritional well-being which, in turn, is dependent on parallel achievements in the fields of health and education. The concept of adequacy is particularly significant in relation to the right to food. It means that the overall supply should cover overall nutritional needs in terms of quantity and quality. The realization of the right to adequate food is inseparable from social justice, requiring the adoption of appropriate economic, environmental and social policies, both at the national and international level, oriented towards the eradication of poverty and the satisfaction of basic needs.

In emergency situations, such as conflicts and disasters, people have the right to receive food aid and States must grant access to impartial humanitarian organizations to provide food aid and other humanitarian assistance. Under no circumstances can States deprive people of their access to food, be it by forced evictions, by destroying food crops or by destroying production resources. It is important to highlight the need to eliminate gender inequality and to acknowledge the specific needs of children and other vulnerable groups. In all circumstances, starvation must be prohibited as a method of warfare.

The right to adequate food and nutrition imposes three types of obligations on States parties to the ICESCR: the obligations (a) to respect, (b) to protect and (c) to fulfil. Failure to comply with any one of these three obligations constitutes a violation of the right to adequate food. The obligation to respect access to adequate food under all circumstances for everyone under their jurisdiction requires States Parties not to take political or other measures that would result in preventing access to adequate food for vulnerable populations. The obligation to protect includes the State's responsibility of ensuring that private entities or individuals, including transnational corporations over which they exercise jurisdiction, do not deprive individuals of their access to adequate food. Whenever an individual or a group is unable to enjoy the right to adequate food, States have the obligation to fulfil that right. This requires that States must identify the vulnerable groups among their populations and provide food and assistance using strategies that ensure the achievement of a long-term capability of people to feed themselves. This obligation also applies to persons who are victims of natural or other disasters. The fulfillment of the right to adequate food requires steps to be taken by all appropriate means, including the adoption of legislative measures, and support by the necessary administrative capacity within the public and private sectors where appropriate. These measures should address all aspects of the food system, including the production, processing, distribution and consumption of food, as well as parallel measures in the fields of health, education, employment and social security.

The realization of the right to food has to happen at the country level. Article 2 of the ICESCR seeks implementation at the national level by all appropriate means, including the adoption of legislative measures. Incorporating the right to food into a national framework legislation would be essential in establishing the ground work for a real accountability of the "duty bearer" - the State - towards the "claim holders". All States have an obligation to cooperate in order to create the conditions under which human rights can be realized world-wide. States not only have obligations in regard to those individuals under their domestic jurisdiction but also, under the United Nations Charter, to cooperate in solving problems of a social and humanitarian nature outside their domestic jurisdiction. In times of emergencies States have at least a moral duty to share among themselves the burdens of food aid and other measures of relief.

I would strongly appeal to the UN agencies to adopt a rights-based approach to their mandates. While cooperation between agencies and the treaty bodies in many instances has developed well during the last few years, in the future greater emphasis should be put on sharing information and the development of joint indicators or benchmarks to measure achievements and shortcomings in the realization of food and nutrition rights. I encourage agencies to establish internal mechanisms to ensure that their own policies or programmes do not impact negatively on the implementation by States of the rights to food and nutrition. The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) constitutes an important tool for strengthening inter-agency cooperation at the country level in order to reach the goals of the global conferences of the 90s including those related to hunger, women, and children; to identify key actions; and to pool resources.

Ladies and gentlemen, in supporting and promoting a rights-based approach to development, UN agencies could help to encourage States to redirect their efforts in a way that would optimize the satisfaction of basic needs in a sustainable way. Agencies could provide not only legal, political and administrative advice to States on how to better meet their obligations regarding the right to food and nutrition, but also help States in monitoring the implementation and any eventual breaches of their obligations related to the right to adequate food. Thank you.

NUTRITION, HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS

GRO HARLEM BRUNDTLAND
DIRECTOR-GENERAL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

Excellencies, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, one year ago, it was my pleasure to serve as chairperson at the SCN's 25th session symposium on "A Gender Perspective on Nutrition Through the Life Cycle" that was held in Oslo. Today, nearly nine months into my new duties, I am pleased to speak on behalf of the World Health Organization on an issue which cuts across all of WHO's political and technical priorities. Human rights cannot be departmentalized. It has to be a cross-cutting perspective in all we do. It is no coincidence that the Universal Declaration on Human Rights was drafted at the same time as the founding mothers and fathers of WHO drafted our constitution. And the issue of nutrition certainly has both a health and a human rights perspective. What are the primary links between nutrition and health seen from a human rights perspective?

First, nutrition is a key universal factor that affects, as much as it defines, the health of all people. A banal observation, but so obvious a truth that it is regularly overlooked. Well-functioning metabolism based on a regular intake of the proper mix of nutrients, safely ingested, prepares our bodies for the main tasks at hand: growth, development, work, resistance to infection, and the attainment and enjoyment of physical and mental well-being. Nutrition is a key factor. The effects of nutrition not only on growth and physical development, but also on cognitive and social development are well documented. A malnourished child is more vulnerable to disease. Cognitive development will be in peril, especially during the first three years of life. Stunted physical growth is closely linked to reduced mental development. With a distorted intake of nutrients - too little, too much, or unsafe - or with too great a loss of nutrients, for example through diarrhoea or errors of metabolism, we easily fall prey to ill-health and disease. This is an undeniable physiological reality. The proper mix of nutrients under dean and safe conditions must be available to all. We also know just how far from this gold standard we remain. We live in a world where inequity, poverty, underdevelopment, as well as maldistribution and inadequate access to food, health and care still prevail. [Ed. According to WHO's Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition (1997) and World Health Assembly Report (1998)] There are tragic consequences:

* half of the more than 10 million deaths every year among children under five are associated with malnutrition

* 170 million children are underweight, 208 million are stunted, and 49 million are wasted

* more than 900 million people suffer from goitre, 16 million are severely retarded, and another 50 million suffer other forms of brain damage, due to a deficiency of iodine

* 3 million children are at increased risk of infection, blindness and death because they are vitamin A-deficient [Ed. At the SCN 26th Session, 12-15 April 1999, the ACC/SCN Working Group on Vitamin A and Iron reported an estimated 140-250 million pre-school children suffer from sub-clinical vitamin A deficiency, thus carrying increased mortality-related risks.]

* anaemia and iron deficiency affect more than 2000 million people the world over

* and some 22 million children, and more than 200 million adults, are obese, and thus at significant risk from a range of serious non-communicable diseases and other threats to health.

It is no coincidence that the idea to establish a world health organization emerged from the same process that, in 1948, identified the universal value of human rights. WHO'S mandate is also universal. Our constitution calls for equity in stating that "the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition". If we were to point to one single factor explaining ill-health in our world today it is poverty. Poverty is the main obstacle to the attainment of health. Poverty leads to ill-health - but it also works the other way - ill-health breeds poverty. Where there is structural poverty and ill-health there will be poor development - poor nutrition, poor health, and poor human rights. The global UN conferences in recent years -Rio, Vienna, Cairo, Copenhagen and Beijing - all point to the same conclusion: not a single country has succeeded in sustaining economic growth and human development without first investing in human development. And no country is likely to sustain progress and the health of its people if they suppress democracy and neglect human rights. One reason for an unfulfilled agenda is precisely to be found in the neglect of basic human rights. The health sector is often left dealing with the results of abuse; the suffering from war and torture; and the mutilations from the killing fields of anti-personnel landmines. Building healthy communities is hampered where freedom of organization is restricted. Diseases find fertile ground where information and education are lacking. Diseases recede when the conditions exist for individuals to acquire knowledge and information; when they fully enjoy their legitimate human rights.

Discrimination on the basis of race, colour, sex, language, religion or any other reason makes the negative impact of poverty on health far worse. Look at gender. Girls and women who are denied access to education, information and real forms of economic, social and political participation are particularly vulnerable. Some political regimes favour vaccination of young boys over young girls. It is totally unacceptable and we need to speak out against such practices. The clearest abuse of human rights sometimes becomes pure violence. Between 20% and 50% of women are victims of physical abuse by their partners at some time in their lives. Violence against women in situations of conflict and against women refugees is part of the same drama. Our evidence base tells a sad story: by 2010 -violence will in itself be a leading global burden of disease into the next century. If we are to take human rights seriously, we have to become familiar with the difference that a human rights perspective brings to our diverse missions, policies and activities in a development context.

...the distinction between charity that flows from the benevolent - when convenient - versus obligations that, by definition, must be met by responsible duty-bearers.

I would like to make two elementary distinctions. The first is the distinction between having basic needs versus having rights that can be legitimately claimed by the rights-holder. The second is the distinction between charity that flows from the benevolent - when convenient - versus obligations that, by definition, must be met by responsible duty-bearers. An explicit human rights approach to health and nutrition means that mechanisms and procedures are gradually put into place to ensure that the values we advocate are underpinned in international human rights law, are subsequently incorporated into national laws, and thereby have a chance of becoming reality for greater numbers of people.

We know it all too well: there are serious imperfections of the current system of human rights implementation. But I would counter pessimism by saying that we have barely begun to use the opportunities that this road of action offers. Here lies the challenge that we face as members and observers in this sub-committee. And such, too, is the nature of our task, in following up WHO'S work along a perspective of human emerging a growing convergence, in the family of nations, in at least the principles - if not always the acts - of governance. A political consensus among governments is at last building, slowly but steadily, in favour of a single overriding notion: development, to be sustainable, must be based on equity. The UN system has been at the forefront of this evolutionary debate from its earliest days, championing human rights for all, and seeking to anchor their protection firmly in international law. During the celebration of the Universal Declaration's fiftieth anniversary last December I focused on a new call for action:

* sustained momentum to win and re-win respect for human rights

* political commitment at the highest level

* mobilization of civil society

* and a progressive force to stand up for the hundreds of millions who are denied the enjoyment of their rights.

A human rights perspective provides the international community with yet another opportunity to support the development, in countries, of sound public health policies and practices that promote healthy nutrition as a cornerstone of all social and economic development. This approach is consistent with how international intergovernmental organizations like ours function, both as policy advocates and providers of technical support. In line with our mandate, the primary entry point for influencing and shaping national policies is building national capacities to meet diverse nutrition challenges. Governments have the main responsibility for protecting the human rights of their citizens. It is our responsibility to support governments, by providing the tools they need to help them do the job.

Human rights should begin at home. For our agencies, and the technicians and managers working in them, this implies learning more about human rights as they directly affect our many specialized fields. This concerns the norms contained in the best-known instruments but it doesn't stop there. It also includes learning about how the drafters of the UN's own charter and, later, the International Bill of Human Rights, envisaged a functional system for implementing these norms internationally. We must become familiar with the institutions, the mechanisms, and the procedures. They are there for all of us, to support and to make use of, in our common mission to promote and protect human rights, including the right to nutrition and health. We have a responsibility to contribute to a similar learning process among our human rights colleagues. We can do this in a variety of ways. By sharing our insights and applying our indicators we can improve our understanding of how inadequate access to food, combined with inadequate health care, result in malnutrition that is so rampant and so serious that it is one of the worst public health problems we face globally. Therefore this remains a gross violation of the human right to health!

An explicit human rights approach to health and nutrition means that mechanisms and procedures are gradually put into place to ensure that the values we advocate...have a chance of becoming reality for greater numbers of people.

Let me end by focusing briefly on this Sub-committee's relationship with its parent body, the ACC. The example you set here has important implications, through the ACC, for how the entire UN system addresses the issue of human rights. We should all be able to ensure that a human rights culture permeates each of our agencies. I am not suggesting that we begin each day by reciting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights! What we can do is create working environments where staff will be continually challenged to explore two interdependent avenues: making effective use of human rights norms and their implementation systems to accomplish daily tasks; [and] contributing to the still wider and more effective application of these norms through the daily tasks they accomplish. This is the essence of the challenge for the UN system and what it implies when we talk of mainstreaming human rights. We should be sure to do this in concert with our Member countries. We must strive to benefit fully from a process that simultaneously engages both international and national perspectives and stimulates new opportunities for growth and learning. Governmental accountability for human rights standards requires an understanding of minimum standards of nutrition, of the body of operational laws and policies, and of monitoring mechanisms that help establish the evidence of the contribution of health and, in today's context, of nutrition to human rights. Our advocacy for human rights contributes to the global public good that the UN system is here to provide. Doing it together will provide new energy to an important human cause. Thank you.

MALNUTRITION AS A HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION:
IMPLICATIONS FOR UNITED NATIONS-SUPPORTED
PROGRAMMES

STEPHEN LEWIS
DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNICEF

We are here to consider nutrition and malnutrition as the fulfillment and violation respectively of human rights. I would like to suggest to you that understanding malnutrition as a violation of human rights has profound implications for the way we in the United Nations and our government partners do business. It should change the way we view the adults, mostly women, and children who are sufferers or potential sufferers of malnutrition and should, in fact, improve the effectiveness and sustainability of what we do. I would also like to link the States obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food and nutrition to the evolving concept of good governance at the global, national and local levels.

We know that the record of addressing the problem of malnutrition among children and women is a mixed one. In the last ten years, we have learned a great deal about the many ways in which malnutrition among very young children exacts a terrible toll throughout life, even in later adulthood. We have learned, and continue to learn, that good nutrition before and during pregnancy has remarkable benefits for the mother, including reducing her risk of death associated with pregnancy and childbirth, but also in ensuring a good start in life for her child. We know that deficiencies of certain vitamins and minerals have consequences for women and children that range from increased risk of death to mental impairment and other developmental problems, blindness and other disabilities, and poor performance at school and work. We know, moreover, that most of these deficiencies can be prevented or treated relatively easily. And yet child malnutrition remains widespread. Over half the children in South Asia, and a third of those who live in Africa south of the Sahara, and millions more around the world are malnourished, and because of that some six million young children a year die when they would be unlikely to do so if they were well nourished.

Over half the children in South Asia, and a third of those who live in Africa south of the Sahara, and millions more around the world are malnourished, and because of that some six million young children a year die when they would be unlikely to do so if they were well-nourished.

A good part of this has to do with a inadequate resources. But I ask you to compare what we are spending on the war in the Balkans with the other human imperatives for which we never have the money. It is ever thus, whether it is Kosovo, however merited, or bailing out the Asian banks, or the Gulf War. It is ever thus. We never have the money. As I journeyed here from New York I was reading an article in the Herald Tribune [11 April 99] by Joseph Stiglitz, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank. In his article, "Bleak growth prospects for the developing world," he comments on a recently released World Bank report dealing with investment practices of a short term kind:

The Bank's report highlights another disturbing trend. Development aid is stagnating at its lowest level in more than 50 years; at 33 billion dollars worldwide, aid from wealthy donors has fallen to less than one quarter of one per cent of the combined gross national product of industrial countries. A 38% decline since the beginning of the decade. Yet improved policies in many low-income countries mean that aid is more effective than ever in reducing poverty. It is a cruel irony that just as the sudden drawing up of volatile commercial loans makes aid more urgent than ever, it is shrinking.

The same Herald Tribune had an article called, "Who will pick up the tab for Indonesia's bad debts?" and it says:

Officially the Bank rescue bill stands at around 450 trillion rupiahs, 50 billion dollars in bonds which have to be issued. But unofficial estimates from specialists now go as high as 700 trillion rupiahs, or 60% of gross domestic product which works out to 70 or 75 billion dollars.

We know that breastfeeding is an essential element of nutrition for young children in the vast majority of situations. We also know that breastfeeding often remains at risk, subject to the behavior of large corporations who would undermine it for profit. The international community and in principle, these corporations themselves have agreed to a minimum legal standard to regulate the marketing of infant formula. Yet some of these very corporations seek to undermine the development and enforcement of legislation reflecting the minimum standards of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, and go to great lengths, including tying up the judicial systems of developing countries, to escape compliance.

We know that good nutrition depends on access to health services and sanitation, on the status and situation of women enabling them to make decisions in favor of the care of their young children, and on food security in the household. We know that these elements in turn are dependent on a wide range of social and economic factors, including poverty, discrimination, and investment by the State in basic social services. In spite of the complexity of the malnutrition problem, we also know from well-documented experience, that great strides can be made in improving child nutrition when actions taken are derived from an analysis of the problem by those most at-risk of being affected by the problem. Only when those living in poverty are understood to be the most effective analysts of their own problems and agents of their own solutions, is it possible to formulate effective and sustainable interventions to reduce malnutrition, even when macro-economic factors continue to work against the impoverished of this earth. And yet these experiences of participatory problem assessment and analysis leading to actions to reduce malnutrition are relatively few, and carried-out on an inadequate scale.

With all that we know and have yet to apply sufficiently, why bring human rights into the picture? Will it help us in this struggle to understand malnutrition as a violation of human rights?

Before suggesting some answers to these questions, I want to remind you that good nutrition is a right guaranteed for children in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This international agreement combines all rights equally: economic, social, cultural, political and civil rights. The determinants of good nutrition - food, care and health - are all covered in Article 24's provision guaranteeing children the right to "the highest attainable standard of health". I would remind you further that the CRC is nearly universally ratified, and that this ratification has been the most rapid in the history of international human rights instruments. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), while not ratified by as many countries as the CRC, contains many similar provisions with respect to the health and nutrition of women. In these two instruments of human rights, we have powerful tools to recast our understanding of our own and our government partners' obligations, the programme and policy strategies supported by our agencies, and our views about those who would impede the realization of the right of children and women to good nutrition. UNICEF has taken an explicit political decision to make the realization of the rights embodied in these two conventions the heart of our mandate. What this means for UNICEF and for all of our agencies with respect to malnutrition can be summarized in the following points.

This duty of the State is more robust than the argument...that there is an economic justification for addressing malnutrition....the duty to fulfil the right of children and women to good nutrition does not depend on an economic justification, and does not disappear just because it can be shown that tackling some other problem is more cost-effective in terms of money...or any other measure.

Recasting obligations of States and other partners:

Ratification of the CRC means our government partners acknowledge their obligation to become combatants against child malnutrition. This obligation is a legal commitment that stands firm, no matter what international conferences they have attended or what other development planning they have done. The fulfillment of obligations under human rights conventions, such as the CRC, thus create the context for good governance. Part of the duty of good governance is ensuring that others, especially the primary care-givers of children, are enabled to fulfil their part of this obligation to children. This duty of the State is more robust than the argument, which is also compelling in its way, that there is an economic justification for addressing malnutrition. We know this is so, but the duty to fulfil the right of children and women to good nutrition does not depend on an economic justification, and does not disappear just because it can be shown that tackling some other problem is more cost-effective in terms of money, DALYs or any other measure.

Recasting our understanding of the nutrition problem:

With a rights-based approach, it is not possible to see malnutrition as a purely technical problem, as it continues so often to be seen. It must, rather, be understood as determined by many sectors, by all levels of society, and again, by such complex factors as the status of women and the distribution of poverty in society. With both the CRC and CEDAW in the forefront of our nutrition thinking, moreover, the integral link between children's and women's rights is clear. In attacking malnutrition it becomes clear that we cannot hope to address violations of rights against children without addressing those against women.

You and I know that participation as a development strategy, like the right to food, is frequently espoused but rarely applied....for truly participatory approaches... are the only ones likely to succeed in the long run.

Recasting programme strategies: You and I know that participation as a development strategy, like the right to food, is frequently espoused but rarely applied. Rights-based programming and policy development carries a commitment to real participation of those affected by the problem in all of our work against malnutrition. It recognizes that the people at-risk of malnutrition have the right to determine the course of their actions and the partners they will take in their struggle, and not we who presume to have the right to dictate those matters to them. I have already alluded to the importance of participatory problem assessment and analysis at local levels for finding appropriate solutions to the malnutrition problem. Too many of our partners in government at all levels and in civil society organizations remain unconvinced of this approach. Rights-based programming gives us the obligation to continue to fight for truly participatory approaches for they are the only ones likely to succeed in the long run.

Recasting our measures of development progress: A rights-based understanding solidifies the position of malnutrition, particularly child malnutrition, as an indicator of development progress as well as of human rights violations. Child malnutrition exemplifies the coming together of human development and human rights thinking. The standard of a well-nourished child is a good example of the normative standards that are increasingly being adopted to development theory and practice. When we talk about the right to development, we talk about the rights of the child, which includes as a matter of international law, good nutritional status. So the theory and practice of development is the theory and practice of human rights. The two are inseparable.

Recasting the violators: Let us note clearly that a rights approach to malnutrition means a different understanding of those who would impede the fulfillment of the right of children and women to good nutrition. Those who, for instance, make claims about infant formula that intentionally undermine women's confidence in breastfeeding are not to be regarded as clever entrepreneurs just doing their job, but as human rights violators of the worst kind. Those who have no confidence that poor people's assessment and analysis of their own problems is a worthwhile basis for formulating actions to combat malnutrition, violate human rights.

Reaffirming the role of the United Nations: For the United Nations agencies, our role is clear. The heart of the United Nations mandate is to act as a watch-dog to signal to the world - and, importantly, to those most affected by rights violations - the scope and magnitude of human rights violations, including those horrific ones that manifest themselves in the form of malnutrition. Some civil society organizations also do this, of course, but the role exercised by the United Nations as a body of States Parties is unique and essential.

Conclusions

Viewing nutrition from a human rights perspective will not be new to those who have followed the work of ACC/SCN over the years. In particular their Nutrition Policy Discussion Paper No. 15 (1996), "How Nutrition Improves", included case studies from Tanzania, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Zimbabwe which highlighted some of the same factors echoed at this symposium. They concluded that the status of women; the understanding of nutrition as food, health and care; and truly participatory problem assessment and analysis were keys to nutrition improvement in these diverse settings.

It is at once encouraging that we are beginning to understand malnutrition in the light of human rights, and very disheartening to think that after all these years, after all the conferences, speeches and programmes, the malnutrition problem still looms so large before us. I am convinced, though, that an important part of the lack of success associated with some of our efforts is very much a result of too circumscribed an understanding of the problem, leading to programme approaches that have been too timid and too narrow.

In UNICEF:

· We are going to continue our efforts to promote participatory and intersectoral approaches to resolving malnutrition for women and children.

· We are already taking measures to strengthen the capacity of our offices to understand, articulate and analyze more effectively the economic, political and social context in which they work, which will be of direct use in their understanding of appropriate strategies the fight against malnutrition.

· We will continue to improve the skills of our field staff in working with communities to help accelerate their own processes of problem assessment and analysis and formulation of effective actions to combat malnutrition. This is an essential part of our continuing work to improve the understanding of rights-based programming among our staff.

· We will continue our support in addressing vitamin and mineral deficiencies of importance to women and children.

· In spite of the continuing difficulties and the new challenges posed by HIV/AIDS we will continue to be a strong voice in favor of support, protection and promotion of breastfeeding.

· We will work with a range of partners to ensure that child malnutrition is used in the monitoring of development progress and of human rights violations. It figures centrally in the multiple-indicator surveys that our offices are now preparing as part of our reporting on progress toward the goals of the World Summit for Children. Countries in two UNICEF regions in Asia and one in Africa have also developed, or are developing, extensive regional data bases using district-level data for programme planning and advocacy purposes, including a wide range of nutrition indicators.

· Finally, we will advocate for a concept of good governance that is based on the obligation of all governments to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of children and women.

WILL RIGHTS CURE MALNUTRITION?
REFLECTIONS ON HUMAN RIGHTS, NUTRITION AND
DEVELOPMENT

JAMES CHRISTOPHER LOVELACE
DIRECTOR, HEALTH, NUTRITION AND POPULATION NETWORK
THE WORLD BANK

In her foreword to the recent World Bank publication, Development and Human Rights: The Role of the World Bank, Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, suggests that the World Bank's recognition of its specific role regarding human rights was a 'defining moment' for the international promotion and protection of human rights. While we at the Bank appreciate the kudos, it is perhaps rather too generous or at least premature. True, the world, and the World Bank, now accept that sustainable development is impossible without human rights. That is an important global shift in perception. But that realization, in itself, does not imply that the World Bank's lending and non-lending decisions will, in the final analysis, always be governed by human rights considerations; or even that the World Bank ought to play an active role in advocating for human rights within the countries where it operates. In fact, the Bank is only now beginning to explore the implications of the current human rights discourse for its decision making and action.

Current World Bank Activities in Nutrition

Over the past 25 years, the World Bank has invested close to US$2 billion in nutrition activities in over 70 countries. The Bank currently supports some 97 ongoing self-standing nutrition projects and nutrition components of health, agriculture, education, early childhood development or social protection in 45 countries. In addition, a much larger number of Bank-supported income generation, health, education, and agriculture projects address the underlying causes of malnutrition. Direct nutrition activities include community-based growth monitoring and promotion, targeted supplementary feeding, micronutrient supplementation, food fortification, as well as income-generation and micro-credit activities. Communication for behaviour change forms an integral part of most of the successful projects. Several of these projects utilize innovative contracting arrangements for service delivery through NGOs, local communities and entrepreneurs. Progress is also being made on implementing projects with explicit food security targets.

Food safety is also receiving increasing attention. A strategy on Food Safety Investment, which will focus on quality and safety issues related to both local and export food marketing, is in preparation. And a task force on biotechnology, which is inter alia considering the effects and implications of technological developments for small holder farmers and poor consumers, has also been established. While the Bank can thus claim to be making a modest contribution to the fight against malnutrition, there is no room for complacency. The global nutrition problem remains large, and progress is slow. In fact, nutrition lags behind other social indicators, and is increasingly becoming the limiting factor in achieving further gains in child mortality and morbidity - if not on further economic growth and social development.

During the last few years, in the context of rapidly changing external conditions and organizational changes in the Bank, questions have emerged regarding the Bank's long-term commitment to addressing malnutrition, about the quality of its nutrition project preparation and implementation, and the effectiveness of its actions in achieving sustained improvements in the nutrition conditions of poor people. These are not questions for the Bank only - they relate to broader questions we need to ask about the international effort to combat malnutrition. Why is the record so sobering? Is it that more impact simply requires more input? Why then are we not doing more? Where are the leverage points that will make the big difference?

To begin addressing these questions, and to reformulate and revitalize the Bank's approach to addressing malnutrition, the Bank has embarked on a review of its experience with regard to nutrition. We are happy to have been joined in this initiative by UNICEF. Together, we will be exploring how our agencies have contributed to the development and application of key ideas and approaches to malnutrition reduction, internationally and at country level. Building our understanding of the policy development and implementation process, we should come to a better understanding of how the control of malnutrition can be accelerated.

True...the World Bank now accept[s] that sustainable development is impossible without human rights. That is an important global shift in perception. But that realization...does not imply that the...Bank's lending...decisions will...always be governed by human rights considerations...

Focus on Country Action

Our nutrition renewal activities are focused on country-level practice. We do not think this is the time for more global conferences or global statements of intent. We will focus our energy on supporting change at the country and community level. Therefore we want to work with other agencies on country programs - programs that have the support and commitment of governments and people, and are an integral part of the development plans of those countries. This means that we will pay particular attention to ensuring that nutrition receives attention in the preparation of the Bank's Country Assistance Strategies, the central vehicle through which the Bank plans its support to countries. It also means that we will give more attention to building institutional capacity appropriate to the specific conditions in countries and regions, to ensure that nutritional programs are more sustainable. In this regard we are working with partner agencies, including UNU and IUNS, and actors and agencies in the African region to spearhead a capacity building initiative for nutrition leadership in Africa.

The World Bank Mandate

The Bank's Articles of Agreement clearly state that, in all its decisions, "only economic considerations shall be relevant" (World Bank 1966). You will appreciate that this focus on the economic rationale of investments has afforded the bank an important measure of protection against pressures to commit scarce funds for ill-conceived projects with short-term political or ideological purposes. And this economic calculus has introduced an analytical rigor and an insistence on credit-worthiness and sustainability. It should be admitted, however, that these criteria have, at times, been applied in too narrow a fashion, sometimes with unforeseen negative consequences. The question thus arises whether the limited mandate of the World Bank would preclude it from adequately confronting the issue of human rights. We do not think so. To be sure, some aspects of human rights clearly fall outside its mandate. But we are convinced that the Bank's economic and social approach to development and poverty reduction in countries very much advances, in very practical terms, a comprehensive, interconnected vision of human rights. In fact, we believe that advancing the human rights agenda is pretty much impossible without sustained attention to development. It is easy to say that the right to development is all-encompassing, demanding the realization of civil and political as well as social, economic and cultural rights. But the very indivisibility of a comprehensive human rights framework still leaves us with the practical need to make choices.

Realizing Human Rights

The Bank's commitment to human development, and its insistence on the dignity of all people, reflect an ethical stance on the part of its past founders and its present governors; a stance that continues to inform all its decisions and activities. Thus, for the World Bank, the measure of this stance does not lie in its pronouncements on ethical, political or rights issues, but in how its resources have been applied, and the difference it has made to the lives of people. Its lending over the past 50 years for education, health care, nutrition, sanitation, housing, environmental protection and agriculture have helped turn rights into reality for millions. Since its first $2 million loan to family planning activities in Jamaica in 1970, the Bank's lending portfolio in health, nutrition and population (HNP), for example, has grown rapidly and it is now the single largest external financier in low and middle-income countries, with a cumulative portfolio value of over US$31.5 billion in 1996 dollars. It has funded HNP activities in some 225 projects in 89 countries over this period, thus contributing directly to the fulfillment of the economic and social rights of millions of people (World Bank 1997).

As the Bank's approach to development financing evolved over the years (often in response to constructive criticism and effective lobbying from other development partners), it now uses a range of assessment tools to gauge the potential social, environmental and economic impact of proposed projects. While not couched in human rights terms, these mechanisms provide some means to ensure that social and economic rights are respected and protected. The recognition that economic measures could have negative consequences, particularly for the poor, has resulted in actions to improve the agency's capacity to assess adverse impacts more adequately, and has resulted in more attention being given to safety net measures to cushion economic shocks. It has recently been proposed that similar tools also be developed to assess the human rights impact of projects, and this is presently under consideration (World Bank 1999).

That having been said, we do recognize that this is a more limited approach to human rights than the rights-based programming approaches of some NGOs and other United Nations agencies, such as UNICEF and ILO. We see in this a useful complementarity between UN agencies and International Financial Institutions (IFIs), other donors and NGOs, based on a meaningful division of labor. In this scheme of things, advocacy aimed at respect for rights, and capacity-building aimed at rights protection would remain the principal concern of the relevant UN agencies, some bilateral donors, and NGOs, while providing resources for scaling up project service delivery aimed at rights fulfillment would be the domain where the IFIs (and the larger bilateral donors) have a comparative advantage.

What are the prospects for the World Bank working within the framework of the proposed UN human rights approach? I would think they are good - provided that such a framework is articulated at country level, and shaped by all the development and rights stakeholders in an essentially transparent and participatory political process, with the client government in the driver's seat.

The Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF)

The CDF, recently proposed by World Bank President Wolfensohn, and currently being piloted in a number of countries, reflects the World Bank's understanding of the two-way relationship between development and human rights. The CDF promotes a strong public sector that acts in a transparent manner and is free of corruption. It also stresses a governance system that allows for inclusive participatory decision-making as an essential prerequisite for achieving social and human development goals, which are derived from a nation's human rights architecture (see http://www.worldbank.org/cdf/).

...questions have emerged regarding the Bank's long-term commitment to addressing malnutrition... and the effectiveness... in achieving sustained improvement....These...relate to broader questions ...about the international effort to combat malnutrition.... Where are the leverage points that will make the big difference?

Given its emphasis on participatory development planning, long-term visioning, local ownership, and partnership with other donor agencies, the implementation of the CDF brings the Bank right into the arena of the rights discourse. It means that the Bank, in its interaction with client countries and other development partners, is bound to participate in discussions of human rights. Of course it recognizes the essentially political nature of decision making with regard to development priorities and approaches. But the Bank's specific role and contribution will continue to be to bring to the debate a measure of economic rigor required to systematically weigh alternative means towards fulfilling the state's obligations regarding economic and social rights. Thus, there is simply no reason why the Bank can not be an active participant in country level development planning and action driven by a rights-based approach. This will come to be increasingly reflected in the Bank's Country Assistance Strategy papers.

In summary, an internationally created human rights framework should be interpreted and applied by all country level stakeholders. Afterwards, the major principles underlying human rights (for example, those of non-discrimination, or of participation, or of the best interest of children) must exert an abiding influence on the design of the operational details of projects. It is in this sense that the Bank would help countries to meet the "moral minima" - not so much by being proactive in its rhetoric about rights, but by being pragmatically and programmatically responsive. The Bank's emphasis will thus remain on the effective implementation of sound development strategies to achieve concrete improvements in the lives of poor people.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the World Bank recognizes that the human rights approach to nutrition is an important new narrative of the international development discourse. The Bank is only beginning to explore the implications of the human rights framework for its work. Support for governance reform and for equitable economic growth are but two aspects of the Bank's comprehensive approach which will strengthen the human rights culture. The Bank will continue to engage in the debate on the right to nutrition, to the extent that we can help to turn the rhetoric into reality. Our intention is to remain focused on action to combat malnutrition. We want to work with countries and partner agencies to significantly increase the global resources allocated to nutrition. And we want you, our partners, to hold us accountable for a measurable improvement in nutrition where it matters - in the households and communities of those persons living in poverty worldwide.

References

World Bank (1966) Articles of agreement of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development: as amended effective December 17, 1965. The World Bank Group (Eds.) Washington, D.C.

World Bank (1994) Enriching Lives: Overcoming Vitamin and Mineral Malnutrition in Developing Countries The World Bank Group (Eds.) Washington, DC.

World Bank (1997) HNP Sector Strategy Paper The Human Development Network The World Bank Group (Eds.), Washington, DC.

World Bank (1999) World Bank Kiosk archives.

SUMMARY OF STATEMENT

HARTWIG DE HAEN

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEPARTMENT
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION

The rights related to food are of special concern and have great importance in FAO, whose basic purpose is, as is stated in our Constitution, to ensure humanity's freedom from hunger. The World Food Summit Plan of Action (WFS) has provided us with a blueprint for creating conditions in which everyone's right to food is fully realized. The right to food implies that people should be able to provide for their own food and nutrition needs in full dignity and in a sustainable manner. In the short term, however, 841 million food insecure people living in the developing world can only enjoy the right to food through direct food assistance at local, national and international levels. Therefore, work must be done at all of these levels if the goals of the WFS are to be achieved. FAO, as a technical agency with the right to food at the heart of its mandate, stresses its role in assisting States to reach their objectives in a practical way. There are several specific activities of FAO which aim to do this and are of special relevance to the right to food.

FAO Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS)

The Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS), initiated in 1994, was created to assist developing countries to improve their national food security through rapid increases in productivity and food production; reducing year-to-year variability in production; and through improving people's access to adequate nutritious food on an economically and environmentally sustainable basis. The SPFS was founded on the concepts of national ownership, a participatory approach, environmental awareness and sensitivity, and regard for the role of women, all of which are principles consistent with a rights approach. The SPFS is operational in nearly 40 countries, covering practically all regions. In over 30 low income food-deficit countries, the SPFS is currently in various stages of formulation.

Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information Mapping Systems (FIVIMS)

Accurate and timely information on the incidence, nature and causes of chronic food insecurity and vulnerability is crucial for national policy makers in their efforts to formulated and implement policies and programmes to reach WFS goals. Information about food insecure and vulnerable people is lacking in many countries. An important objective of the FIVIMS initiative is to remedy this gap. FIVIMS was introduced by the WFS Plan of Action. The indicators will be of direct use for those involved in targeting policies and support measures for food-insecure people, and for those involved in monitoring success in reducing the number of hungry and malnourished at both national and international levels. For this purpose, FIVIMS can also generate quantitative as well as qualitative indicators of performance in respecting, protecting and fulfilling the right to food. It can thus serve as an information bridge between different bodies, such as FAO's Committee on World Food Security and the UN CESCR. Information at national and global levels about who is food insecure and why, should be seen as a tool for action, rather than an end in itself. This action needs to be taken primarily at national and local levels, but international organizations should be ready to lend their assistance in a coordinated way.

Policy Advice

FAO has the opportunity to integrate the right to food in its policy advice to States, advocate for the right to food, and provide information thereon, in accordance with its Constitution and the Charter of the United Nations. This will include the difficult, but most important task of drawing the attention of governments to the need for primacy to agriculture and rural development in development and investment policies as a precondition for sustainable progress in reducing hunger and malnutrition.

Emergency Situations

Normative work on emergency situations, from preparedness to rehabilitation, is an important area. This year marks the 50^th Anniversary of the Geneva Conventions. The right to food in emergency situations, including in armed conflict, needs to be brought into the limelight in connection with the commemoration of this anniversary. Conflict brings with it many serious violations of the right to food, for instance food blockades and the deliberate starvation of civilians. These should be addressed by reporting and advocacy. Humanitarian access should be seen in the context of the victims' right to food and other basic necessities, and insisted upon as a legal obligation of States, in cases where States are unable or unwilling to provide such assistance itself. A rights approach to food aid in emergencies inherently devises the delivery in full respect for human dignity, taking cultural aspects into account; avoids creation of dependency; and works towards return to self-reliance. With the cooperation of other UN bodies, in particular WFP, UNHCR and UNICEF, as well as with the International Committee of the Red Cross, FAO could examine these questions from a normative point of view and produce practical tools for those involved in emergencies.

Accurate and timely information on the... causes of chronic food insecurity... is crucial for national policymakers...

Legislation

In FAO's blue book, The Right to Food in Theory and Practice (see SCN News No. 17), a map shows which countries have incorporated the right to food in their constitutions. None of these 20+ countries, however, have enacted specific legislation to give effect to the constitutional provisions. As the main responsibility for implementing the right to food lies with States, FAO believes that a practical measure for so doing could include the adoption of framework legislation. This should contain certain principles regarding the right to food, and set the framework for a review of the relevant sectoral legislation. The legislation should clarify the rights, and clarify the corresponding obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right. This process should be guided by the express principles of accountability, predictability, transparency, non-discrimination, participation and empowerment and set up the institutional framework of action in the context of each country. Such national legislation should also contain specific targets which can be monitored, and timeframes that the State sets for itself in line with global targets set by not only the WFS [Plan of Action], but by other international conferences of this decade. International organizations should indeed lend their support to more such initiatives. FAO is in the preliminary stages of helping to organize workshops on the right to food in the national context, bringing together the relevant government actors and civil society. This would be done in cooperation with other agencies and bilateral donors. There have already been discussions held at the working levels between WFP, IFAD and FAO on how they might collaborate better on issues related to the right to food, both for long term goals and for more short term interventions, especially for the establishment of food safety nets to help states ensure, as a minimum, freedom from hunger.

Conclusion

FAO attaches great importance to the right to food. FAO is ready to cooperate closely with sister agencies and other partners in efforts to clarify what is really meant by development strategies that are based on the right to food and that can ensure that this right will be realized for all human beings with the shortest delay possible.

THE PRACTICAL CHALLENGES OF OVERCOMING HUNGER

A NAMANGA NGONGI
DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME

Twelve WFP staff members lost their lives in 1998... 45 over the last few years while providing humanitarian assistance.

Mass hunger in a world of plenty is an indefensible paradox. There is enough food in the world today to feed every man, woman and child to ensure healthy and productive lives. And yet, according to FAO, some 841 million people continue to suffer from food insecurity. Some 50 million other people suffer from acute hunger as a consequence of natural disasters or - increasingly - from war, civil unrest and economic crises.

The SCN has made valuable contributions in furthering the understanding of nutrition and malnutrition. It has been at the forefront in developing international agreement on nutrition standards. It has helped to develop nutrition indicators for use in humanitarian interventions. It has consistently emphasized that good nutrition means that micronutrient needs are met along with energy needs. The SCN has provided much useful support to the humanitarian agencies and the WFP has benefited greatly from this support. As the food aid agency of the United Nations, WFP grapples with the practical dimensions of hunger and malnutrition every day. This meeting is considering important issues, but ones that are all too often discussed in abstract terms. I wish to bring to this meeting the perspective of a practical agency, and discuss some of the problems and challenges that WFP faces in providing food to hungry people in both humanitarian and development situations, people who are not in a position to exercise their right to food.

Challenges Faced in Humanitarian Situations

A major challenge facing WFP in many conflict situations is that hunger is a weapon of war. Civilians are subjected to starvation as part of armed conflict. War-affected populations are denied access to food along with other types of humanitarian assistance. At the same time, the value of relief goods often attracts looting or attacks on relief convoys, warehouses and even on the beneficiaries themselves, after the relief aid has been distributed. Food supplies are an attractive resource and can become part of the war economy. Providing for the food needs of people in conflict situations continues to be at the heart of our emergency operations, whether in Angola, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Kosovo, southern Sudan or the many other countries where armed conflict is part of WFP's working environment. In many conflict situations, humanitarian personnel have themselves become targets. Twelve WFP staff members lost their lives in 1998.

What should humanitarian agencies, such as WFP, do in situations where they cannot always guarantee that their aid will get to those who need it most? What should the international community do when governments deliberately deny people access to food? WFP staff face this dilemma every day. Should we withdraw or limit our assistance and thus try to pressure those in authority into providing the access that is required? Or should we remain, working in almost impossible conditions, often at great risk, unable to achieve all that we should, but at least helping to ease the suffering for some?

In some situations, such as providing assistance to the victims of civil strife in southern Sudan, we have taken the decision that the need for assistance is so pressing that we must remain. While we recognize that humanitarian aid is not an adequate replacement for diplomacy, we believe that our foremost responsibility is to save lives. We also recognize that it is unrealistic to expect a perfect system for access and distribution in Sudan.

In other situations, we have taken the decision to withdraw. In May last year, we withdrew assistance from 39 counties in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea because of constraints on the monitoring of WFP food. We took this action very reluctantly, and only because we had to provide assurance to the international community that the food aid provided through WFP was reaching the intended beneficiaries. Such assurance is impossible without monitoring. It meant that about three quarters of a million people, mostly women and children, would not receive urgently needed food from the international community.

To stay, or to go. We need to develop some internationally accepted criteria to guide us in making these sorts of decisions. The question is primarily a moral one, but it also has legal and political implications.

Challenges to Development Assistance

It is not only in humanitarian situations that we face these sorts of dilemmas. In many of the countries where WFP provides development assistance, governments could do much more to help their own people. Providing international assistance involves a risk that local and national governments will count on that assistance to replace, rather than support, their own efforts. The dilemma WFP and other international agencies face is: how to avoid a situation where the provision of assistance from the international community may discourage or substitute efforts by national and local authorities to help their own people. Some key challenges regarding this dilemma include:

· What are the right criteria to help guide humanitarian agencies in deciding when to get involved, when to stay involved, and when to withdraw in the emergency context (especially when governments deliberately deny access to civilians)? Do we stay, knowing that our food aid relieves the government of some of its obligations? (By staying we hope we will be in a better position to influence government decisions.) Or do we take the high moral stance and withdraw, knowing that this, at least in the short term, will mean that those living in poverty will continue to suffer?

· What is the threshold at which the extent of hunger in a country becomes so unacceptable that international support is needed?

· What practical steps should the international community expect governments to take to use available resources to reduce hunger? Additionally, what measures can be taken by us to encourage governments to do more to help their own people?

The Challenge of Hunger and Poverty

The vast majority of hungry people do not lack food because they are affected by war. Nor are -they explicitly discriminated against by their governments. FAO reported last year that progress on meeting the World Food Summit's main target of halving the number of hungry by the year 2015, has been worryingly insufficient. This "lack of progress" report underscores the need for concrete actions to address the problem of hunger. Hundreds of millions of people suffer from the "silent emergency" of chronic hunger - they are simply by-passed in the development process. For these people, hunger often prevents them from participating in development.

To stay or to go?

Food is essential for health, growth and productivity. Nothing can replace it. And the prospect of food security in a few years cannot compensate for inadequate nutrition today. Food aid is a form of assistance that meets one of the most basic needs of low income families - families who typically must devote 65 to 70 percent of their income to food. Adequate food is a prerequisite to development. Hunger traps poor persons in a vicious inter-generational cycle of low-productivity - low earnings - low consumption - low productivity. Hunger is a constraint to development not only today but well into the future. The lack of access to adequate food and nutrition perpetrates poverty. Without food little happens: poor learning, little energy to work, little interest in civil development. Malnutrition in a youngster's life can permanently impair both physical and intellectual growth. Hungry children will not be able to concentrate on their studies. The hungry child of today may have an increased risk as an adult of heart disease and diabetes, as was highlighted by several experts at the SCN 22^nd Symposium on "Nutrition in the Epidemiology and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, and Obesity in Developing Countries" in June 1995.

For people living on the edge, it does not take much to accentuate hunger. Trouble is far more likely to appear in the guise of a bad crop or loss of off-farm employment than a dramatic emergency resulting in famine conditions. Fluctuations in crop yields or shifts in market prices, wage rates or employment opportunities can push people who live on the margin over the edge into hunger. The setback may be relatively modest, but it may be more than these people can manage without jeopardizing their long-term prospects. If setback follows setback, their capacity to cope is gradually eroded and their vision of a right to food fades. The tradeoffs people from low socio-economic groups are forced to make to meet their daily food needs have negative consequences, both in the short and long term. Consider, for example, the long-term effects of the most common way of coping - that is to reduce or modify the amount of food eaten. The number of meals eaten by the family is reduced, or meals are smaller, or there is a shift to cheaper, less nutritious food. The result is chronic and seasonal malnutrition. While the household maintains itself above starvation level, the capacity of adult family members to work and earn is compromised; the capacity of children to learn is diminished; and the sound mental and physical development of infants is impaired. Another coping strategy is to reduce expenditure on health and education. When household income cannot cover all the necessities, children's education, particularly that of girls, receives less priority. When the supply of food is short, children are frequently taken out of school both in order to help with the time-consuming tasks involved in fulfilling food needs, and to avoid paying school fees and other costs. Children's school attendance very often becomes seasonal and their drop-out period corresponds to periods of lack of food. With little or no education, most of these children will be trapped in a cycle of poverty, unable to do much more than provide unskilled labour. For those persons living at the lowest levels of poverty, there is a clear link between hunger -inadequate food consumption - and investment. They are often just barely fending off destitution, with little or no capacity to invest in a better future. Until they have help with the problem of inadequate food consumption, hunger will continue to block their prospects for investment and thus development.

The WFP approach is to use food aid as a pre-investment to enable marginalized people to take up development opportunities. The food aid gives them temporary food security so that they can get started in the process of helping themselves. It is short term assistance that leads to long term progress. Food aid is not the only form of assistance that could be used in this way. But the reality is, that all too often many other forms of assistance ignore the day-to-day plight of those who are hungry.

We need a better balance between the level of increasingly scarce development resources invested in building long-term infrastructures - highways, power stations, factories - and the level of resources used to meet the pressing survival needs of the more than one billion people who live on less than one dollar a day. We look to people such as yourselves to help us develop criteria to guide us in making these sorts of decisions.

FOOD AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF
INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION

SOREN JESSEN-PETERSEN
ASSISTANT HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES
(delivered by Amelia Bonifacio, Director, Division of Operational Support, UNHCR)

Lack of food is a scourge for millions of people around the world. Refugees and other groups who have been violently uprooted by conflict, persecution and human rights abuses are particularly at risk. Many are forced to flee their homes with no more than the clothes they wear. In the countries of asylum the chances of becoming self-sufficient again -mainly through access to employment - are very remote. This means that refugees are largely dependent for their survival on the willingness and ability of the host State and the international aid community to feed them - which cannot always be guaranteed. Needless to say, women, children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable.

The provision of food aid - and where possible the achievement of self-reliance - must therefore be a key element of any refugee assistance programme. Food is not only a physical life-line for refugees - but it also plays a critical psychological role. The refugees' sense of dignity is often shattered by the very circumstances of their flight. Moreover, life in their new homes is frequently fraught with uncertainty. Having regular access to food - as well as health, water, sanitation and care - can both help restore their sense of integrity and provide them with a feeling of stability. Needless to say, this is critical for people whose lives have been severely disrupted by displacement.

Food is not only a physical life-line for refugees...it also plays a critical psychological role.

Food is an Integral Part of International Protection

Access to food is perhaps the most fundamental human right. If one does not have enough to eat, one cannot enjoy all the other human rights. The right to adequate food must, therefore, be a guiding principle for all humanitarian regime.

The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees provides for host States to offer international protection to refugees who have fled their countries (and who by definition no longer benefit from national protection) until the conditions allow them to go back home. UNHCR support States in fulfilling their responsibilities in this respect. The international protection regime aims primarily at affording safety to refugees - by providing for them to enjoy asylum and not be forced to return to their country of origin as long as they may face persecution and other serious human rights violations. But, to be meaningful, protection must also aim to ensure that refugees benefit from other fundamental human rights - and not the least the right to adequate food. Physical safety with no food is no safety at all.

In keeping with the spirit and challenge of the Secretary-General's call to the whole UN system to integrate human rights into all policy and programming, UNHCR's own activities are guided by basic human rights principles. For example, our assistance programs provide a range of humanitarian assistance to refugees and others of concern including the provision of food and nutrition.

A Rights-based Approach to Food and Nutrition in the Refugee Protection Context

HCR fully favours the adoption of a rights-based approach in the refugee protection and assistance context. Its added-value lies in the fact that a rights-based approach:

· ensures that humanitarian action is based on the rights of the beneficiaries and is not simply a gratuitous act of charity

· calls for treating the refugee as an "active claimant" and not merely a "passive recipient", thereby giving the refugee a voice and power with which to participate to seek to meet their own basic needs

· underlines the legal obligations of States to meet the basic needs of the most vulnerable individuals (including refugees), and ensures that the work of humanitarian agencies such as UNHCR provides support to States in fulfilling their responsibilities, rather than being a substitute for State action (or inaction)

· helps provide a principled, predictable and structured framework within which humanitarian work can be undertaken and this, in turn, will help to define both the objective and content of humanitarian aid more clearly - particularly in the development and implementation of policy and programmes

· places humanitarian action within a rights-based framework which serves to define more clearly the respective areas of expertise and the responsibilities of the many different humanitarian actors (e.g., UNHCR and WFP have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which covers co-operation in the provision of food aid to refugees, returnees and, in specific situation, internally-displaced persons.)

· provides a stronger incentive for donor support for humanitarian efforts as traditional donor States (and their constituencies) often have a well-developed awareness of human rights as a basis for government action and by moving the debate away from charity (where the usual arguments of compassion fatigue and prioritization are invoked) to the language of rights and duties, the imperative for donor support can be made more forcefully.

· There is a need for further consultations among the humanitarian actors concerned with how to best adopt a human rights approach to food and nutrition. Joint training and workshops would ensure a common approach.

· Common guidelines should be developed or improved to give a blueprint for future and coordinated action in this area.

· It is important to increase the awareness among donors in terms of the right to food and nutrition and its importance in the integrated circuit of assistance sectors.

· It is critical that the debate on the right to adequate food and nutrition does not take place in isolation from all the other fundamental rights - such as education, health, housing, as well as the rights of women and children - which must also be fully integrated in all policy planning and programmes.

· The development of economic and social rights must be gradual and evolutionary - nonetheless, it is one that is of central importance to UNHCR, and the SCN and others can count on our interest and support in this process.

If one does not have enough to eat, one cannot enjoy all the other human rights. The right to adequate food must...be a guiding principle...

MONITORING, SUPERVISION AND DIALOGUE IN THE HUMAN
RIGHTS SYSTEM, CHALLENGES
FOR THE UN DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES

VIRGINIA B DANDAN
CHAIRPERSON, COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

United Nations action in the promotion, protection and monitoring of human rights and fundamental freedoms is rooted in the International Bill of Human Rights (IBHR) which consists of three instruments - the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). These instruments define human rights standards which, have in turn, provided the basis for the elaboration of legal norms concerning women's rights, the rights of children, protection against racial discrimination, protection against torture and many others.

The two Covenants are international legal instruments and when a State ratifies a Covenant, it becomes a "State Party" and voluntarily takes upon itself legal obligations enshrined in that Covenant. In other words, in ratifying a human rights treaty, a State becomes accountable to the international community regarding its compliance with its treaty obligations.

The concept of State accountability can perhaps be better understood in the light of its obligation of submitting a periodic report regarding the measures it has taken to comply with the provisions of the Covenant concerned. Today we will focus on the ICESCR which is the only legally binding international treaty of the United Nations that deals exclusively with economic, social and cultural rights.

The Covenant expresses norms and values that should inform the life of each one of us - the right to protection from discrimination, the right to work, to just and favorable conditions of work, to social security, to an adequate standard of living and to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health; the right to education, to culture and to the enjoyment of the benefits of scientific progress. Towards this end, States Parties are obliged to submit periodic reports regarding their compliance of their obligations according to the Covenant. To date there are 137 States Parties to the Covenant.

I urge representatives from all UN development agencies to take their seats at Committee sessions, stay seated, and begin to participate in earnest in the monitoring and supervisory work of the CESCR.

The Work of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

In order to illustrate how the processes of monitoring and supervision operate within the United Nations treaty-body system, let us examine the work of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which was established in 1985 by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) primarily to monitor the implementation of the Covenant. The Committee which meets twice a year in Geneva has thus far held 19 sessions. The Committee is composed of 18 independent experts. They serve in their individual capacities, and although nominated by their governments, are not themselves government representatives. Committee members are elected for four- year terms by the ECOSOC and are eligible for reelection if nominated. The Committee draws on the expertise of its members in providing assistance to governments in fulfilling their obligations under the Covenant, through suggestions and recommendations towards ensuring the realization of economic, social and cultural rights (UN Fact Sheet No. 16 Rev. 1).

Periodic reports of States Parties are prepared according to the Committee's general guidelines for reporting which are intended to facilitate the preparation of reports and ensure that the issues of principal concern are dealt with in a methodical and informative manner (ECOSOC E/C.12/1991/1, 17 June 1991). When a State Party's report is received by the UN, it is translated by the Secretariat into the UN working languages, after which the report is reviewed by the Committee's five-member pre-sessional working group meeting six months prior to its consideration by the Committee at its succeeding session.

Representatives of the State Party formally present the report during a Committee session and engage in an extensive dialogue with Committee members who may comment and ask further questions in relation to the report and other information received by the Committee from other sources. At the end of the dialogue, the Committee concludes its consideration of the report by adopting a set of concluding observations regarding the compliance of State Party to the Covenant. The Committee bases its concluding observations on all the relevant materials available to it, including its dialogue with representatives of the reporting State Party. Concluding observations focus on several aspects - factors and difficulties which impede the implementation of the Covenant, positive factors, principal subjects of concern and suggestions and recommendations. Concluding observations, which comprise part of the annual Committee report to the Economic and Social Council, are sent to the reporting State Party's permanent mission during the last afternoon of the Committee session.

The Reporting Mechanism

The Committee attaches great value to the reporting process not only because it is in fulfillment of an obligation on the part of the State Party, but also because it fulfills other functions: the initial review, monitoring, policy formulation, public scrutiny, evaluation, acknowledging problems and information-exchange (P. Alston, 1991). General Comment 1 adopted by the Committee during its third session in 1989 sets out seven objectives of its reporting system. The following are excerpts from these seven objectives which elaborate on the functions of the reporting process (UN HRI/Gen/1/Rev. 3):

· A first objective which is of particular relevance to the initial report required to be submitted within two years of the Covenant's entry into force for the State Party concerned, is to ensure that a comprehensive review is undertaken with respect to national legislation, administrative rules and procedures and practices in an effort to ensure the fullest possible conformity with the Covenant.

· A second objective is to ensure that the State Party monitors the actual situation with respect to each of the rights on a regular basis and is thus aware of the extent to which the various rights are or are not being enjoyed by all individuals within its territory or under its jurisdiction.

· While monitoring is designed to give a detailed overview of the existing situation, the principal value of such an overview is to provide the basis for the elaboration of clearly stated and carefully targeted policies, including the establishment of priorities which reflect the provisions of the Covenant. Therefore a third objective of the reporting process is to enable the Government to demonstrate that such principled policy-making has in fact been undertaken.

· A fourth objective of the reporting process is to facilitate public scrutiny of government policies with respect to economic, social and cultural rights and to encourage the involvement of the various economic, social and cultural sectors of society in the formulation, implementation, and review of the relevant policies.

· A fifth objective is to provide a basis on which the State Party itself, as well as the Committee, can effectively evaluate the extent to which progress has been made towards the realization of the obligations contained in the Covenant.

· A sixth objective is to enable the State Party itself to develop a better understanding of the problems and shortcomings encountered in efforts to realize progressively the full range of economic, social and cultural rights.

· A seventh objective is to enable the Committee, and the States Parties as a whole, to facilitate the exchange of information among States and to develop a better understanding of the common problems faced by States and a fuller appreciation of the type of measure which might be taken to promote effective realization of each of the rights contained in the Covenant.

Five to six reports are considered by the Committee during each session and these reports are scheduled way in advance of their actual consideration. This provides some time for the Committee to receive from various sources, relevant information on the status of economic, social and cultural rights in States Parties whose reports are scheduled for consideration.

In this respect the non-governmental community plays a major role in the work of the Committee, a fact that the Committee has always recognized and acknowledged. The CESCR was the first treaty body to welcome statements from NGOs regarding the status of economic social and cultural rights in specific countries. At its first session in 1987, the Committee asked ECOSOC to consider its Resolution 1296 applicable to the Committee so that NGOs in consultative status would be able to submit written statements to it. The Committee has since set aside the first afternoon of each session for receiving oral information from NGOs. Photo and video documentation are also particularly effective sources of information, and are a welcome respite from the tons of documents that have to be read by Committee members.

NGOs consistently contribute to the work of the CESCR in many meaningful ways. The information they provide assists the Committee to draw concluding observations that address country-specific situations. The entire exercise of monitoring, reporting and dialogue would amount to little if the process ended after the Committee sent off its concluding observations to the government concerned. In this respect, NGOs have been invaluable in the effective follow-up of concluding observations on the national level. Although concluding observations may not carry legally binding status, they constitute the opinion of the only expert body with the capacity and the mandate to make such pronouncements. For a State Party to ignore the views of the Committee is tantamount to bad faith in the implementation of treaty obligations.

Country-specific information is received by the CESCR from a number of diverse sources and it is not uncommon that disparities can occur in these data. Thus, the Committee has to put itself into a position where it must draw its own conclusions. CESCR is most effective when it has a clear picture of economic, social and cultural rights situations in practice, in real terms and on the ground as it were. It can arrive at this only if it is able to elicit the answers it needs during its dialogue with representatives of State Parties. Clearly then, the Committee has to ask the right questions to get the information it wants.

UN Development Agencies as Partners

The United Nations development agencies are in a unique position to contribute to the process of monitoring, reporting and dialogue in the human rights system. These agencies have the financial capacity and expertise to gather valuable data based on indicators relevant to their mandates. They are the major sources of statistical data and in fact, in many cases, the only source of statistics particularly in developing countries which do not possess the financial means nor the expertise to collect their own data. Updated country-specific information is at the core of the effective operations of the UN development agencies and it is presumed that such information is accessible at any given time. Data emanating from UN agencies are always considered to be precise and accurate. This is the reason the Committee has been inviting UN devel