de l'Unité sur le droit à l’alimentation, 09-09-2009

  [ANGLAIS] Mexico D.F. approves Law on Food Security and Nutrition for the Federal District

The new Law on Food Security and Nutrition, approved on the 17th of August by the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District, is a milestone for the protection of the right to food. It is one of the first laws in the world implementing the right to food at the sub-national level and thus bringing the right to food protection closer to the citizens. Another very important achievement of the Law is that the right to food is recognized both, as a fundamental human right and as the main objective of this Law.

This Act means a crucial step for the protection and realization of the right to food for all persons living in food poverty. According to the numbers of INEGI (National Institute of Statistics and Geography), almost half a million people in Mexico City are still food insecure. By approving this new Law, the Mexican capital has made a huge step forward in decentralizing at district level the protection of the right to food.

The Law explicitly guarantees the right to food as a universal human right and includes the human rights principles as well as the implementation steps needed for its full realization. Beside other components, the new Law establishes the Food Security and Nutrition System of the Federal District and reaffirms the role of the Social Development Council, which foresees the participation of society in the planning, design, decision making, programming, execution and evaluation of policies and actions, introduced to realize the right to food in a progressive and sustainable way. Furthermore, the Law creates an Integral Food Security Programme as planning instrument to define priorities, budget allocations, monitoring proceedings and mechanisms to promote the exigibility of the right to food.

In addition to the institutional dimension and the human rights principles included in the Law, it is worth mentioning that the Law establishes a system through which people’s access to policies, programs and actions undertaken by the Federal Government is facilitated. This is an essential element for the citizens to participate in decision making process and to hold the competent authorities responsible for their actions and omissions.

The elaboration process of the new Law and its final approval successfully demonstrate a combined effort made by the Mexicans and FAO, who promoted and accompanied stakeholders since 2008 through the Hunger-Free Latin America and Caribbean Initiative.

The text of the Food Security and Nutrition Law and the statement of the Delegate Carla Sánchezarmas García are available at:

- http://www.rlc.fao.org/frente/pdf/leysandf.pdf

- http://www.rlc.fao.org/frente/pdf/posiccsa.pdf