Kathmandu School of Law Review

P-ISSN : 2091-2110, E-ISSN : 2773-8159, DOI : 10.46985, Publisher : Kathmandu School of Law, Nepal
Annual flagship journal of Kathmandu School of Law, Nepal

Volume 3, Issue Special, May 2013
Articles

Defining and Achieving Freedom from Hunger: A Rights-Based Approach

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  • Saurav Ghimire
Saurav Ghimire
Kathmandu School of Law
Bio

Published 2013-05-31

How to Cite

Ghimire, S. (2013). Defining and Achieving Freedom from Hunger: A Rights-Based Approach. Kathmandu School of Law Review, 3(Special), 54–64. Retrieved from https://kslreview.org/index.php/kslr/article/view/1017

Abstract

If one is born in the right part of the world and in right social class, the problem of being hungry has its solution in the nearest refrigerator. However, if the situation is reverse, one may go hungry throughout one’s short life, as 800million born in the wrong place and in wrong social class are doing as we discuss the concern. Peace cannot exist where the hunger prevails as the former signifies not merely the absence of armed conflict but the establishment of human rights for all people, and no human right is worth anything to a starving person. That is why the freedom from hunger is fundamental to live as human being and is a necessary part of right to life.

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References

  1. Amaratya Sen, Inequality re-examined (Oxford University Press 1991) 66.
  2. For instance, respiratory infections and diarrhoea are common in undernourished children.
  3. Deficiency of vitamin A causes night blindness, deficiency of iron causes anaemia and deficiency of iodine causes goitre.
  4. Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines (Oxford University Press 1999) 1.
  5. G. Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (Penguin 1946) 196; Sen (n 4) 40.
  6. Susan George & Nigel Peige, ‘Food for Beginners’ in IHRIP & AFHRD, Circle of Rights-ESCR Activism: A training resource (IHRIP & AFHRD 2000) 220.
  7. Sen (n 4) 45.
  8. World Hunger Series (2008).
  9. When people are not able to feed themselves and face the risk of death by starvation, malnutrition or resulting illnesses, their right to life would also be at stake.
  10. Nutrition is a component of both the right to health and the right to food. When a pregnant or breastfeeding woman is denied access to nutritious food, she and her baby can be malnourished even if she receives pre and post natal care.
  11. When a house lacks basic facilities, such as for cooking or storing food, adequate housing is not possible.
  12. Hunger and malnutrition impair children’s learning abilities and may force them to drop out of school and work instead, thus undermining their enjoyment of the right to education.
  13. Even though there may be willingness to work, the starvation hinders the capacity of a person to work adversely affecting his/her right to work.
  14. Deprivation or lack of access to adequate food in prison or other forms of detention may constitute torture or inhuman and degrading treatment.
  15. United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Human Development Report (2000).
  16. (CNN News Story on Global Hunger) accessed 1 March 2012.
  17. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),‘The Hunger Project: Ending Hunger 1985’ in Digumarti Bhaskara Rao, International Encyclopaedia of Human Rights: Study Stories of Human Rights (Discovery Publishing House 2001) 74.
  18. ‘Right to Food as a basic human right’ accessed 1 February 2012.
  19. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ‘General Comment No. 12’ (prepared 1999, adopted 2003) UN Doc E/C 12/1999/5.
  20. Sen (n 4) 7.
  21. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), The Right to Adequate Food, Fact sheet No. 34, 4 < www.ohchr.org> accessed 5 March 2013.
  22. Khwairakpam Bembem, Child Hunger and Food Security in India’, in Shaping a Drudgery Free World (Vivekanand Swadhyay Mandal 2013) 114.
  23. Ibid.
  24. Yubaraj Sangroula, Jurisprudence- The Philosophy of Law (Kathmandu School of Law 2010) 483.
  25. M.L. Narasaiah, Human Rights and Peace (Discovery Publishing House 2003) 27.
  26. Ishowra Bhat, Fundamental Rights: A Study of Their Relationship (Eastern Law House 2005) 286.
  27. The two covenants here means International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
  28. OHCHR, The Right to Adequate Food, Fact Sheet No. 3, 32 < www.ohchr.org> accessed 5 March 2013.
  29. General Comment 12 (n 19), para. 8-13.
  30. Ibid para 7.
  31. FIAN Nepal the nation sections of FIAN International for Nepal. The information was acquired by FIAN International in cooperation with FIAN Nepal in July 2010.
  32. Nimendra Sahi, ‘Khadyanya magdai koltibashia andolanma- bimansthal ra bazaar thappa’ Rajdhani (Kathmandu 2 October 2012); ‘Dashainko much ma anna abhav’ Annapurna post (Nepal 2 October 2012).
  33. Government revenues in terms of GDP increased from 9% to 13.2% according to Asian Development Bank (ADB) 2007 figures; ‘ABD Statistics for Nepal 2007 ’ accessed 3 March 2013.
  34. See UNDP, Nepal Millennium Development Goals: Progress Report (UNDP 2005).
  35. ‘Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) STAT Nepal 2006’ < www.fao.org/monitoringprogress/summit_en.html> accessed 3 March 2013.
  36. ‘National Census 2001’ in Community Self-Reliance Centre- Land Rights in Nepal (Community Self-Reliance Centre 2003).
  37. See World Food Program (WFP), Nepal Operations Summary (WFP 2010).
  38. ‘The World Factbook’ accessed 14 March 2013.
  39. See WFP, Proposed Nutrition Strategy for WFP Nepal (WFP 2010).
  40. See Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, United States (CDC)/WFP, A Manual: Measuring and Interpreting Malnutrition and Mortality ( WFP 2005).
  41. UNDP, ‘National Strategy for Disaster Risk Management in Nepal 2008’ accessed 14 March 2013.
  42. The ICCPR does not recognize the right to food as such; however, the right to life guaranteed in article 6, has been interpreted in its general comment 6 on the right to life, the human rights committee considered that State parties are required to take positive steps to reduce infant mortality and to increase life expectancy, especially in adopting measures to eliminate malnutrition and epidemics.
  43. Human Rights Committee, General Comment 6 (adopted 30 April 1982) UN Doc A/37/40(1982) para. 5.
  44. Such as the protection frameworks within the 1949 Geneva Conventions and its Additional Protocols.
  45. It should be noted that intentional starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is considered a war crime when committed in international armed conflict under the 1998 Rome Statute.
  46. Article 54 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions Relating to International Armed Conflicts, and Article 69 and 70 of the protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention relating to Non-International Armed Conflict.
  47. Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007, art 12 (1).
  48. Ibid art18(3).
  49. The other fundamental rights such as right to property, social justice and right of child, women and labour, right against exploitation are some other rights relevant to the right to food.
  50. Basant Prasad Adhikari, ‘Right to Food in Nepal: National and International Legal Perspective’ (2007) Nepal Bar Council Law Journal, 173.
  51. Madhav Kumar Basnet v. Honourable Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, Supreme Court Bulletin, WN 3341 (Nepal, 1996).
  52. Prakash Mani Sharma v. Nepal Government et al., Supreme Court Bulletin, WN. 0149 (Nepal, 2007).
  53. BajudinMiya et al v Nepal Government et al., Nepal Law Review 2010, DN 8169, 961.