Dr Christophe Golay is Shortlisted for the Position of UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food

Portrait of Christophe Golay Portrait of Christophe Golay

17 February 2020

Our Senior Research Fellow and Strategic Adviser on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Dr Christophe Golay, is a candidate for the position of United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the right to food. Shortlisted along with two other candidates, he is, therefore, running to become the new UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food and succeed to Hilal Ever in March 2020.

As an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food is mandated to examine and report on the full realization of the right to food and on the adoption of measures thereof at the national, regional and international levels.

‘I am convinced that this position, created back in 2000, is key to ensure a human rights-based approach to fight hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition and achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2. As 80 percent of the world's hungry are peasants and other people working in rural areas, and 70 percent of them are women and girls, more emphasis should be put on the promotion and protection of their rights’ underlines Dr Golay.

Dr Golay brings to this position more than 20 years of expertise on the right to food via academic research, publications, teaching, support to the first UN Special Rapporteur, and advice to international organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization, regional human rights bodies, states and National Human Rights Institutions on the implementation of this right.

In the last two decades, he notably travelled to Brazil, Guatemala, Bolivia, Cuba, Niger, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, India, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Laos, Cambodia, Ghana, Kenya, Haiti, Nepal, Tunisia, and Congo-Brazzaville, to support the work of those fighting hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.

‘As a worldwide recognized expert on the right to food, Dr Golay would not only bring his huge expertise to the position, but also his commitment and knowledge of the broader multilateral agenda, of the linkages between human rights and the SDGs, and of related rights like the rights of peasants, issues of participation and gender equality’ explains Professor Marco Sassòli, Director of the Geneva Academy.

MORE ON THIS THEMATIC AREA

A session of the training course News

Implementing the UPR Recommendations in Syria: A Training Course for the UN Country Team

21 June 2022

Our Geneva Human Rights Platform organized – along with the Syria Offices of UNFPA, UNDP and OHCHR – a customized training course for UN staff in Syria.

Read more

Syria,  Aleppo, great Umayyad mosque. Destructions. Short Course

The Interplay between International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

Spring 2023

This short course, which can be followed in Geneva or online, focuses on the specific issues that arise in times of armed conflict regarding the respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights. It addresses key issues like the applicability of human rights in times of armed conflict; the possibilities of restricting human rights under systems of limitations and derogations; and the extraterritorial application of human rights law.

Read more

Plastic pollution Training

Protecting Human Rights and the Environment

12-16 September 2022

This training course will explore the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as with their implementation and enforcement mechanisms; and provide practical insights into the different UN human rights mechanisms pertinent to advancing environmental issues and protecting environmental human rights defenders.

Read more

Plastic pollution on an Italian shore Project

Towards a Better Protection of the Right to a Healthy Environment

Started in January 2022

This research aims at mainstreaming the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and the protection it affords in the work of the UN Human Rights Council, its Special Procedures and Universal Periodic Review, as well as in the work of the UN General Assembly and UN treaty bodies.

Read more

 Chittagong (Bangladesh) ship breaking yard Project

A Practitioners' Guide on Human Rights and Countering Corruption

Completed in January 2015

This research project, aimed via the drafting of a practitioners’ guide on human rights and countering corruption, to clarify the conceptual relationship between human rights, good governance and anticorruption, demonstrate the negative impact of corruption on human rights and provide guidance and make practical recommendations for effectively using the UN human rights system in anti-corruption efforts.

Read more

Cover of the publication Publication

Implementing the Treaty Body Review 2020 – Where do we stand

published on May 2022

Felix Kirchmeier, Chloé Naret, Domenico Zipoli

Read more