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concluding Plan of Action, objective 7.4 called upon
the un High Commissioner for Human Rights, in consultation with rele-
vant treaty bodies, and in collaboration with relevant specialized agencies
and programmes of the un system and appropriate inter-governmental
mechanisms, to better define the rights related to food in Article 11 of the
Covenant and to propose ways to implement and realize these rights. (Food
and Agriculture Organization 1996)
Several di’erent initiatives were taken to respond to this call, including sup-
portive resolutions from the Commission on Human Rights; a Day of Discussion
on Right to Food held by the un Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural
Rights; and Expert Consultations on the human right to adequate food held in
Geneva, Rome, and Bonn. In April 1999, the United Nations System Standing
Committee on Nutrition (then known as the United Nations Administrative
Committee on Coordination / Sub-Committee on Nutrition) focused its annual
meeting on the human right to adequate food. In May 1999, the United Nations
Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights released its landmark Gen-
eral Comment 12 on the right to adequate food, which is described in the follow-
ing section.
All these e’orts were given further impetus at the Millennium Summit of the
United Nations in 2000. The eight Millennium Development Goals, supported
by all 189 nations at the summit, were led o’ by goal 1, to eradicate extreme
poverty and hunger. The final report of the Millennium Task Force on Hunger
(accessible at http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/reports/reports2.htm) ar-
gues that developed countries should contribute more generously to develop-
ment in poor countries. It does not argue that they have any legal obligation to
do so.
54 foundations
General Comment 12
The United Nations human rights treaty bodies elaborate the major treaties
through their responses to national reports and through the issuance of General
Comments or General Recommendations on particular themes. In 2003, the United
Nations prepared a compilation of all General Comments and General Recommen-
dations from all the treaty bodies up to that time in a single document running
over 300 pages (United Nations, International Human Rights Instruments
2003). The individual documents are available at the website of the O~ce of the
un High Commissioner for Human Rights (http://www.ohchr.org). The advo-
cacy organization Human Strategies for Human Rights also provides ready ac-
cess to the individual General Comments through its website (http://www.hshr
.org/generalcommentsintroduction.html).
The General Comments of particular interest here are those provided by the
Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Chapter 12 of the present
volume, for example, mentions General Comment 14, on the right to the highest
attainable standard of health (United Nations, Economic and Social Council
2000). Chapter 13 reviews General Comment 15, on the human right to water
(United Nations, Economic and Social Council 2002b). Of immediate interest
here is the fact that on May 12, 1999, the un s Committee on Economic, Social,
and Cultural Rights released General Comment 12 (Twentieth session, 1999):
The Right to Adequate Food (Art. 11) (United Nations, Economic and Social
Council 1999d). This statement constitutes a definitive contribution to inter-
national jurisprudence. Though it is only eight pages long, it warrants careful
review. A few highlights are mentioned here. Its paragraph 6 presents the core
definition:
The right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child,
alone or in community with others, has physical and economic access at all
times to adequate food or means for its procurement.
The paragraph goes on to emphasize that the right to adequate food must not
be interpreted in a narrow or restrictive sense which equates it with a minimum
package of calories, proteins and other specific nutrients. In other words, as
pointed out in the first section of this chapter, simply delivering prepackaged
meals in the way one might deliver feed pellets to livestock cannot fulfill the right.
That sort of approach would be incompatible with human dignity. Delivering
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