PHA-Exch> New "Right to Food and Nutrition Watch" FIAN

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Wilma Strothenke strothenke at fian.org

*International Press release *

*World Food Day 2008*

*New "Right to Food and Nutrition Watch" *



*to be launched in Rome, Vienna, Brussels, Utrecht and Amsterdam*



*Heidelberg/Stuttgart/Utrecht, October 15, 2008 *- On the occasion of World
Food Day 2008, the Zero Issue of the new *Right to Food and Nutrition
Watch*will be presented to the public in Rome, Vienna, Brussels,
Utrecht and
Amsterdam by representatives of the publishing alliance from Bread for the
World, ICCO and FIAN International.

The *Right to Food and Nutrition Watch* is the *first and
only*international periodical review that monitors state actors'
actions related
to the realization of the right to food. Published annually, the *Right to
Food and Nutrition Watch* will not only put pressure on policymakers at the
national and international level to take the human right to food into
account, but will also serve as a resource showing where best practices are
used as well as where violations of the right to food are committed.

The Zero Issue of the *Right to Food and Nutrition Watch* deals with the
topic "The World Food Crisis and the Human Right to Food" and gathers
articles and country monitoring reports from different experts and regions.
Other partners of the *Right to Food and Nutrition Watch* consortium are
Habitat International Coalition, Peoples' Health Movement, World Alliance on
Breastfeeding Action and OMCT (World Organisation Against Torture). Rights
and Democracy and Act International further supported the launch of this
pioneering publication.

Read the Right to Food and Nutrition
Watch<http://www.fian.org/resources/documents/others/right-to-food-and-nutrition-watch-zero-issue>

Read an abstract of the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch
here<http://www.fian.org/resources/documents/other-documents/right-to-food-and-nutrition-watch-absract>of
below in this mail

*For further information, please contact: Michael Windführ
M.Windfuhr at brot-fuer-die-welt.de,
  +49-(0)172-1425 980 or Martin Wolpold-Bosien wolpold at fian.org , +49-(0)177
339 1263 *

*Abstract: *

*Right to Food and Nutrition Watch*

The World Food Crisis and the Human Right to Food

Zero Issue: Published in October 2008

 Ever since the beginning of 2008, the World Food Crisis has attracted
global attention. Due to the fact that the international prices of all major
food commodities reached their highest levels in nearly 30 years within the
first three months of 2008, the World Food Crisis has mainly been
characterized as a crisis of soaring food prices. Several causes, such as
low levels of world stocks, crop failures in major producing countries,
growing demand for the production of agrofuels, increasing consumption in
China and India etc., are given as reasons to explain this development.
However, this understanding of the World Food Crisis only offers a partial
explanation and disregards the root causes.

 The World Food Crisis is a human rights crisis and the proposed solutions
to the crisis, such as the expansion of market-led globalization and the
promotion of intensive monoculture-based agriculture, have failed to
adequately address the problem and have led to an alarming number of
chronically hungry people around the globe. The real reasons for the crisis
are the national and international policies that fail to take into account
the human rights obligations of states and intergovernmental organizations.
The World Food Crisis is a clear demonstration of systematic violations of
the right to food, as enshrined in international human rights law.

Adequate monitoring of the right to food means going beyond merely
monitoring the efficiency and effectiveness of government action with regard
to food security. Truly comprehensive monitoring should be based on human
rights and should be directed at reviewing states' reactions to hunger and
malnutrition.

 There is currently no international publication that monitors the concept
of food as a human right and keeps track of patterns of right to food
violations while also monitoring their impact. The Right to Food and
Nutrition Watch is therefore the first publication of its kind as it
provides a systematic compilation of best practices for the realization of
the right to food and also documents where violations have been committed.

 The Zero Issue of the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch deals with the
topic "The World Food Crisis and the Human Right to Food" and gathers
articles and country monitoring reports from different experts and regions
(the Americas, Asia, Africa and India). The publication also discusses the
most recent global trends affecting the right to food, such as the increased
expansion of agrofuels, and sheds new light on practices that continue to
impede the realization of the right to food, such as mining and the
mismanagement of social cash transfers. UN experts on human rights and the
right to food also give their input on recent UN documents and sessions. The
Right to Food and Nutrition Watch is accompanied by a CD-ROM that includes
supporting documents and full reports of all content.

 *A look into the content of the 2008 Zero Issue: *

 1. The World Doesn't Need More of the Same Medicine (Joint Declaration of
Social Movements and Civil Society Organizations)

2. Small Farmers Feed the World. Industrial Agrofuels Fuel Hunger and
Poverty (Position Paper by Via Campesina)

3. The Right to Food and Voluntary Guidelines and the Launch of the African
Network for the Promotion of the Right to Food         (Result of a Regional
Workshop held in Benin, July 2008)

4. The Impact of Agrofuels from a Right to Food Perspective by Sofia
Monsalve

5. The Right to Food and the Future of the FAO by Michael Windführ

6. Prescribed Starvation Diet- Liberalization Violates the Right to Food of
Paddy Farmer by Armin Paasch

7. Infant Feeding and the Right to Food by Penny von Esterik

8. Statement of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de
Schutter, 8th Session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva, 6 June 2008

9. Address by Ms. Louise Arbour, Former UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, 7th Special Session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva, 22 May 2008

10. The Negative Impact of the Worsening of the World Food Crisis on the
Realization of the Right to Food for All (Resolution 7th Special Session of
the Human Rights Council)

11. Promotion and Protection of all Human Rights, Civil, Political,
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to Development
(Report of the Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean
Ziegler, 7th Session of the Human Rights Council, 10 January 2008)

12. Methods to Monitor States' Compliance with the Right to Adequate Food by
Martin Wolpold-Bosien

13. Ghana /Human Rights Violations in the Context of Large-Scale Mining
Operations (Universal Periodic Review: May 2008)

14. Uganda / Monitoring the Human Right to Food

15. Malawi / Working Toward Framework Legislation: The Right to Food by
Carole Samdup

16. Zambia / A Human Rights View of Social Cash Transfers for Achieving the
Millennium Development Goals

17. India- Parallel Report: The Right to Adequate Food

18. Philippines- Parallel Report: The Right to Food

19. Bolivia Civil Society Report on the Realization of the Human Right to
Food

20. Brazil- Fact-Finding Mission Report on the Impacts of the Agrofuel
Expansion on the Enjoyment of Social Rights of Rural Workers, Indigenous
Peoples and Peasants

21. Colombia- Report on the Right to Food: Situation, Context and Gaps

22. Haiti- The Human Right to Food by Carole Samdup

23. Regional Report- Agrofuels and the Human Right to Food in Latin America
Reality and Threats

 The Right to Food and Nutrition Watch will put pressure on policy makers at
the national and international level to take the human right to food into
account and place it as a priority in their agenda. It will act as a tool to
best inform policymakers' decisions regarding the right to food. Human
rights experts, civil society activists, social movements, media and
scholars have contributed to the Zero Issue of the Right to Food and
Nutrition Watch and all future issues will be an open and collaborative
process where anyone interested in promoting the realization of the right to
food will be invited to join.

 The *Right to Food and Nutrition Watch *was* *published by the publishing
alliance of Bread for the World, ICCO and FIAN. Other partners of the Right
to Food and Nutrition Watch Consortium are Habitat International Coalition,
Peoples' Health Movement, World Alliance on Breastfeeding Action and OMCT
(World Organization Against Torture). Rights and Democracy and Act
International further supported the launch of this pioneering publication.



FIAN is an international human rights organization that has been advocating
the realization of the right to food for more than 20 years. FIAN consists
of national sections and individual members in over 50 countries around the
world. www.fian.org

*www.fian.org
*www.face-it-act-now.org*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20081015/9172b0a2/attachment-0001.html>