PHA-Exchange> Food for a hare's thought (2)

[claudio]

Human Rights Reader 47

STEPPING INTO THE NEW AGE OF THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE NUTRITION: SNAIL PACE
PROGRESS?
(part 2 of 2)

The key issues to fight for:

23. What will become central in this urgently needed debate to be followed
by action is to understand that mainstreaming Human Rights in nutrition work
means the right to demand a whole series of things. Among them:

--that economic and physical access to basic community-based nutrition
services is equally guaranteed for girls, women, the elderly, minorities and
the marginalized,

--that steps be taken to progressively achieve all Human Rights (the right
to adequate nutrition being only the point of departure for nutrition
professionals),

--that the private sector (national and transnational) also be made to
comply with Human Rights dispositions,

--that expeditious and verifiable actions be undertaken towards realizing
this right -starting now,


--that accountability, compliance and institutional responsibility be
required from  relevant duty bearers in all processes under implementation
aimed at improving nutrition,

--that administrative decisions in nutrition programs are in compliance with
Human Rights obligations,

--that governments' resilience to embark in meaningful nutrition
interventions be differentiated from their inability to comply,

--that -if unable to comply- the burden of proof be put on governments to
convincingly show that there are reasons beyond their control to fulfill
their right to adequate nutrition obligations,

--that national strategies on the right to adequate nutrition be adopted
defining clear, verifiable benchmarks,

--that the implementation of national nutritional strategies or plans of
action be transparent and decentralized, and include people's active
participation,

--that the same plans progressively also move towards eliminating
verty   -the main determinant of malnutrition,

--that new legislation on the right to adequate nutrition be developed
involving civil society representation in its preparation, enforcement and
monitoring (!).

24. If the above demands are met, the added value of the rights-based
approach to nutrition will be such that:

--beneficiaries will become de-facto active claimants of their nutrition
rights,

--the respective imperatives will be made more forcefully (making
governments effectively liable),

--the process will underline the international and later national legal
obligations of states,

--the right to adequate nutrition will become the principal framework used
to make relevant program decisions,

--the process will move the debate from charity/compassion (where there
already is fatigue) to the language of rights and duties (accountable to the
international community) with its corresponding compliance indicators that
can be monitored.

25. It is in this light that the Human Rights approach enhances the scope
and effectiveness of nutritional, social and economic corrective measures by
directly referencing them to (close to) universally accepted obligations
found in related UN Covenants.

26. These obligations, let the reader be reminded, are in competition with
obligations stemming from other rights, especially when resources are
scarce. Nevertheless, one always has to keep in mind that the duty to
fulfill the right to adequate nutrition does not depend on an economic
justification and does not disappear because it can be shown that tackling
some other problems is more cost-effective.

27. To put things in a historical perspective, in the Basic Human
Needs-based  approach, beneficiaries had no active claim to their needs
being met. The 'value-added' flowing from the Human Rights-based approach is
the legitimization of such claims giving them a politico-legal thrust.

28. Going back to the example of the child, in the Basic Needs approach, the
malnourished child was seen as an object with needs (and needs do not
necessarily imply duties or obligations, but promises). In the Rights-Based
approach, the malnourished child is seen as a subject with legitimate
entitlements and claims (and rights always imply and are associated with
duties and obligations).
29. This, in a nutshell, is WHY nutritional professionals have to step into
the new age of the Right to Adequate Nutrition, picking up more of a hare's
rather than a snail's pace.

Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
aviva at netnam.vn