12/07/2005 03:49 PM THE HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH TO REDUCING MALNUTRITION Page 1 of 19 http://greenplanet.eolss.net/EolssLogn/searchdt_categorysorted.a…7a+2297+25c8+25c9+26bf+26ea+26eb+&hc=18&req=george%2Band%2Bkent Search Print this chapter Cite this chapter THE HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH TO REDUCING MALNUTRITION George Kent University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA Keywords: Malnutrition, Nutrition Rights in International Law, National Framework Legislation, World Food Summit. Contents 1 Introduction 2 The Human Rights Context 3 Malnutrition 4 Causes of Malnutrition 5 Food and Nutrition Rights in International Law 6 International Standards 7 Objective 7.4 of the World Food Summit 8 National Framework Legislation Related Chapters Bibliography Biographical Sketch Summary Malnutrition leads to death, illness, and significantly reduced quality of life for hundreds of millions. People have a right to not be malnourished, as a matter of law. The right is articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and several other international instruments. Since people have the human right to food and nutrition, others have obligations to assure that the right is realized. Nations that are parties to these agreements have made a commitment to assure the realization of the human right to food and nutrition. National governments, not international organizations, are the primary agents for the realization of human rights. It is important to assure that human rights are clearly articulated in national law. Following ratification of international human rights instruments, concretization of human rights in national law reinforces, and is a major sign of, commitment to those rights. National legislation provides highly authoritative articulation of the commitments accepted by the nation-state. It is a means of codifying and legitimizing institutionalized governmental action. Thus, national law can become a major tool through which the realization of human rights is advanced. The motivating idea underlying the nutrition rights vision is that establishing clear entitlements in the law, and assuring the implementation of that law, can help to reduce malnutrition of different kinds. The establishment and effective implementation of such law will not in itself be the solution to the malnutrition problem. Rather, it should be viewed as another tool for addressing the challenge, one that must be used together with other more conventional means such as feeding,