from Right to Food, 28-03-2008

  Olivier De Schutter -- New U.N. Special Rapporteur on the right to food

During its 7th session on 25 March 2008, the Human Rights Council adopted ,without a vote, the list of candidates for special procedures mandate holders proposed by the President of the Council.

The list includes the name of the new Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier de Schutter. The current mandate holder, Jean Ziegler, will continue in his assignment until de Schutter assumes it in the following weeks.

The Right to Food Unit of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations congratulates Prof. de Shutter for his appointment and is convinced that the efforts and dedication deployed by Prof. Ziegler since his appointment as Special Rapporteur in 2000 will be continued.

Olivier De Schutter (LL.M., Harvard University ; Ph.D., UCL) is Professor of Human Rights at the Catholic University of Louvain and at the College of Europe (Natolin), and a Member of the Global Law School Faculty at New York University. He chairs the EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights, instituted in 2002 by the European Commission (DG Justice and Home Affairs), and is also a member of the European Group of Legal Experts on Discrimination. He is a Visiting Professor at the European University Institute (Florence), at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, at the Abo Akademi University and Institute for Human Rights at Turku (Finland), and at the University of Coimbra (Portugal). His main areas of interest are the relationship between governance issues and fundamental rights, globalization and human rights, and antidiscrimination law.

During its last session in September 2007, the Human Rights Council (HRC) decided upon the criteria for the nomination for special procedures mandate-holders (decision 6-102). These criteria, as well as the procedure that was formally adopted by the HRC at its June 2007 session (Resolution 5/1), guides the selection, appointment of mandate-holders.

During its sixth session on 27 September 2007, the Human Rights Council extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food for an additional period of three years.

Undoubtedly, the Special Rapporteur's mandate has been a crucial instrument to make the right to food more visible in the work of human rights bodies and international agencies, and has opened spaces for dialogue among people affected by hunger and malnutrition, states and international organizations.