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On 27 April 2021, the FAO Development Law Service, represented by Manuela Cuvi, Legal Officer for the Latin American and Caribbean region, participated in the second session of this initiative of the Parliamentary Front Against Hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is supported by FAO, PARLATINO, Spanish Cooperation and the Mesoamerican Hunger-Free AMEXCID-FAO Program.

The main theme of the session was the importance of explicitly recognizing the right to adequate food in national constitutions so as to afford it with the highest level of protection within national legal systems. Its precise and explicit inclusion aids the interpretation of related laws and eventual amendments of national laws, and it enables the judicial review of any law which may be inconsistent with or represents an obstacle to the enjoyment of the right.

Entrenching the right to food in a constitution will also favour its long-term protection given that constitutions are longer lived than political governments. It would also entail the right to a remedy for those whose rights have been breached.

Currently, 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean explicitly enshrine the human right to adequate food in their constitutions, either for all people or for specific groups of the population such as children, pregnant women, or elderly persons.

The recording of the session in Spanish is available at the following link: http://www.fao.org/americas/eventos/ver/es/c/1396279/

For further information you can consult the following legal brief: http://www.fao.org/3/cb0448en/CB0448EN.pdf