The Right to Food around the Globe

  North Macedonia

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

The Republic of North Macedonia has become a State party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 1994 by way of ratification. It has signed the Optional Protocol (OP-ICESCR) in 2013, but has not ratified it yet.

CONSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITIONS OF THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

National status of international obligations

Article 8: “The fundamental values of the constitutional order of the Republic of Macedonia are: 
- the basic freedoms and rights of the individual and citizen, recognized in international law and set down in the Constitution;[...] 
- respect for the generally accepted norms of international law.”

Article 118: "The international agreements ratified in accordance with the Constitution are part of the internal legal order and cannot be changed by law.”

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

Article 11: "The human right to physical and moral dignity is irrevocable."

Article 40: "Parents have the right and duty to provide for the nurturing and education of their children. Children are responsible for the care of their old and infirm parents."

INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) – 1948

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

Status: Ratification (1994)

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

Status: Ratification (1994)

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

Status: Ratification (1993)

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

Status: Ratification (2011)

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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