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Abstract
A human rights approach to food security seeks to empower vulnerable groups to claim their rights. It also reinforces a government’s obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food. Furthermore, it encourages the integration of the right to food into the design and implementation of food security policies. This article examines the human rights approach to food security, with specific reference to Ethiopia. It assesses the historical causes of Ethiopia’s food insecurity, and examines the legislative and policy measures that the country has adopted over the last three decades in order to achieve food security. Food insecurity in the country is largely explained by the absence of government accountability. In 1973 and 1984, the hunger caused by drought was transitioned to famine not because of overall unavailability of food in the country, but because the government failed to provide food aid to the starved people and concealed the occurrence of famines from the international donors. Despite designing some food security policies over the last three decades, the country has not yet adopted sufficient legislative and judicial measures to enforce the right to food. This article argues that Ethiopia should introduce a framework law on the right to food to end hunger in the context of achieving national food security.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Professors Katja Lindroos and Kati Kulovesi as well as three undisclosed external reviewers and editors of the Third World Quarterly for constructive comments on earlier versions of this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on Contributor
Husen Ahmed Tura is a Doctoral Researcher in Law at the UEF Law School, University of Eastern Finland. Previously he worked as a lecturer of law at Addis Ababa University School of Law, Ambo University School of Law, and Wolaita Sodo University School of Law. He has published scholarly articles relating to various areas of law including corporate governance, merger regulation, right to food, legal aid, access to justice, land rights and land grabbing. His articles appeared in Nordic Journal of Human Rights, Land Use Policy, International Human Rights Law Review, African Journal of Legal Studies, Mizan Law Review, Oromia Law Journal, Journal of Ethiopian Law and Haramaya Law Review.
Notes
1 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “The Right to Adequate Food,” 3.
2 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Art 2.
3 FAO, “ Voluntary Guidelines,” 2.
4 FAO, “ State of Food and Nutrition Security.”
5 United Nations, “The Paris Agreement.”
6 United Nations, “Transforming Our World,” SDGs 1, 2, 8, 12, 13 and 16.
7 United Nations, “Transforming Our World,” SDG 2.
8 World Food Programme, “Ethiopia.”
9 Dorosh, “The Evolving Role of Agriculture,” 318.
10 Graham et al., “Disaster Response and Emergency Risk Management,” 258.
11 World Food Programme, “Ethiopia: Fighting Hunger Worldwide.”
12 Maxwell, “What Can We Do,” 1.
13 Ibid.
14 UNDP, Frequently Asked Questions, 15.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Mechlem, “Food Security and the Right to Food,” 631.
18 Cotula et al., The Right to Food, 17.
19 Kent, Freedom from Want, 1.
20 Convention on the Rights of the Child, Arts 24 and 27.
21 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Arts 12 and 14.
22 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Art 28.
23 “Protocol to the African Charter.”
24 “General Comment No. 12.”
25 FAO, “Voluntary Guidelines.”
26 “Limburg Principles,” para 7–10.
27 “General Comment No. 3,” para 3–4.
28 Ibid.
29 “General Comment No. 3,” para 10; “General Comment No. 12,” para 17.
30 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Art 2.2.
31 “General Comment No. 12,” para 15.
32 FAO, “Report of the World Food Conference.”
33 FAO, “Rome Declaration on World Food Security.”
34 Mechlem, “Food Security and the Right to Food.”
35 Guha-Khasnobis et al., Food Insecurity, Vulnerability and Human Rights Failure.
36 Kent, Freedom from Want, 1.
37 De Schutter, “Countries Tackling Hunger,” 4–5.
38 FAO, “Voluntary Guidelines,” 2.
39 Ibid.
40 FAO, “Voluntary Guidelines”; United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Principles and Guidelines.”
41 De Schutter, “Countries Tackling Hunger.”
42 Kebede, Groundwater in Ethiopia, 249.
43 Kumar, “Ethiopian Famines,” 177.
44 Gill, Famine and Foreigners, 3.
45 Graham et al., “Disaster Response and Emergency Risk Management,” 275; Kumar, “Ethiopian Famines.”
46 Kumar, “Ethiopian Famines.”
47 Braun and Olofinbiyi, “Famine and Food Insecurity in Ethiopia,” 11.
48 Kumar, “Ethiopian Famines”; Graham et al., “Disaster Response and Emergency Risk Management.”
49 Sen, Poverty and Famines, 90.
50 Ibid., 93–4.
51 Kumar, “Ethiopian Famines.”
52 Ibid.; Graham et al., “Disaster Response and Emergency Risk Management.”
53 Kumar, “Ethiopian Famines.”
54 Overby, “The Right to Food,” 29.
55 Ramanujam et al., “From Justiciability to Justice.”
56 Vadala, “Understanding Famines in Ethiopia,” 1078.
57 Ramanujam et al., “From Justiciability to Justice”; Ziegler et al., The Fight for the Right to Food; Ziegler, “Report of the Special Rapporteur.”
58 “General Comment No. 12,” para 8.
59 Mgbako et al., “Silencing the Ethiopian Courts,” 259.
60 FDRE Constitution, Arts 15, 37, 40, 42, 43 and 44.
61 FDRE Constitution, Art 41(1).
62 FDRE Constitution, Art 41(2–8).
63 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art 25; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Art 11.
64 “General Comment No. 12,” para 6.
65 Civil Procedure Code of Ethiopia (1965), Article 33(2) enshrines that ‘No person may be a plaintiff unless he has a vested interest in the subject-matter of the suit’.
66 FDRE Charities and Societies Proclamation No. 621/2009.
67 International Development Law Organization, “Realizing the Right to Food.”
68 FDRE Constitution, Art 90(1).
69 FDRE Constitution, Art 89(1–2).
70 FDRE Constitution, Art 89(3).
71 Ali and Appiagyei-Atua, “Justiciability of Directive Principles.”
72 Ibid.
73 Tura, “Land Rights and Land Grabbing”; Tura, “Linking Land Rights.”
74 REACH CONSULTANT, “Assessment of CIDA’s Food Security Strategy,” 9.
75 USAID, “Agriculture and Food Security: Ethiopia.”
76 Ethiopia, “Agricultural Development Led Industrialisation.”
77 MoFED, “SDPRP.”
78 Ibid.
79 Ibid.
80 MoFED, “PASDEP.”
81 MoFED, “GTP I,” 7.
82 National Planning Commission, “The Second Growth and Transformation Plan,” 8.
83 Ibid.
84 Alpha and Gebreselassié, “Governing Food and Nutrition Security,” 34.
85 Rahmato et al., Food Security, Safety Nets.
86 REACH CONSULTANT, “Assessment of CIDA’s Food Security Strategy and Funding,” 9.
87 MoFED, “PASDEP,” 66.
88 Alpha and Gebreselassié, “Governing Food and Nutrition Security.”
89 Ibid.
90 MoFED, “PASDEP,” 93–9.
91 Ibid.
92 Alpha and Gebreselassié, “Governing Food and Nutrition Security.”
93 MoFED, “PASDEP,” 93–9.
94 FDRE, “National Nutrition Strategy,” 6.
95 FAO, “Voluntary Guidelines,” Guideline 14.1.
96 MoFED, “PASDEP.”
97 Ibid.
98 Ibid.
99 Coll-Black et al., “Targeting Food Security Interventions”; Guha-Khasnobis et al., Food Insecurity, Vulnerability and Human Rights Failure.
100 REACH CONSULTANT, “Assessment of CIDA’s Food Security Strategy,” 9.
101 Ibid.
102 Ibid.
103 Stebek, “The Constitutional Right to Enhanced Livelihood.”
104 Alpha and Gebreselassié, “Governing Food and Nutrition Security,” 1.
105 International Food Policy Research Institute, “2016 Global Hunger Index.”
106 USAID, “Agriculture and Food Security: Ethiopia.”
107 Tura, “Linking Land Rights”; Rahmato, Land to Investors.
108 FAO, “Methodological Toolbox on the Right to Food,” 12.
109 FAO, Right to Food Making It Happen, 66.
110 Cotula et al., The Right to Food, 37.
111 Ibid.
112 People’s Union for Civil Liberties.
113 Action No 4.830/07, 2ª Vara da Infância e Juventude de Maceió.
114 International Development Law Organization, “Realizing the Right to Food,” 37.
115 Sengupta, “The Right to Food,” 131.
116 Chilton and Rose, “A Rights-Based Approach to Food Insecurity.”
117 The current situation of food insecurity in Ethiopia is associated with several factors including ‘population pressure, drought, shortage of farmland, soil erosion, lack of oxen, deterioration of food production capacity, outbreak of plant and animal disease, poor soil fertility, frost attack, chronic shortage of cash income, poor farming technologies, weak extension services, high labour wastage and poor social and infrastructural facility and pre and post-harvest loss’; Endalew et al., “Assessment of Food Security Situation,” 62.