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Food sovereignty: New UN report questions Doha round approach |
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 Olivier De Schutter, the UN's special rapporteur on the right to food, has produced a report which questions the approach taken in the current Doha round of world trade negotiations which does not treat food as any different to other economic products. De Schutter warns against relying on foreign trade to boost agriculture in the developing world and argues that there is "no alternative" to supporting small-scale farmers. Speaking at a meeting hosted by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in Brussels on Wednesday 25 February, De Schutter criticised the big players in the Doha round for pushing trade liberalisation without taking into account its detrimental effects on small farmers and food sovereignty. Governments "must retain the freedom to take measures which insulate domestic markets from the volatility of prices on international markets," he argued, calling efforts to create a 'level playing field' between poor and wealthier countries "meaningless". The report conceives of the global food crisis in human rights terms, stating that "a human rights approach turns what has been a bilateral relationship between donor and partner, into a triangular relationship, in which the ultimate beneficiaries of these policies play an active role. Seeing the provision of foreign aid as a means to fulfil the human right to adequate food has concrete implications, which assume that donor and partner Governments are duty-bearers, and beneficiaries are rights-holders." The report is to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council next month. Read the full report here: http://www.srfood.org/images/stories/pdf/officialreports/or4-a-hrc-10-5-advanced-edited-version.pdf Sources: |
