A/HRC/13/33/Add.4 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on the right to food conducted a country visit to Guatemala from 3 to 5 September 2009, at the invitation of the Government. The visit aimed to assess the implementation of the recommendations issued by the Rapporteur’s predecessor during his visit to Guatemala in February 2005; to examine the current status of the realization of the right to food in Guatemala; and to formulate concrete recommendations on the basis of information received from competent Government authorities and representatives of civil society and the international community. 2. During his visit to Guatemala, the Special Rapporteur met with a wide range of dignitaries at the highest level of Government, including the President and Vice-President of the Republic. The Special Rapporteur also met the First Lady and representatives from various line ministries gathered within the Council of Social Cohesion, as well as the Minister and Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Health, the Sub-Secretary on National Food and Nutrition Security, the Secretary of Planning, the Secretary for Agrarian Affairs and officials from the Ministry of Economy. 3. In addition, the Special Rapporteur held meetings with the Human Rights Ombudsman (Procurador de los derechos humanos) and his staff; with magistrates of the Constitutional Court, including its President; and with members of the Congress, including its President. The Rapporteur also had exchanges with representatives of the Presidential Commission on Racial Discrimination against Indigenous Peoples (CODISRA) and the Office for the Defence of Indigenous Women (DEMI). In addition, the Special Rapporteur met with members of the international community in Guatemala, representatives of the Regional Programme for Food and Nutrition Security for Central America (PRESANCA) and with a wide range of civil society representatives. As part of the visit, he also addressed a public forum on the right to food in Guatemala co-hosted by the Government and the United Nations system in Guatemala. 4. The Special Rapporteur expresses his deep appreciation to the authorities for the quality of their cooperation, and for the frankness of the discussions he was able to have during his visit. The Special Rapporteur would also like to thank the Presidential Commission for Human Rights (COPREDEH) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala for the excellent organization of the visit. 5. The present report provides an account of the Special Rapporteur’s findings and recommendations emanating from the visit. Following an overview of relevant international standards used by the Special Rapporteur as a framework for analysis, the report describes the situation of hunger and malnutrition in Guatemala, followed by an assessment of a number of key issues from a right to food perspective. The report concludes with a set of recommendations geared towards further action for the full realization of the right to food in Guatemala. II. The right to food as a framework for analysis 6. The assessment conducted by the Special Rapporteur during the visit was grounded in the human right to adequate food as recognized in several international human rights instruments, including inter alia the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 4