Human Rights Based Approach to Sustainable Agricultural Policies and Food Security

In 2017, food insecurity and malnutrition increased worldwide. This increase in global hunger poses a significant threat to the realization of the universal right to food, and is at odds with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal to eradicate hunger and malnutrition by 2030. While the major reason for such an increase is protracted conflicts in various countries, climate change and extreme weather events, intensive industrial agriculture, failure of poverty eradication, and rural-urban development are contributing factors. Most of the time, these situations trigger each other and create severe food crises that could even reach alarming levels of starvation and famine. The importance of responding to root causes of food insecurity and providing long-term policies that focus on protecting vital productive resources while respecting and protecting human rights, especially the right to food and right to access to land and natural resources in the face of climate change, is more urgent than ever to avoid disasters.