UNITED
NATIONS
A
General Assembly
Distr.
GENERAL
A/HRC/10/5
11 February 2009
Original: ENGLISH
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Tenth 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,
Mr. Olivier De Schutter*
The role of development cooperation and food aid in realizing
the right to adequate food: moving from charity to obligation
Summary
This report examines the contribution of development cooperation and food aid to the
realization of the right to food. Development cooperation and food aid increasingly form a
continuum ranging from interventions aimed at providing long-term support for food security to
short-term answers to emergency situations. Both these policies have been under increased
scrutiny in recent years, and both are in need of reform. This report makes a number of
suggestions on how to reorient them by better integrating a perspective grounded in the human
right to adequate food at three levels: in the definition of the obligations of donor States; in the
identification of the tools on which these policies rely; and in the evaluation of such policies,
with a view to their continuous improvement. At its core, a human rights approach turns what
has been a bilateral relationship between donor and partner, into a triangular relationship, in
which the ultimate beneficiaries of these policies play an active role. Seeing the provision of
foreign aid as a means to fulfil the human right to adequate food has concrete implications,
which assume that donor and partner Governments are duty-bearers, and beneficiaries are
rights-holders.
* Late submission.
GE.09-10764 (E) 160209