The right to adequate food in UN systems: Human rights mechanisms in practice

Those seeking that the right to adequate nutritious food is protected, respected and fulfilled globally need to understand the international rules and systems that are in place to underpin relevant action. As the pre-eminent multilateral body on human rights, the systems of the United Nations (UN) are key to this understanding. While there is already a large body of literature analysing and synthesising the various written documents (instruments) produced in support of the right to adequate food, this paper focuses on the practical bodies and agencies (mechanisms) that have been established to support the creation, use and monitoring of various UN instruments, and how these institutions have co-evolved over time. Mechanisms reviewed include over-arching rights bodies, treaty-based mechanisms, charter-based mechanisms including special rapporteurs and the Universal Periodic Review process, and supportive institutions. In the year of the 20th anniversary of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food, this paper explores and explains – for academic, policy and practice audiences – how the major UN human rights mechanisms work to underpin the right to adequate food, and how they interact with the published instruments guiding and defining the issue, as a contribution to working towards the right to adequate food at a global level.