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

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).