Jean
Ziegler is Vice-President of the UN Human Rights Council’s Advisory
Committee
with an
expertise on economic, social and cultural rights, in particular the
right to
food. For the period 2000-2008, Jean Ziegler was the UN Special
Rapporteur on
the Right to Food.
Member
of the Advisory Committee
In
March
2008, Jean Ziegler was elected Member of the UN
Human Rights Council's Advisory Committee. One year later, the Human
Rights
Council decided, by acclamation, to re-elect Jean Ziegler as a member
of the Advisory
Committee, a post he will now hold until 2012. In August 2009, the
members of
the Advisory Committee elected Jean Ziegler as Vice-President of the
forum.
Jean Ziegler participated, with the other members of the Advisory
Committee, in
the drafting of the recommendation
on the right to food adopted by the Committee at its second
session,
in January 2009. In the context of the food crisis, the Advisory
Committee recommends that the Human Rights Council consider taking a
number of
measures to limit price volatility and ensure market stability, and
consider
re-establishing international buffer stocks to stabilize the price of
food
commodities. The recommendation also entails provisions on agricultural
subsidies of developed states, on bioenergy technologies that use
staple foods,
on international trade agreements and their impact on the right to food.
In
its
resolution from 10/12 of 26 March 2009, the Human
Rights Council mandated the Advisory Committee to undertake
a Study
on Discrimination in the Context of the Right to Food. A drafting group
on the
right to food, consisting of José Bengoa Cabello, Chinsung Chung, Latif
Hüseynov, Jean Ziegler and Mona Zulficar has been established to work
on the
Study.
In
August
2009, during the third session of the
Advisory Committee, Jean Ziegler presented two studies - 'The tragedy
of Noma' and 'Peasant
Farmers and the Right to Food: a History of Discrimination and
Exploitation'
- intended to serve as background papers for the Study on
Discrimination in the
Context of the Right to Food. The first background study deals with
noma, a
disease that affects preponderantly malnourished children living in
conditions
of extreme poverty. The paper analyzes noma from a right to food
perspective
since malnutrition is the main risk factor of this child-mutilating
disease.
The second background paper focuses on peasants and the ways they are
discriminated and exploited in many parts of the world. Expropriation
of land,
forced evictions and displacements are explored as some of the main
causes of
violations suffered by peasants. The paper addresses the extreme
vulnerability
of women peasants and the importance of transformative and
redistributive agrarian
reform in this context, as well as for the realization of the right to
food of
farmers more generally. Lastly, the background study looks at the
proposals put
forward by social movements such as Via Campesina
intended to structurally tackle the widespread discrimination against
peasants.
An outstanding example is the Declaration of Rights of Peasants -
Women and Men by Via Campesina.
The
drafting
group on the right to food is expected to
present the Draft Study on Discrimination in the Context of the Right
to Food
during the forth session of the Advisory Committee, in January 2010.
Former Special
Rapporteur
In
September
2000, Jean Ziegler was appointed by the UN
Commission on Human Rights as the UN’s first Special Rapporteur on the
Right to
Food. He fulfilled this mandate until 30 April 2008 and was
followed
since May 2008 by Olivier
de
Schutter.
As Special Rapporteur, Jean Ziegler's job was to ensure that
governments were meeting their obligations to respect, protect and
fulfil the
right to food of all people. In their Resolution
2000/10, the Commission outlined the mandate of the Special
Rapporteur. His role was to:
-
Receive information and highlight violations of the right to
food.
-
Cooperate with UN agencies, international organisations and
NGOs to put the right to food into practice around the world.
-
Identify emerging issues related to the right to food.
-
Look at the question of drinking water and its relation to
the right to food.
-
Contribute to the review of the implementation of the World
Food Summit 1996 Declaration and Plan of
Action.
-
Adopt a gender perspective in his work.
Each April, the Special Rapporteur submitted an annual
report on his work to the Commission on Human Rights and since 2006 to
the
Human Rights Council in Geneva. At the request of the Commission, Jean
Ziegler
also submitted each November an annual report to the UN General
Assembly. In
these general conceptual reports, the Special Rapporteur focused on
strengthening the normative framework of the right to food by examining
emerging issues and those requiring urgent attention, such as gender
discrimination, trade liberalisation, genetically modified food, food
sovereignty, armed conflict, nutrition, and justiciability. For a full
list of
annual reports to the Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights
Council,
as well as to the UN General Assembly see the Publications
section of this website.
The Special Rapporteur undertook a series of country
missions inquiring into the situation of the right to food in several
countries
from the different regions of the world. It is noteworthy that the
Special
Rapporteur could only carry out missions to countries where the
Government had
officially accepted his visit. During the country missions the focus of
the UN
Special Rapporteur was to examine the progress made by states in
realising the
right to food over time, to monitor the situation of vulnerable groups,
especially those that suffer from discrimination, as well as to monitor
compliance with the obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the
right to
food. See Publications
for a full list of his country mission reports.
As part of the protective role of the Special Rapporteur,
Jean Ziegler received several communications from individuals, groups
and NGOs
during his mandate. Every year, since 2007, a report on communications
to the
governments and the reply of the latter has been published as Addendum
to the respective annual reports to the Human Rights Council.
