United Nations
A/HRC/13/33/Add.6
Distr.: General
19 February 2009
General Assembly
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Thirteenth session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to
development
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De
Schutter*
Addendum
Mission to Brazil**
Summary
The Special Rapporteur on the right to food conducted an official mission to Brazil between 12 and 18 October 2009. The
Special Rapporteur was impressed by the degree of commitment and the range of efforts deployed by the Government of Brazil to
improve the situation of food security in the country.
This report examines the policies that have allowed Brazil to achieve remarkable progress in combating hunger, particularly
child malnutrition, since 2002. It also identifies a number of challenges lying ahead and includes recommendations on how to meet
those challenges.
Specific recommendations are made in relation to the need for: (a) the establishment of an independent national institution
for the promotion and protection of human rights; (b) the strengthening of the National Food and Nutritional Security System
(SISAN); (c) further capacity-building within the Federal Public Ministry; (d) the improvement of the rights of indigenous peoples;
(e) ex ante impact assessments on the right to food in large-scale infrastructural projects; (f) respect for freedom of expression and
freedom of assembly exercised through legitimate forms of social protest; (g) further consolidation of social policies of the “Zero
Hunger” strategy; (h) the maximum use of publicly available resources for the progressive realization of the right to food; (i)
distribution of land; (j) participatory assessment of the different forms of agriculture (large-scale and small-scale family farming) and
the support the Brazilian State provides to them; (k) participatory right to food impact assessment of trade policies; and (l)
compliance with social and environmental requirements in the sugar-cane plantations.
Annex
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De
Schutter, on his mission to Brazil (12 to 18 October 2009)
Contents
Chapter
Paragraphs
3
Page
I.
4
Introduction............................................................................................................................................... 1–
II.
Overview of hunger and malnutrition in Brazil................................................................................... 4–14
III.
The obligation to respect the right to food....................................................................................... 15–25
IV.
The obligation to protect the right to food....................................................................................... 26–31
8
10
4