Foucault's evaluation of the UN call for human rights in global food governance

Title
Foucault's evaluation of the UN call for human rights in global food governance
Publication Date
2016
Author(s)
Liljeblad, Jonathan
Editor
Editor(s): Amanda L Kennedy and Jonathan Liljeblad
Type of document
Book Chapter
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Routledge
Place of publication
London, United Kingdom
Edition
1
Series
Routledge Studies in Food, Society and the Environment
UNE publication id
une:19304
Abstract
In May 2008, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Louise Arbour issued a call to include human rights in food govemance. Arbour stated that while food crises can be addressed through humanitarian operations, such aid is only a short-term solution and that a longer term response requires an emphasis on human rights (United Nations, 2008). Arbour's reasoning is that food crises are largely driven by deeper issues of distribution, with food being denied as a part of a wider pattern of ongoing exclusionary practices against marginalized groups. This means that the denial of food, while a violation of the human right to food, is likely only a component of a broader violation of human rights in general. According to Arbour, humanitarian food aid, in focusing on the alleviation of immediate hunger problems. tends to ignore these greater issues and so constrains itself from resolving the underlying larger-scale factors of exclusion driving food crises. As a result, a more complete resolution of food issues requires a more comprehensive effort that encompasses patterns of marginalization, something that Arbour sees as a primary concern for the international human rights system (United Nations, 2008).
Link
Citation
Food Systems Governance: Challenges for Justice, Equality and Human Rights, p. 106-126
ISBN
9781138939431
9781315674957
Start page
106
End page
126

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