DefendBio Legal Clinic Submission on Agri-business, Food Security and Human Rights to the UN Working Group on Business & Human Rights

In this submission, we show the role of pollinators in sustainable food production, food security, and human rights, and the negative impact of agribusiness commercialized pesticides on pollinators and on a wide range of human rights. We identify the role of judicial and nonjudicial mechanisms in preventing these pesticides’ impacts as well as on access to justice, including remedy. Ultimately, we argue that preventing business-related human-rights abuses in the food sector requires more than regulatory oversight and judicial intervention; it requires support for a transition toward alternative approaches -such as biological control, agroecological practices, and integrated pest management- that would reduce reliance on synthetic chemicals while maintaining crop productivity. Reparations of human rights abuses in the food sector should aim at a systemic transformation of food systems, agriculturalproduction, and associated value chains.