"In a world that seems to be thrown from one crisis to another, the ability to hold powerful actors accountable - whether at national or global level - is increasingly challenging. Our collective crises can only be overcome by strengthening movements for mutual solidarity. An important element of solidarity is to bring the stories of communities whose rights are abused to the world, and to create platforms for developing alternative visions. The Right to Food and Nutrition Watch is an important contribution in this sense. It offers policy makers and activists a tool for understanding the forces at play in our world and how we might create a more just world."
Maryam Rahmanian, Vice-Chair of the High Level Panel of Experts Steering Committee to the Committee on World Food Security
"I would like to congratulate the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2010. It provides a critical and alternative insight into the burning headlines of the year – price volatility, land grabbing, hunger and malnutrition. The reformed Committee on World Food Security, being the platform for international and intergovernmental debates on food security and nutrition issues, is all the more richer as views from more stakeholders are presented. I strongly recommend changing the prism from where we view food security and nutrition so that we see all the colors surrounding these critical issues."
Noel De Luna, Chair of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) Bureau
“The Right to Food and Nutrition Watch gives a voice to civil society - the millions of people who struggle everyday to provide food to their families, with dignity. The rush of investors to acquire arable lands in the poorest countries is scandalous. We have to prevent it. The Watch 2010 highlights the intrinsic link between the violation of the right to land and the survival of the most vulnerable people. The resistance of these women and men against those more powerful, those who grab their land, poison their vital resources and deprive them of their most basic rights, including the right to food, is an example to us all. It is essential to publicize their stories so the world will realize the consequence of greed without borders.”
Jean Ziegler, Vice-President of the UN Human Rights Council's Advisory Committee
“I have really appreciated the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch as a serious effort by a broad range of civil society groups to monitor the extent to which different societal groups are able to enjoy the right to food. It is an important contribution to the growing momentum around food security and nutrition.
We all know that there are some groups in every society who are at risk of being unable to access the food they need and enjoy optimal nutrition status. We also know that not all are able to benefit from the systematic efforts of initiatives that are set up to provide support to those who face this kind of hardship. The Right to Food and Nutrition Watch helps us to appreciate the extent to which rights are not being enjoyed – as well as trends over time – and the underlying reasons for this. It also helps us understand the challenges associated with trying to reach those who are unable to realize their rights.
The case studies that the report explores provide powerful reasons why we must continue in our efforts to ensure that policies and actions are built around the Right to Food, ensuring a comprehensive approach to food security that focuses on availability, access, utilization and stability, in ways that are responsive to the immediate needs of vulnerable populations and, at the same time, contribute to longer term resilience. Such analyses are not easy to undertake and I commend those who are putting together the Watch for their efforts to ensure the rigour and reliability. It is only by drawing on the rich experience of national authorities and civil society that we can strengthen and coordinate our policy responses. I am particularly pleased that the authors have looked with care at the challenges faced by societies, and particularly by women, as they seek to ensure optimal nutritional status for all. I am also pleased that they have looked hard at one of the principal determinants of inability to enjoy the right to food – lack of predictable and transferable land tenure.
I look forward to the 2011 issue on “Claiming human rights – the accountability challenge”.
David Nabarro, Coordinator of the UN High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis and Special Representative of the UN Secretary Secretary General on Food Security and Nutrition
Home
