The Right to Food around the Globe

  Serbia

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

The Republic of Serbia has become a State party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 2001 by way of succession.

CONSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITIONS OF THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

National status of international obligations

Article 16.2: “Generally accepted rules of international law and ratified international treaties shall be an integral part of the legal system in the Republic of Serbia and applied directly.”

Article 18: “Human and minority rights guaranteed by the Constitution shall be implemented directly.
The Constitution shall guarantee, and as such, directly implement human and minority rights guaranteed by the generally accepted rules of international law, ratified international treaties and laws. The law may prescribe manner of exercising these rights only if explicitly stipulated in the Constitution or necessary to exercise a specific right owing to its nature, whereby the law may not under any circumstances influence the substance of the relevant guaranteed right.
Provisions on human and minority rights shall be interpreted to the benefit of promoting values of a democratic society, pursuant to valid international standards in human and minority rights, as well as the practice of international institutions which supervise their implementation.”

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

Article 69: “Citizens and families that require welfare for the purpose of overcoming social and existential difficulties and creating conditions to provide subsistence, shall have the right to social protection the provision of which is based on social justice, humanity and respect of human dignity.”

INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) – 1948

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

Status: Succession (2001)

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

Status: Ratification (2001)

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

Status: Ratification (2001)

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

Status: Ratification (2009)

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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