from Right to Food, 30-05-2008

  FAO's new publication on "The right to food and the impact of liquid biofuels (agrofuels)"

FAO's Right to Food Unit is launching the advance copy of a study on

"The right to food and the impact of liquid biofuels (agrofuels)"

by Asbjørn Eide, senior fellow of the Norwegian Center for Human Rights at the University of Oslo.This study contributes to the present discussion on soaring food prices, climate change and biofuels, all issues that are at the center of the debate of the High Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy (Rome, 3 to 5 June 2008). The urgency of the situation and the need for immediate measures and action have recently been reaffirmed with the adoption of a resolution by the UN Human Rights Council which urges States to review "any policy or measure which could have a negative impact on the realisation of the right to food".

The study examines the impact of biofuel production on the enjoyment of the human right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger. It explores the extent to which biofuel production has undermined, or is likely in the future to undermine, access to food for vulnerable people, and whether there are any overriding ethical concerns that can justify biofuel production even if it harms access to food. It also examines if there are ways in which liquid biofuel production can be made compatible with full respect for the right to adequate food for all. The paper draws on the interpretation of the right to food made by the Right to Food Guidelines (Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realisation of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security), adopted by the FAO Council in 2004, and it concludes with a general discussion of their application to biofuel policies and projects.

Professor Eide is the author of numerous books and articles on peace, conflict issues and human rights, in particular in the area of economic, social and cultural rights. He was a member from 1981 to 2003 of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and from 1995 to 2004, the Chairman of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and from 1995 to 2004, the Chairman of the United Nations Working Group on the Rights of Minorities.

The study can be downloaded here free of charge
http://www.fao.org/righttofood/publi08/Right_to_Food_and_Biofuels.pdf

Please inform any colleague who may be interested.

Right to Food Unit