Guidelines of right to adequate food adopted by the FAO Committee on Food Security

The FAO Committee on World Food Security (CFS) held from 20-23 September adopted a set of Voluntary Guidelines to support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security.

These guidelines focus on the actual steps countries should take to ensure that their policies and legislation respect, protect and fulfil the right to food of everyone. The principles taken into account by the guidelines include equality and non-discrimination, participation and inclusion, accountability and the rule of law, and the principle that all human rights are universal, indivisible, inter-related and interdependent.

The need for the creation of a set of voluntary guidelines, developed by an Intergovernmental Working Group, was already outlined in the declaration adopted at the World Food Summit: five years later in June 2002 where Heads of State and Government reaffirmed "the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food." During the two years of negotiation, the working group had held three sessions and an open-ended working group meeting prior to the CFS approval (read December 2003 update). The guidelines will now be submitted to the FAO council in November 2004.

Documents relating to the right to adequate food can be obtained by visiting the website of the IGWG-RTFG.

To read the press release published by FAO, please click here.