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The Food Assistance Convention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Marsha Echols
Marsha Echols*
Affiliation:
Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law, Washington, D.C. Director, The World Food Law Institute.
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Extract

The Food Assistance Convention (Convention), signed by seven countries and the European Union in April 2012, went into effect on January 1, 2013. The Convention replaces and builds on the 1999 Food Aid Convention (FAC 1999). The use of ‘‘assistance’’ instead of ‘‘aid’’ in the title signals a change in approach from fixed commodity donations to offering a series of options for assisting communities address their particular food needs and goals. The objectives of the Convention are broad, to ‘‘save lives, reduce hunger, improve food security, and improve the nutritional status’’ of the most vulnerable populations. These objectives are in accord with international humanitarian law, which is referred to in the Preamble. The foundation of the Convention is the annual commitment of food, cash, vouchers, equipment, seeds and other assistance by each Party. The flexibility in developing the assistance for each population permits the donor to consider the specific local needs, capabilities and goals, e.g., to avoid interfering with or displacing local production. ‘‘Vulnerable populations’’ and the ‘‘most vulnerable populations’’ receive special attention throughout the Convention. The text refers to improved coordination of multilateral efforts, authorizes increased involvement of other organizations and stakeholders, and expressly gives priority to obligations under the World Trade Organization.

Type
International Legal Documents
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 354 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2013

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References

* This text was reproduced and reformatted from the text available at the United Nations Web site (visited March 4, 2013) http://treaties.un.org/doc/source/signature/2012/CTC_XIX-48.pdf.

1 Food Assistance Convention, opened for signature June 11, 2012 Google Scholar, available at http://treaties.un.org/doc/source/signature/2012/CTC_XIX-48.pdf (entered into force Jan. 1, 2013) [hereinafter Convention].

2 The signatories are Argentina, Australia, Canada, European Union (EU), Japan, Norway, the Swiss Confederation, and the United States of America (US). See U.N. Treaty Collection, Food Assistance Convention, http://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XIX-48&chapter=19&lang=en (last visited Apr. 23, 2013).

3 Food Aid Convention, 1999, opened for signature May 1, 1999 Google Scholar, 2073 U.N.T.S. 135 (entered into force July 1, 1999), available at http://www.foodaidconvention.org/Pdf/convention/iga1995.pdf (the Food Aid Convention expired on June 30, 2012).

4 Using older notions of positive and negative rights to food (which are now somewhat contested as making an unrealistic division), the Convention now emphasizes the negative right to food (to obtain food by one’s own actions) and de-emphasizes the positive right to food (to be provided with food if the person is unable to access it).

5 Convention, supra note 1, at art. 1. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) refers to the right to adequate food, which is realized when ‘‘every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, has the physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.’’ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, http://www.fao.org/righttofood/en/(emphasis added) (citing Comm. on Econ., Soc. and Cultural Rights, Substantive Issues Arising in the Implementation of the Int’l Covenant on Econ., Soc. and Cultural Rights: General Comment 12 3, 20th Sess., Apr. 26–May 14, 1999, U.N. Doc. E/C.12/1999/5 (May 12, 1999) [hereinafter Comment 12]).

6 The right to food is included in international humanitarian law through Article 11 of the U.N. Covenant on Economic Social and Political Rights, in which the parties ‘‘recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food . . . . [and] ensure an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need.’’ International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, opened for signature Dec. 19, 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3 (entered into force Jan. 3 1976) available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm; see also Comment 12, supra note 5.

7 Convention, supra note 1, at art. 5.

8 Id. at art. 7.6.

9 Id. at art. 9.4.

10 Id. at art. 3.

11 Id. at art. 5.10.

12 Id. at art. 5.2.

13 Food Assistance Committee, Rules of Procedure and Implementation for the Food Assistance Convention’’), available at http://www.foodaidconvention.org/Pdf/FoodAssistance/RulesofProcedure.pdf (last visited Feb. 5, 2013) [hereinafter Rules of Procedure].

14 Convention, supra note 1, art. 5.7.

15 Id. at art. 5.9.

16 Id. at art. 5.12.

17 Id. at art. 5.11.

18 Eligible products are products for human consumption that meet national and, as appropriate, international standards. Id. at art. 4.3.

19 Rules of Procedure, supra note 13, at rule 1.

20 Convention, supra note 1, at art. 5(a).

21 Rules of Procedure, supra note 13, at rule 3(a)(xiii). The World Food Program defined the basic food basket for one region as 0.5 Kgs of rice per person per day plus an additional 30% expenditure on other foods like pulses, vegetables and meat. The food basket is often considered in connection with local income and purchasing power. World Food Program, Quarterly Market and Food Price Update, Quarter 3 (2011) available at home.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp241682.pdf.

22 Rules of Procedure, supra note 13, at rule 2.

23 Convention, supra note 1, at art. 2(b)(iii).

24 Id. at art. 2(c)(iii).

25 Id. at art. 2(a)(iii).

26 Id. at art. 2(a)(iv).

27 Id. at art. 2(a)(v).

28 Id. at art. 5.8.

29 The term vulnerable population is common within the food security and food aid communities. It might have originated in the writings of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen. See, e.g., Amartya, Sen, Food, Economics, and Entitlements, in 1 The Political Economy of Hunger 34, 42 (Jean, Drèze & Amartya, Sen, eds., 1990)Google Scholar.

30 See Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, DAC List of ODA Recipients, http://www.oecd.org/dac/aidstatistics/daclistofodarecipients.htm (last visited Feb. 5, 2013). FAO uses the term food vulnerability and defines it to mean ‘‘the full range of factors that place people at risk of becoming food insecure. These can be external or internal. . . . The degree of vulnerability of individuals, households or groups of people is determined by their exposure to the risk factors and their ability to cope with or withstand stressful situations.’’ FAO, Glossary on Right to Food 27, (2009) available at http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/righttofood/documents/RTF_publications/glossary.pdf (last visited Feb. 5, 2013).

31 Convention, supra note 1, at art. 1.

32 Id. at art. 2.

33 Id. at pmbl.

34 Id. at arts. 7-8, 10.

35 Id. at art. 9.

36 Id. at art. 9.4.

37 Id. at art. 7.4.

38 Id. at art. 2(d).