Jean Ziegler was the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2000-2008.  He is now a Member of the UN Human Rights Council’s Advisory Committee, where he works as an expert on economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to food.

            Member of Advisory Committee

Information about Jean Ziegler's work on the Human Rights Council's Advisory Committee will be added in due course.

            Former Special Rapporteur

Who is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food?

Jean Ziegler was the UN’s first Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2001 to 30 April 2008.  He was appointed by the UN Commission on Human Rights in September 2000.  As Special Rapporteur, his 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.

In Resolution 2001/25, the Commission asked him also to:

• 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.

The Special Rapporteur made an annual report on his work to the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in April and, at the request of the Commission, he also made an annual report to the UN General Assembly in November each year.  After the Commission on Human Rights was replaced by the Human Rights Council, he reported annually to that body. He also made country missions to look at the situations of the right to food in different countries in the different regions of the world.  However, the Special Rapporteur could only carry out missions to countries where the Government had officially accepted his visit.  See Publications for a full list of his reports.  

In country missions, the focus of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food was to examine the progress in realising the right to food over time, 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. 

For his general conceptual reports, the Special Rapporteur focused on strengthening the conceptualisation of the right to food, through examining emerging and urgent issues, such as those posed by gender discrimination, trade liberalisation, genetically modified food, food sovereignty, armed conflict, nutrition, and justiciability.