How can global governance be improved to progressively realize the right to food?

One of the most significant outcomes of the 2008 global food price crisis was a new commitment by the international community to improve the governance of global food security, in particular through the reform of the World Committee on Food Security.

The Special Rapporteur has demonstrated how the right to food could guide these improvements since he started his mandate. On 2 May 2008, he called on the U.N. Human Rights Council to hold a special session on the impact on the realization of the right to food of the soaring world food prices. By holding its first special session ever on an economic and social right on 22 May 2008, the Human Rights Council sent a strong message to the international community about the equal value of all the rights of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The session highlighted the fact that human rights should not only be seen as obligations imposed on States acting individually, but also are to be realized through international dialogue and cooperation.

The Special Rapporteur has promoted ever since the added value of a pragmatic approach based on the right to food. This section gathers his contributions on the necessary improvements of governance in all institutions related to food security.

	“Five proposals for a genuine integration of the right to food in the Revised Comprehensive Framework of Action (CFA)” Contribution to the Dublin Consultation (17-18 May 2010), Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on the right to food, 10 April 2010.
	Press statement "UN Special Rapporteur on WTO Ministerial: Trade negotiations need to reflect the new global consensus on hunger", 1 December 2009)
	“A Call for Coherence and Responsibility: Realizing the right to food by improving global governance” Message of Mr. Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, 6 November 2009
	Message of the Special Rapporteur in advance of the World Summit on Food Security, 6 November 2009
	Report 'Crisis into opportunity: reinforcing multilateralism' presented to the Human Rights Council, Follow-up session on the Global Food Crisis at the 12th session, 17 September 2009
	Contribution of Mr. Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Contact Group to support the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), 22 May 2009
	Contribution for the 17th session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-17) “The right to food and a sustainable global food system”, 4-15 May 2009, New York, 4 May 2009
	Statement at the interactive Thematic Dialogue of the UN General Assembly on the Global Food Crisis and the Right to Food, 6 April 2009
	The Global partnership on agriculture and food: a response grounded in the human right to food, Statement ahead of the Madrid High-Level Meeting on Food Security for All, 6 January 2009
	The 'Cordoba Declaration' on the right to food and the governance of the global food and agricultural system (10 December 2008)
	Seminar report “Solutions for hunger: a policy seminar on the right to food” (7 November 2008, Ottawa, Canada)
	Analysis by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food of the Comprehensive Framework for Action, adopted by the United Nations High-Level Task Force on Food Security, 23 June 2008
	Statement at the High-Level Conference on World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy, 6 June 2008
	Analysis of the World Food Crisis by the U.N. Special Rapporteur, Olivier De Schutter, 2 May 2008