The UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee has published a study on discrimination in the context of food. It observes that in 2009 one billion people were found to be undernourished, and many of them are hungry because of underlying patterns of discrimination. This study documents good practices of anti-discriminatory policies and strategies.

The report notes that:

• The right to food is one of the well protected rights in terms of international human rights instruments. This, the report argues, is indicative of the interdependence of the right to food and all other civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights: “To state the obvious, the right to water and sanitation, the right to health, the right to education and indeed the right to life are intimately bound to the realization of the right to food.”
• Merely addressing formal discrimination will not ensure substantive equality. Strategies addressing discrimination, including in respect to the right to food, should take into account especially vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.
• This means that State parties must immediately take the measures necessary to prevent, diminish and eliminate the conditions and attitudes that cause or perpetuate substantive or de facto discrimination.
• For example, the State must ensure that women and children have equal access to adequate food and to the means of obtaining it.
• Women’s access to land, production and markets must be improved to enhance their food security, as must their access to education, employment and health care.
• More than one third of children’s deaths are caused by malnutrition. UNICEF calls child malnutrition the silent emergency because hungry children are too weak to fight illnesses or continue their education. “Malnutrition keeps children trapped in a cycle of poverty and lack of perspective.” Child labour is closely linked to food insecurity. Children are often forced into work to provide food for their families.
• Hunger, like poverty, is predominantly a rural problem, and people living and working in rural areas need specific interventions to remedy their daily de facto discrimination.  
• However, given the increasing size of urban population, the absolute number of poor and undernourished continues to increase among the urban poor.
• Other vulnerable groups include refugees, indigenous people, people with disabilities and elderly people.

The report calls for the following action to eradicate the underlying discrimination and subsequent food insecurity of vulnerable groups:

• Increase the congruence of development efforts and trade with human rights law.
• Promote the right to food of people working in rural areas through the development of a specific international rights instrument and stronger national protective laws.
• Provide legal and social protection for the urban poor through employment and social security policies, land tenure and adequate housing legislation as well as through policies securing access to sanitation and safe drinking water.
• Provide legal and social protection for women against customary practices that impact negatively on access to food and means of production, as well as to enhance equal employment and protection against exploitation.
• Provide legal and social protection for children through appropriate breastfeeding policies, education and school feeding programmes.

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Click here to view the UN report on discrimination in the context of food