The Role of the UN Special Rapporteur in the Development of the Right to Food: Legitimation Through Clarification?

Abstract

First paragraph: My modest work on the right to food involves explaining to a variety of audiences in professional encounters and classroom settings what the right food is and what it is not. In these contexts, I was often prompted to clarify that the right to food is seldom about giving out food to starved masses. In saying that I was merely echoing the words of a former UN Special Rapporteur: ‘Save in situations of natural disasters or civil strife, the right to food is not the right to be fed; it is the right to feed oneself in dignity’.  ooking back at the mandates of the two former UN Special Rapporteurs on the right to food – Jean Ziegler (2000-2008) and Olivier de Schutter (2008-2014) – and at the work undertaken by the current mandateholder – Hilal Elver, since 2014 – it strikes me that much of their efforts pursue the goal of clarification. In turn, this clarification serves to legitimatize the right to food in governmental circles, among civil society organizations (CSOs) and other non-state actors, and in international law more broadly.