UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Food – Report – Mandate – Gender
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: July 22, 2005
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SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON THE RIGHT TO
FOOD REPORT TO THE UN 2011
INTRODUCTION – 1.In this annual report submitted to the Human Rights
Council in accordance with Council resolution 13/4, the Special Rapporteur on
the Right to Food shows why agriculture should be fundamentally redirected
towards modes of production that are environmentally sustainable, and socially
just, and how this can be achieved…..
Page 19 – D. GENDER EMPOWERMENT
41. Specific, targeted schemes
should ensure that women are empowered and encouraged to participate in this
construction of knowledge. Culturally-sensitive participatory initiatives with
female project staff and all-female working groups, and an increase in
locally-recruited female agricultural extension staff and village motivators
facing fewer cultural and language barriers, should counterbalance the greater
access that men have to formal sources of agricultural knowledge. It is also a
source of concern to the Special Rapporteur that, while women face a number of
specific obstacles (poor access to capital and land, the double burden of work
in their productive and family roles, and low participation in decision
making), gender issues are incorporated into less than 10% of development
assistance in agriculture, and women farmers receive only 5% of agricultural
extension services worldwide. In principle, agroecology can benefit women most,
because it is they who encounter most difficulties in accessing external inputs
or subsidies. But their ability to benefit should not be treated as automatic;
it requires that affirmative action directed specifically towards women be
taken.
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Mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur
on the Right to Food
Overview of the mandate
At its fifty-sixth session, the Commission on Human Rights adopted
resolution 2000/10 of 17 April 2000, in which it decided,
in order to respond fully to the necessity for an integrated and coordinated
approach in the promotion and protection of the right to food, to appoint, for
a period of three years, a Special Rapporteur on the right to food. The
Commission on Human Rights was replaced by the Human Rights Council by the
General Assembly Resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006. The mandate of the Special
Rapporteur on the right to food was endorsed and extended by the Human Rights
Council by its resolution 6/2 of 27 September 2007.
The scope of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food as
endorsed by Human Rights Council resolution 6/2 consists of the following
elements:
(a) To promote the full realization of the right to food and the adoption of
measures at the national, regional and international levels for the realization
of the right of everyone to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone
to be free from hunger so as to be able fully to develop and maintain their
physical and mental capacities;
(b) To examine ways and means of overcoming existing and emerging obstacles
to the realization of the right to food;
(c) To continue mainstreaming a gender perspective and taking into account an
age dimension in the fulfilment of the mandate, considering that women and
children are disproportionately affected by hunger, food insecurity and poverty;
(d) To submit proposals that could help the realization of Millennium
Development Goal No. 1 to halve by the year 2015 the proportion of people who
suffer from hunger, as well as to realize the right to food, in particular,
taking into account the role of international assistance and cooperation in
reinforcing national actions to implement sustainable food security policies;
(e) To present recommendations on possible steps with a view to achieving
progressively the full realization of the right to food, including steps to
promote the conditions for everyone to be free from hunger and as soon as
possible enjoy fully the right to food, taking into account lessons learnt in
the implementation of national plans to combat hunger;
(f) To work in close cooperation with all States, intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, as well as with other relevant actors representing the broadest
possible range of interests and experiences, within their respective mandates,
to take fully into account the need to promote the effective realization of the
right to food for all, including in the ongoing negotiations in different
fields;
(g) To continue participating in and contributing to relevant international
conferences and events with the aim of promoting the realization of the right
to food.
Resolutions and Decisions of the Human Rights Council – See Website http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/food/overview.htm
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Personal Website of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food –
Mr. Olivier De Schutter – http://www.srfood.org/index.php/en/right-to-food
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Categories: Releases
