In the world today, around 750 million people are hungry, two billion people are food insecure, and three billion people are malnourished, primarily in the Global South. With the Covid-19 crisis and armed conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, food insecurity has also been increasing in Europe. While responses to this food crisis in this continent are often based on social assistance or food aid, a few actors ask for the right to food to be put at the center of these responses.
A human rights-based approach to fight food insecurity, with the right to food at its core, has been effective in improving food security in countries like Brazil (between 2003 and 2014), Bolivia (between 2006 and 2019), and India (between 2001 and 2014).
The Geneva Academy has been working on the right to food since 2008, notably by providing expertise on the realization of sustainable development goals with the right to food. Between 2015 and 2022, we supervised the legal aspects of two interdisciplinary research projects on the right to food in the Global South – DEMETER and Towards Food Sustainability – jointly funded by the Research for Development Programme (r4d) of the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
Objectives
In this project, we will provide legal expertise to a variety of stakeholders on the implementation of the right to food, and on the right to food as a legal basis for just transformation toward sustainable food systems in Europe. We will also identify lessons learned from the recognition of the right to food in the Constitution of the Canton of Geneva back in 2023.
Partners
Our partners in this project include the FAO, FIAN International, Fondazione Mater, Refettorio Geneva, Fondation Leenaards, and the ECI Campaign.
Presentations
Dr. Christophe Golay, Senior Research Fellow, gave a keynote speech at the side event under the title 'Right to Food: Right to a Future' that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, together with WeltHungerHilfe, Right to Food Kenya, and OHCHR organized in the framework of the United Nations Civil Society Conference that took place in Nairobi on May 9 and 10, 2024. The presentation can be rewatched here.
