The key issues to fight for
- What will become central in this urgently needed debate to be followed by action is to understand that mainstreaming Human Rights in nutrition work means the right to demand a whole series of things. Among them:
–that economic and physical access to basic community-based nutrition services is equally guaranteed for girls, women, the elderly, minorities and the marginalized,
–that steps be taken to progressively achieve all Human Rights (the right to adequate nutrition being only the point of departure for nutrition professionals),
–that the private sector (national and transnational) also be made to comply with Human Rights dispositions,
–that expeditious and verifiable actions be undertaken towards realizing this right -starting now,
–that accountability, compliance and institutional responsibility be required from relevant duty bearers in all processes under implementation aimed at improving nutrition,
–that administrative decisions in nutrition programs are in compliance with Human Rights obligations,
–that governments’ resilience to embark in meaningful nutrition interventions be differentiated from their inability to comply,
–that -if unable to comply- the burden of proof be put on governments to convincingly show that there are reasons beyond their control to fulfill their right to adequate nutrition obligations,
–that national strategies on the right to adequate nutrition be adopted defining clear, verifiable benchmarks,
–that the implementation of national nutritional strategies or plans of action be transparent and decentralized, and include people’s active participation,
–that the same plans progressively also move towards eliminating poverty -the main determinant of malnutrition,
–that new legislation on the right to adequate nutrition be developed involving civil society representation in its preparation, enforcement and monitoring (!).
- If the above demands are met, the added value of the rights-based approach to nutrition will be such that:
–beneficiaries will become de-facto active claimants of their nutrition rights,
–the respective imperatives will be made more forcefully (making governments effectively liable),
–the process will underline the international and later national legal obligations of states,
–the right to adequate nutrition will become the principal framework used to make relevant program decisions,
—the process will move the debate from charity/compassion (where there already is fatigue) to the language of rights and duties (accountable to the international community) with its corresponding compliance indicators that can be monitored.
- It is in this light that the Human Rights approach enhances the scope and effectiveness of nutritional, social and economic corrective measures by directly referencing them to (close to) universally accepted obligations found in related UN Covenants.
- These obligations, let the reader be reminded, are in competition with obligations stemming from other rights, especially when resources are scarce. Nevertheless, one always has to keep in mind that the duty to fulfill the right to adequate nutrition does not depend on an economic justification and does not disappear because it can be shown that tackling some other problems is more cost-effective.
- To put things in a historical perspective, in the Basic Human Needs-based approach, beneficiaries had no active claim to their needs being met. The ‘value-added’ flowing from the Human Rights-based approach is the legitimization of such claims giving them a politico-legal thrust.
- Going back to the example of the child, in the Basic Needs approach, the malnourished child was seen as an object with needs (and needs do not necessarily imply duties or obligations, but promises). In the Rights-Based approach, the malnourished child is seen as a subject with legitimate entitlements and claims (and rights always imply and are associated with duties and obligations).
- This, in a nutshell, is WHY nutritional professionals have to step into the new age of the Right to Adequate Nutrition, picking up more of a hare’s rather than a snail’s pace.
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City