The Right to Food Guidelines, Democracy and Citizen Participation: Country Case Studies

Abstract

It is now more than a decade since the Right to Food Guidelines was negotiated, agreed and adopted internationally by states. This book provides a review of its objectives and the extent of success of its implementation. The focus is on the first key guideline – "Democracy, good governance, human rights and the rule of law" – with an emphasis on civil society participation in global food governance. Case studies of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are presented. These represent major emerging economies that blur the line between the Global North and South, and exhibit different levels of human rights realization.

The book first provides an overview of the right to adequate food, accountability and democracy, and an introduction to the history of the development of the right to adequate food and the Right to Food Guidelines. It presents a historical synopsis of each of the BRICS states’ experience with the right to adequate food and an analysis of their related periodic reporting to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as a specific assessment of their progress in regard to the first guideline. The discussion then focuses on the effectiveness of the Right to Food Guidelines as both a policy-making and monitoring tool, based on the analysis of the guidelines and the BRICS states.