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International Agreements

International agreements are one of the primary sources of international law and are binding on the states that are parties to them. When analyzed in the context of the right to food, international agreements can be categorized into two main classes.

The first class comprises international human rights agreements that recognize the right to food. These include agreements concluded within the framework of the United Nations as well as those adopted on a regional level.

The second class consists of agreements that influence the normative content of the right to food—specifically the adequacy, availability, accessibility, and sustainability of food. These include, in particular, international environmental and trade agreements, as well as agreements under the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Determining the status of these agreements within Turkish law is essential for assessing the enforceability of the right to food and the obligations of the State. Article 90 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey recognizes duly ratified international agreements as having the force of law. Furthermore, it provides that in cases of conflict between duly ratified international agreements concerning fundamental rights and freedoms and domestic laws, the provisions of the international agreements shall prevail.

 

Below, we present international agreements classified into two main categories—those recognizing and those influencing the right to food—organized by subject matter or the institution under which they were adopted.

A. INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS AGREEMENTS RECOGNIZING THE RIGHT TO FOOD

1. United Nations International Human Rights Agreements

The foundation for the protection of the right to food through international agreements concluded under the United Nations lies in the United Nations Charter.

One of the primary aims of the United Nations is to promote and strengthen respect for human rights and to maintain international relations within a framework of fundamental principles in peace. Despite the existence of sufficient resources globally, the persistence of hunger as a pressing global issue highlights that a true environment of international peace and prosperity cannot be achieved in a world where the right to food is not fully realized.

For this reason, ensuring the effective realization of the right to food for everyone is essential to achieving the United Nations' core objective of establishing international peace and prosperity. The right to food is explicitly recognized in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, one of the general human rights treaties. Furthermore, it is safeguarded through special thematic and group-specific international agreements concluded under the United Nations framework.

2. Regional Human Rights Agreements

In regional agreements concluded among countries in the Americas, Africa, and Europe for the protection of human rights, the right to food is recognized in relation to other human rights such as the right to life, the right to health, the right to a minimum wage, and the right to social security, or through additional protocols appended to these agreements.

B. International Agreements Affecting the Right to Food

1. International Environmental Law Agreements

The food production process, which includes crop production, livestock farming, and fisheries, heavily relies on the use of natural resources and directly impacts natural ecosystems, ecosystem services, and cycles. Environmental law agreements that include provisions for the protection of natural ecosystems are, in this respect, closely related to the right to food.

a. International Agreements on Biodiversity

The relationship between biodiversity and the right to food is twofold.

The first aspect is nutrition. Biodiversity has been declining for nearly a century, and global diets have become more homogeneous, revolving around a limited number of crops. The reduction in biodiversity within food systems poses a threat to the right to food as it undermines agricultural systems' ability to adapt. As the World Health Organization (WHO) states regarding the links between the right to food and health: “Biodiversity at all levels (genetic, species, and ecosystem levels) is a fundamental pillar of food security and nutritional quality. Biodiversity is the primary source of diversity in staple foods, nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and medicines, and it underpins the ecosystem services that sustain life.”

The second aspect of the relationship between biodiversity and the right to food is food production. Biodiversity is both used in food production and affected by it. The impact on biodiversity in food production depends on the seed system adopted and, by extension, the agricultural production system—whether ecological or industrial.

Today, two seed systems can be considered: the farmer seed system and the commercial seed system. The farmer seed system preserves methods for freely sharing seeds and knowledge and ensures farmers’ participation in all aspects of breeding. Human rights-based approaches such as the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas recognize the rights of farmers.

In contrast, commercial seed systems are dedicated to propagating homogeneous varieties reliant on chemical inputs, often governed by ownership regimes and contract law. The primary aim of commercial seed systems is profit and maximizing food production. This system expanded and accelerated globally during the Green Revolution of the 1950s, contributing significantly to the decline in biodiversity.

When a plant and its genetic material are commodified, access becomes restricted for the majority of humanity and concentrated in the control of a few. Therefore, the more a seed system relies on ownership regimes and contract law, the greater the institutional mechanisms required to safeguard human rights.

From the perspective of these two systems, international legal agreements can be grouped accordingly. On one side, there are agreements that enable the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, such as the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Nagoya Protocol. On the other side, there are agreements that establish intellectual property regimes over biodiversity, such as the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV Convention).

b. International Agreements on Pesticides

In its General Comment No. 12 (1999) on the Right to Adequate Food, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights emphasized that the right to food should not be interpreted narrowly or restrictively. It defined the right to adequate food as encompassing not only quantity but also quality. The Committee stated that the right implies access to food free from harmful substances and obligates States to fulfill food safety requirements and protective measures to ensure food is safe and of adequate quality. Even the narrowest interpretation of this statement excludes food contaminated with pesticides from being considered adequate. The Committee also highlighted the sustainability aspect of the right to food, asserting that food must be accessible to both present and future generations. Pesticides adversely affect the right to food for future generations by causing biodiversity loss, water and soil contamination, and the degradation of arable land productivity.

Besides its human rights dimension, the issue has an environmental aspect. International environmental agreements have achieved limited success in transitioning from hazardous pesticides to safer alternatives. An example of a global agreement that successfully phased out the use of a hazardous pesticide is the gradual elimination and control of methyl bromide under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer. The Protocol facilitated the evaluation of ongoing uses of methyl bromide, identified viable alternatives, and established a schedule for transitioning to these alternatives.

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants also imposes global bans and restrictions on certain hazardous pesticides. However, while the Convention begins by prohibiting or restricting a set of largely outdated industrial chemicals and pesticides, its scope remains limited, leaving many highly hazardous pesticides outside its purview. Two other agreements address a broader group of hazardous pesticides, though only for specific international activities. The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade facilitates information exchange between States regarding the import and export of specific hazardous pesticides. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal governs the international trade of hazardous pesticides as waste.

A significant flaw in the international regime for hazardous pesticides is the lack of an effective framework for regulating various types of hazardous pesticides. A pesticide is subject to regulation only if it meets the narrow criteria of the Stockholm Convention or the Montreal Protocol, leaving the majority of hazardous pesticides outside these frameworks. Furthermore, States have delayed listing hazardous pesticides under the Stockholm Convention and have the option to accept or reject a global "ban" through accession and opt-out provisions. The Rotterdam Convention is also problematic, as its decision-making process allows a State to block the listing of hazardous pesticides like paraquat.

2. International Agreements Related to Fisheries

Global marine and freshwater fisheries are a vital source of high-quality nutritional protein and support the livelihoods of millions of people, thereby ensuring food security for many. However, the productivity of global fisheries as a food source is negatively impacted by unsustainable fishing practices, distorted subsidies, and climate change. Regulations concerning fisheries in international law primarily focus on the management of subsidies or the regulation of fish stocks.

3. World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements

The WTO Agreement on Agriculture is a fundamental element of international food policy and is part of the agreement establishing the WTO. The long-term objective of the multilateral trading system established by the Agreement is to “establish a fair and market-oriented agricultural trading system” through “substantial gradual reductions in agricultural support and protection”.

The Agreement on Agriculture is based on three pillars and essentially imposes three obligations on members. The first is for state parties to increase access to markets in their countries by banning quantity restrictions and gradually reducing all agricultural taxes. Second, members should reduce domestic subsidies. Third, members should reduce existing export subsidies. However, members cannot introduce new export subsidies that were not already in place during the 1986-1990 base period.

The main impacts of the current multilateral trade regime on the right to food are: (a) increased dependence on international trade, resulting in the loss of export revenues when the prices of export commodities fall, the entry of low-priced imported goods into domestic markets and the inability of producers to compete with these imports, and the emergence of a balance of payment problem for net food-importing countries when the prices of food products rise; (b) the collapse of the local farming sector through potential abuses of market power in increasingly concentrated global food supply chains; and (c) the potential impacts on the environment, human health and nutrition being ignored in international trade discussions despite their close relationship with the right to adequate food.

 

Other agreements concluded under the WTO framework, notably the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), both of which are contained within the WTO Agreement and contain interlinked provisions with the Agreement on Agriculture, also affect the right to adequate food as they affect food producers' access to productive resources.

4. International Labour Organization (ILO) Agreements

The ILO Treaties relate to the right to food in two ways. First, in order for everyone to have economic and physical access to food, they must have a minimum wage and social security to meet their basic needs. The ILO's treaties, especially on the determination of the minimum wage, are important for individuals to have economic access to food. The second aspect of the ILO Treaties in relation to the right to food is the rights of agricultural and fisheries workers. Agricultural production is a labor-intensive process. However, the rights of agricultural workers are not protected like the rights of other workers. Although agricultural workers are the most important actors in the realization of the right to food for all, they constitute the segment of society whose right to food is violated the most. The weakness of the rights demands of agricultural workers due to reasons such as living far away from cities, their low level of education and their lack of an organized structure causes their rights not to be protected like other workers' rights. The ILO provides protection for agricultural workers through agreements on minimum wage, social security, organization and health and safety rights.

5. Other Relevant International Agreements

Among these agreements, which encompass various disciplines and subjects, are international criminal law and international humanitarian law agreements, as well as the Food Assistance Convention and the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.

The Rome Statute, which enables individual accountability for violations where right-to-food infringements rise to the level of war crimes or crimes against humanity, is relevant in this context. Similarly, the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, which prohibit the use of starvation as a weapon against civilians during armed conflicts and set out rules for humanitarian assistance, are also closely related to the right to food.

In addition, the Food Assistance Convention, addressing food aid—often used as a political and economic weapon—and the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes are significant texts in the context of the right to food.

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