The Right to Food around the Globe

  Paraguay

The Constitution of the Republic of Paraguay explicitly guarantees the right to adequate food.

The Republic of Paraguay has become a State party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 1992 by way of accession. It has signed the Optional Protocol (OP-ICESCR) in 2009, but has not ratified it yet.

CONSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITIONS OF THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

Explicit protection of the right to adequate food

Article 54: "Of the Protection of the Child - The family, the society, and the State have the obligation of guaranteeing the child his harmonious and complete [integral] development, as well as the full exercise of his rights, protecting him against abandonment, undernourishment, violence, abuse, trafficking, and exploitation. Any person may demand of the competent authority the fulfillment of such guarantees and the sanction for the offenders [infractores]. In case of conflict, the rights of a child have prevailing character.

National status of international obligations

Article 137: “The supreme law of the Republic is the Constitution. [The Constitution], the treaties, conventions and international agreements approved and ratified, the laws dictated by the Congress and other juridical provisions of inferior hierarchy, sanctioned in consequence, integrate the positive national law [derecho positivo] in the enounced order of preference [prelación]. Whoever attempts to change that order, outside [al margen de] the procedures specified in this Constitution, would incur in the crimes that will be classified and punished in the law. This Constitution will not lose its force or stop being observed because of acts of force nor may [it] be abrogated [derogada] by any other means different from the ones it provides [dispone]. All the provisions or acts of authority opposed to that established in this Constitution lack validity [validez]."

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

Article 57: "Of the Senior Citizens [Tercera Edad] - All senior persons have the right to a complete [integral] protection. The family, the society, and the public powers will promote their well-being through social services that see to [fulfilling] their needs for food, health, housing, culture, and leisure.

Article 92: "Of the Remuneration of the Work - The workers have right to enjoy a remuneration that assures, them and their families, of a free and dignifying life. The law will consecrate the minimum and mobile living wage [salario vital], the annual year-end bonus [aguinaldo], the family bonuses, the recognition of a superior salary to the basic for hours of [a] unsanitary or risky work, and the extraordinary, night and holiday hours. Basically, equal salary for equal work corresponds."

Article 176: "Of the Economic Policy and of the Promotion of Development - The economic policy will have as goals [fines], fundamentally, the promotion of the economic, social and cultural development. The State shall promote economic development through the rational use of the available resources, with the objective of stimulating [impulsar] an orderly and sustained growth of the economy, of creating new sources of jobs and of wealth, of increasing the national patrimony and of assuring the well-being of the population. Development will be promoted with global programs that coordinate and orient the national economic activity."

INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) – 1948

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

Status: Accession (1992)

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

Status: Accession (1987)

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

Status: Ratification (1990)

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

Status: Ratification (2008)

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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