Right To Food Mandate Renewed By UN Agency

The UN Human Rights Council yesterday extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food for three years. The resolution, A/HRC/13/L.17, adopted without a vote, requests that the special rapporteur “continue to monitor the evolution of the world food crisis and to maintain the council informed of the impact of the crisis on the enjoyment of the right to food,” according to an HRC release.

The council also requested that the Advisory Committee to continue to work on discrimination in the context of the right to food and to undertake a preliminary study on “ways and means to further advance the rights of people working in rural areas,” in particular smallholders such as producers or fishermen. The special rapporteur should submit a report on the implementation of this resolution at its sixteenth session.

On 5 March, Olivier De Schutter, the special rapporteur, presented his report on ‘Agribusiness and the right to food’ to the Human Rights Council. The report warned against the “imbalance of power between smallholders and agribusiness”, saying that smallholders were in a “deeply unequal bargaining position in respect of a fair price for their crops,” according to a release of the rapporteur.