What is the right to food? That’s a good question. But you know what? Nothing about law is ever simple. So we’ll start off by telling you what the right to food isn’t.

The right to food isn’t the same as the right to be free from hunger. The right to freedom from hunger means that countries have a legal obligation to keep their people from starving to death. That’s not asking for much is it? Usually it is only during a major disaster that a country, often with international assistance, must act to protect their people’s right to be free from hunger.

But the right to food, like all human rights, isn’t just about protecting peoples’ lives, it’s about protecting people’s health and dignity. The right to food means that every person must have physical and economic access at all times to food that is adequate in quantity and quality to allow for a healthy and active life. Clear enough?

Making rights real

OK, so now you know what the right to food is (and what it isn’t). Every country in the world has recognized the right to food in some way other. So the really big question is: if every country has recognized the right to food, why are over 840 million people denied this right every day?

Well, there’s something else you need to know about the right to food and about human rights in general. Rights are only ideas on paper. They don’t become real until human rights laws are put in place and enforced. And unfortunately, most countries have no national right to food laws in place. Around 20 countries have included the right to food into their constitution.

What’s the hold up? Well, it is partly due to confusion about what exactly right to food laws involve. Some countries have been concerned that the right to food would force them to provide free food to anyone who was hungry. They feel this is something they couldn’t afford and that it would undermine peoples’ efforts to find their own solutions to their problems.

But the right to food isn’t about governments handing out free food. OK, so what is it about then?

Three little words

You really only need to know three words to understand a country’s legal obligation with respect to the right to food: ‘respect’, ‘protect’ and ‘fulfill’.

• A country is legally obliged to respect the right of each person to obtain food. This means that, just as the State shouldn’t hinder freedom of expression or freedom of worship, the State shouldn’t hinder a person’s honest efforts to obtain enough food to eat.
• A country is legally obliged to protect the right of each person to obtain food. This means the State should see to it that powerful business interests and social customs don’t make it impossible for people to get enough food. This might include laws that would ensure that companies pay their workers a wage they can live on, or that businesses charge fair prices for food and other necessities or that no one is denied opportunities to earn a livelihood because of discrimination based on gender, race or religion.
• A country is legally obliged to fulfill people’s right to food if they cannot obtain food for themselves. This means the State should ensure that social safety nets are in place to help society’s most vulnerable people, including orphans, the sick, the disabled and the very old.

These three words, ‘respect’, ‘protect’ and ‘fulfill’ sound simple, but as we said before, in law nothing is simple. It takes a complex web of interrelated laws and regulations involving many different aspects of human rights to guarantee that people’s right to food is not violated.

A set of guidelines

In 2002, FAO established an intergovernmental working group on the right to food. This group recently produced a set of guidelines to help countries gradually make the right to food a reality. The guidelines cover the full range of actions that countries should take to create conditions so that people can feed themselves in dignity and set up appropriate safety nets for those who are unable to do so.

But keep in mind, these guidelines are voluntary. FAO doesn’t tell its Members how to govern; it only gives them the tools to govern more wisely.

Want to find out more? Why don’t you check out this article prepared for the World Food Summit: five years later.

What is the right to food?