1. Adequate Food is a Human Right
"Rights-based approach"
is the current catch word among the United Nations agencies
and many NGOs. But what rights are they talking about
and what does it mean for those of us working to protect
and promote breastfeeding?
Prior to the shift to a "rights-based approach",
agencies and NGOs based their policies and actions on
the "needs" of the people for whom they worked.
The agencies, NGOs and also governments made promises
to fulfil these needs. Fulfilling needs is charity and
depends on the good will of the giver. Changing to a
"rights-based approach" means a total rethinking
of this relationship. In doing so governments and agencies
can no longer base their policies on people's needs
but upon their human rights. What were once promises
and charity become moral and legal obligations.
Most people working with IBFAN are familiar with the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (see BB
no. 24) and how it guarantees parents and children's
access to information and support in the use of basic
knowledge of the advantages of breastfeeding. The text
from the CRC can be placed in the broader concept of
the Right to Adequate Food. This right is guaranteed
in article 25 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and article 11 of the 1966 International Convenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Since breastfeeding
and breastmilk are far superior to any breastmilk substitute,
the term "adequate food" means breastfeeding.
One of the outcomes of the World Food Summit of 1996
was a call for the drafting of new international instrument
specifically for the implementation of the Right to
Adequate Food. Several NGOs active in the right to food
movement drafted such a code of conduct which has subsequently
been endorsed by approximately 800 NGOs. The objective
of this process is to advocate that the Human Rights
Commission and the FAO Committee on Food Security draw-up
an international instrument incorporating this code
of conduct.
The International Code of Conduct on the Human Right
to Adequate Food can become another advocacy tool for
IBFANers. Several articles specifically address our
campaign to protect breastfeeding. Under Section A:
State Obligations at the national Level, Article 6.1
reads "...The state must also protect the right
of women to breastfeed their babies for at least six
months of life". Article 6.2 goes on to read "The
obligation to protect includes the state's responsibility
to ensure that private entities or individuals, including
transnational corporations over which they exercise
jurisdiction, do not deprive individuals of their access
to adequate food". Section D deals with the Regulation
of Economic Enterprises and other Actors. Its Article
9.1 reads "States will take all necessary steps
to prevent individuals, corporations or other non-state
actors from obtaining pecuniary benefits or advantages
of any sort by interfering with the enjoyment of the
right to adequate food, even if that action has taken
place in another country. States are under the duty
to prohibit such acts and prosecute those responsible
for them. Economic enterprises, including transnational
corporations, must be subject to regulations both at
the national and international levels, ensuring that
their activities do not adversely affect access to food..."
Part 7 of the Code ensures reporting and monitoring
through the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR).
NGOs are currently working with FAO and the OHCHR to
incorporate the Code of Conduct into an international
instrument. Breastfeeding advocates can learn how they
can contribute to this effort by contacting FIAN-International,
P.O. Box 10 22 43, D-69012 Heidelberg, Germany. tel:
+49 622 183 0620, fax +49 622
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Adequate Food is a Human Right * Breastfeeding, why ? * Breastfeeding,
how ?
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