SCN News No 34 - UNSCN

54 SCN WORKING GROUPS
www.unsystem.org/scn
WORKING GROUP ON NUTRITION, ETHICS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Chair: Margret Vidar (FAO), Co-Chairs: Federica Donati (OHCHR), Marlis Lindecke (GTZ), Flavio Valente (FIAN), Rapporteur: Marc Cohen (IFPRI)
Topics discussed
Mainstreaming human rights in SCN
Updates from four Task Forces
Indigenous People
International Dimensions
Corporate Food Sector
Capacity Development
Rights-based nutrition programmes
ECHUI
Recommendations to SCN (extract)
1. Support the Joint Statement*
2. Forward the Joint Statement to the
UN Special Representative on
Business and Human Rights and
to the UN Special Rapporteur on
the Right to Food, and encourage
in-depth consideration in their
reports
3. Incorporate principles of Joint
Statement into the ToR of Private
Sector Engagement working group
4. Focus 6 th Report on the World
Nutrition Situation on measuring
the progressive realization of the
right to adequate food.
Planned activities
(extract from 2007- 2008 Work Plan)
1. Continue the four Task Forces’
work
2. New task force on technical
definition of the Fundamental Right
to be Free from Hunger, in
consultation with inter alia CESCR
(UN Committee on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights)
3. Consult with CESCR with a view to
the Committee’s adoption of a
General Comment
4. Assist on developing the 6 th Report
on the World Nutrition Situation
5. Assist on revising ECHUI along the
lines recommended
6. Develop Working Group webpage
and member list serve
For more details, please see report,
presentations and background documents
SCN NEWS # 34 back to contents
Highlights from discussions 25 and 27 February
In order to facilitate mainstreaming of human rights into the work of SCN
(see SCN Strategic Framework), sessions were held jointly with the Household
Food Security Working Group on avian influenza and indigenous peoples and
with the Nutrition of School-Aged Children Working Group on rights-based
school feeding.
In order to facilitate the interpretation and promotion of the Voluntary
Guidelines (VGs), four Task Forces (TFs) were established in 2006:
• TF on Indigenous People and the Right to Adequate Food works on
human rights aspects of indigenous people’s food systems and policy
implications (VGs 8, 10, 13).
• TF on the International Dimensions of the Right to Food organizes a
book project with the forthcoming ‘Global Obligations for the Right to Food’
arguing that as the global food system and human rights know no borders,
there are global dimensions of the right to food. The book suggests a global
strategy to address hunger to be presented at the 35 th SCN Session (VG
19, Part III).
• TF on the Human Rights Responsibilities of the Corporate Food Sector
focuses on marketing to children, awareness raising, social mobilization,
follow-up on the Joint Statement, and support national initiatives. It
arranged for a presentation at the SCN Session by Philip James on issues
associated with marketing to children (VGs 6, 10, Part III)
• TF on Capacity Development for Human Rights in Nutrition focuses on
the need for and approaches to cross-disciplinary capacity-building through
networking in and out of SCN, raising SCN profile in key human rights
bodies. It involves in a limited number of interrelated and “doable” activities
promoting strengthened human resources able to analyse, promote, and
monitor food and nutrition as human rights (VGs 10, 11, 14, 17, Part III)
Examples of rights-based nutrition programmes were given:
• Ellen Muehlhoff and Maarten Immink presented the FAO project
Enhancing the Effectiveness of School Feeding/Nutrition Programmes
through Rights-based Approaches.
• Albaneide Peixinho, National School Feeding Program Coordinator in
Brazil, reported how human rights are integrated into the Brazilian program.
• Minister of Health of Bolivia, Dr. Nila Heredia, gave a presentation on the
Desnutrición Cero which incorporates a rights-based approach to nutrition
The Working Group discussed its role in the SCN, particularly the question of
whether it might serve as a catalyst and a vehicle for keeping track of,
generating, transmitting, and diffusing ideas from SCN and its members,
particularly in the areas of capacity building, technical cooperation, and
advocacy.
The Working Group agreed that the ECHUI Global Framework should be
anchored in a system of rights and corresponding obligations established
by international law. This would help promote sustainability, empowering the
people themselves - especially marginalised and vulnerable, and hold the
duty-bearers accountable.
* SCN Working Groups on Nutrition, Ethics and Human Rights and on Nutrition
Throughout the Life Cycle. Human Right of Children and Adolescents to Adequate
Food and to be Free from Obesity and Related Diseases: The Responsibilities of
Food and Beverage Corporations and Related Media and Marketing Industries.
Joint Statement made at the 33 rd SCN Session, Geneva, 2006.