Soft Law
Soft law documents, such as declarations, general comments, guiding principles, and recommendations, are not binding sources of international law but hold significance as evidence of customary international law.
There are numerous soft law documents addressing the fight against hunger and the effective realization of the right to food. The documents listed below demonstrate that the international community has repeatedly affirmed that states bear certain obligations regarding the realization of the right to food. These documents not only provide a roadmap for ensuring the right to food but also guide the implementation of binding international texts.
1. UN Human Rights Interpretations
In the United Nations, human rights interpretations provided by two key supervisory bodies of the UN human rights system—the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights—serve to clarify the scope of the rights and the legal obligations arising from the treaties they oversee, in relation to the subject and purpose of these treaties.
Although general comments are not legally binding, they are authoritative interpretations that elucidate the content and scope of the rights recognized in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In this regard, General Comment No. 12, which directly defines the right to food, along with the comments listed below concerning the right to life, the right to water, and the right to the highest attainable standard of health, are significant soft law documents. These documents not only reflect current international law practices but also explicitly and authoritatively outline states' obligations concerning the right to food.
2. FAO World Food Summits and Declarations
The first World Food Summit organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations was held in 1974.
The Summit emphasized the right to freedom from hunger, resulting in the adoption of the Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition, which was approved by the UN General Assembly. Over time, the concept of the right to food emerged in the collective consciousness of the international community but remained largely confined to paper for many years.
The 1996 World Food Summit and the subsequent adoption of the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action marked a turning point in bringing the right to food to the forefront of the international agenda. At the Summit, attended by 185 states, the "right of everyone to access safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right to freedom from hunger," was reaffirmed. To clarify the true meaning of the right to food, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was requested to interpret it, leading to the preparation of General Comment No. 12, which defined the normative content of the right to food. The Summit also set a target to halve the number of undernourished people globally by 2015.
In 2002, FAO member states convened again to assess the progress made towards achieving the goals set at the 1996 World Food Summit. This meeting, known as the World Food Summit: Five Years Later, revealed that the target of halving hunger by 2015 was far from being achieved. According to FAO data, 815 million people were still living in hunger.
At the 2009 Summit, five principles were established to accelerate progress towards achieving the targets set in 1996 and to meet the 2015 goals.
3. FAO International Conferences on Nutrition and Declarations
The first conference was held in 1992.
The World Declaration on Nutrition, prepared as a result of the conference, referred to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the right to food, stating that States are committed to ensuring "sustained nutritional well-being for all people."
At the Second International Conference on Nutrition in 2014, the right to "safe and nutritious food for all, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger," as recognized in the Rome Declaration on World Food Security, was reaffirmed.
4. UN Development Goals
At the UN Millennium Summit, where the first development goals were established under the United Nations framework, one of the primary issues was the global fight against poverty and hunger.
Following the summit, states announced the goals to be achieved by 2015 through the UN Millennium Declaration. These goals were summarized in eight points, one of which was the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.
The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were formed at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 and were adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015. The SDGs aim to complement the Millennium Development Goals and address those that were not achieved. Among the seventeen goals set, one is to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030.
5. FAO Voluntary Guidelines and Principles
An important step in clarifying the content of the right to food and the obligations of states regarding this right was the adoption of the "Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security" in 2004 by an intergovernmental working group established under the FAO.
The driving force behind the preparation of these guidelines was the lack of progress by the international community in achieving the goals set in 1996 and reiterated in 2000. These guidelines, adopted unanimously by FAO member states, provide detailed explanations of states' obligations. FAO has described the guidelines as a landmark commitment in the field of human rights because they constitute a universally accepted document on the right to food and a practical tool to empower poor and hungry populations to claim their rights. However, the non-binding nature of these guidelines and the absence of any enforcement mechanism against states in cases of violations limit their role to being a guiding framework.
In addition to guiding the realization of the right to food, the FAO uses the "Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security" to address related issues. These include the use of agricultural land, forests, and fishery resources, pesticide use, ensuring the right to food during crises, and investments in agriculture and food systems. By preparing such guidelines, the FAO provides the international community with a roadmap for addressing these aspects of the right to food.
6. UN Declarations on the Rights of Rural Communities
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas recognizes farmers' rights as inalienable human rights.
The Declaration explicitly affirms the rights of rural people to maintain, control, protect, and develop their seeds and traditional knowledge, while also clarifying the obligations of states in greater detail. Article 15 of the Declaration addresses the right to food along with food sovereignty, and Article 19 focuses on seed rights.
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognizes in Article 31 the rights of indigenous peoples to own, use, develop, and control their natural resources. Accordingly, indigenous peoples have the right to conserve, protect, control, and develop genetic resources, seeds, animals, and plant life. States are obligated to take effective measures to ensure the recognition and protection of these rights in relation to indigenous peoples.
7. Principles on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
In 1986, a group of distinguished experts in international law convened to assess the nature and scope of the obligations of States Parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, resulting in the drafting of the Limburg Principles.
On the tenth anniversary of the Limburg Principles, a similar group of experts prepared the Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In subsequent years, despite the universality of human rights, many states continued to interpret their human rights obligations as applying only within their borders. In response, a group of experts formulated the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to define states' cross-border obligations. These principles represent an authoritative international expert opinion on the reorganization of human rights law concerning extraterritorial obligations.
These principles are significant for determining the scope of the right to food, as well as the obligations of states within the framework of economic, social, and cultural rights.
8. ILO Recommendations and Declarations
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has developed recommendations that provide detailed guidance on the implementation of provisions in the agreements concluded under its framework.
While the ILO has issued numerous recommendations, a selection has been compiled specifically related to the right to food, particularly in terms of access to food and the rights of agricultural workers.
9. Declarations Published by International Communities
International and local civil society organizations from various countries, along with expert academics and thought leaders, have come together to address issues negatively affecting the right to food.
Through the declarations they have prepared, they have brought these problems and proposed solutions to the attention of the international community.