programmes to meet the needs of the poorest. There is also a risk that the current distribution of these resources could contribute to increasing inequalities and conflicts between the regions. At present, the La Paz region receives only US$ 16 per capita compared to Pando which receives US$ 407 per head.[29] Allocating larger revenues to the producing regions may also generate conflict, as Tarija and Santa Cruz will receive larger revenues than any other region. Distribution of the hydrocarbon tax between regions is therefore a central and hotly debated issue which can only be resolved within the Constituent Assembly. Providing for transparency of expenditures and permitting participatory budgeting processes for expenditure decisions at the municipal and prefectura level will be essential. 24. These massive increases in government revenue will allow Bolivia, which has traditionally been dependent on international aid for its development, to finally take charge of its destiny and offer new hope to millions of poor and indigenous Bolivians that have remained excluded from Bolivia’s wealth for so long. II. LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE RIGHT TO FOOD IN BOLIVIA A. International obligations 25. Bolivia is party to the main international treaty that protects the right to food, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and is therefore committed to realizing the right to food of all its people. The Special Rapporteur notes that Bolivia has not reported recently on its realization of these rights to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and welcomes the Government’s commitment to report soon to the Committee, with the support of international technical assistance. Bolivia has also ratified all the other key international human rights treaties relevant to the right to food, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (art. 6), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 24 and 27), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (arts. 12 and 14) and the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“Protocol of San Salvador”) (art. 12). This means that the Government of Bolivia is fully committed under international law to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food of all children, women and men in its territory. 26. The right to food is the right to have physical and economic access to sufficient adequate food at all times.[30] It is closely linked to the idea of food security, as it is primarily about the right to be able to feed oneself through access to sufficient productive resources, including land, water and seeds, or employment. By becoming party to the international human rights treaties, the Government of Bolivia has the obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food without discrimination.[31] The obligation to respect means that the Government should not take actions that arbitrarily deprive people of their right to food. The obligation to protect means that the Government should adopt and enforce appropriate laws to prevent third parties, including powerful individuals and corporations, from violating the right to food of others. Finally, the obligation to fulfil (facilitate and provide) means that the Government should take positive steps to identify vulnerable groups and implement appropriate policies/programmes to ensure their access to adequate food and water by facilitating their ability to feed themselves. As a last resort, the Government is required to provide adequate food and water to those who cannot feed themselves for reasons beyond their own control. To fulfil the right to food, the Government must use the maximum of its available resources and in every circumstance it must ensure the minimum essential level required to be free from hunger. Participation, accountability, transparency, empowerment and access to effective remedies must be ensured at all levels of the implementation of policies and programmes. 27. Bolivia is also party to the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (1989) which specifically protects the rights of indigenous peoples. Under this Convention, the Government is required to respect the rights of indigenous peoples to land and territories (arts. 13 to 17), including their collective aspects. These articles also require that indigenous peoples are not displaced from their lands, and that their rights to natural resources on their lands are safeguarded, including their right to participate in the use, management and conservation of these resources, and their right to be consulted and to assess any exploitation of resources on the land they own or possess. In Bolivia, Convention No. 169 has been adopted as part of domestic legislation (law 1257, 1991), like other international instruments. At the end of 2007, Bolivia was the first country to recognize as part of its domestic law the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the General Assembly in resolution 61/295. B. Domestic constitutional and legislative framework 28. A Constituent Assembly was elected in July 2006, composed of 255 members, including 88 women, with the mandate to elaborate a new constitution. The new constitution was adopted by the Constitutional Assembly on 14 December 2007 and a referendum will be organized in 2008, allowing the people to accept or reject it. The drafting of this new constitution represented a unique opportunity for Bolivia to reaffirm the rights of those who have been historically excluded and oppressed. As the VicePresident Álvaro García Linera stated: “this is the best moment to recreate and reinvent a new legal community in which all Bolivians will feel included”.[32] It also represented a unique opportunity for the right to food to be recognized as a fundamental human right of all Bolivians. 29. The new constitution recognizes the right to food and the right to water as fundamental human rights of all Bolivians, with the correlative obligation of the State to guarantee food security, through safe, sufficient and adequate food for the whole population (art. 16). It also recognizes the direct applicability of all human rights, including the rights to health, housing, labour, basic services and social security, the specific rights of the most vulnerable, including children and the elderly, and the rights of the original indigenous and peasant people and nations, including their collective rights to land and territories. It also states that public expenses and national investments will be allocated, through participatory mechanisms, on a priority basis to social issues including food policies (art. 321);