Right to food

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The term “Right to Adequate Food” is derived from the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(ICESCR).

The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food in 2002 defined the Right to Adequate Food as follows:

Right to adequate food is a human right, inherent in all people, “to have regular, permanent and unrestricted access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of people to which the consumer belongs, and which ensures a physical and mental, individual and collective fulfilling and dignified life free of fear.”

This definition entails all normative elements explained in detail in the General Comment 12 of the ICESCR, which states that:

“the right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, have the physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.”

The ICESCR recognizes the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, as well as the fundamental right to be free from hunger. The relationship between the two concepts is quite complex, which leads many people to simply speak about the “right to food”.

As an example of the difference, freedom from hunger could be measured by the number of people suffering from malnutrition and at the extreme, dying of starvation. The right to adequate food is a much higher standard and relates not simply to absence of malnutrition symptoms, but to the full range of qualities associated with food, including dignity, diversity and safety, in short all those elements needed to enable an active and healthy life throughout the life cycle. The right to be free from hunger is often described as the minimum core content of the right to food; according to General Comment 12, it is more pressing and immediate to ensure freedom from hunger.

The shorter term “right to food” rather than “right to adequate food” is acceptable for convenience, but should never distract from the need for nutritional adequacy of food as well as the interdependence with other human rights.