The Right to Food around the Globe

  Kazakhstan

The Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan does not explicitly guarantee the right to adequate food. 

The Republic of Kazakhstan has become a State party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 2006 by way of ratification. It signed the Optional Protocol (OP-ICESCR) in 2010, but has not ratified it yet.

CONSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITIONS OF THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

National status of international obligations

Article 4.1:  "The provisions of the Constitution, the laws corresponding to it, other regulatory legal acts, international treaty and other commitments of the Republic as well as regulatory resolutions of Constitutional Council and the Supreme Court of the Republic shall be the functioning law in the Republic of Kazakhstan."

Article 4.2: "The Constitution shall have the highest juridical force and direct effect on the entire territory of the Republic."

Article 4.3: "International treaties ratified by the Republic shall have priority over its laws and be directly implemented except in cases when the application of an international treaty shall require the promulgation of a law.”

Other pertinent provisions for the realization of the right to adequate food

Article 28.1: "A citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan shall be guaranteed a minimum wage and pension, and guaranteed social security in old age, in case of disease, disability or loss of a breadwinner and other legal grounds.”

Article 29.1: "Citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan shall have the right to protection of health."

INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) – 1948

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) – 1966

Status: Ratification (2006)

Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) – 1979

Status: Accession (1998)

Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) – 1989

Status: Ratification (1994)

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) – 2006

Status: Ratification (2015)

Legislation and policies recognizing the right to adequate food

Guidance on how to progressively realise the human right to adequate food in contexts of national food security has been provided by the Right to Food Guidelines, adopted by the FAO Council and endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security.

Considering that the human right to adequate food can be implemented through a variety of legal and policy actions, we invite you to visit the FAOLEX Country Profile database for a wide-ranging collection of measures that have been taken at national level. Some of the documents you may find are legislation and policies that touch on a number of relevant Guidelines, such as those on Access to resources and assets (Guideline 8), Food safety and consumer protection (Guideline 9), Support for vulnerable groups (Guideline 13) and Natural and human-made disasters (Guideline 16).

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