The Right to Food Information Portal by UN Food and Agriculture Organization 10:54pm 3rd Feb, 2007   February 2007    The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today launched an interactive web site aimed at helping to feed the hundreds of million of hungry people around the globe, providing practical information for policy-makers, legal practitioners, civil society members, UN staff, academics and the general public.    “For the realization of the right to food, information is crucial,” FAO Right to Food Unit, Coordinator Barbara Ekwall said. “A right can only be claimed by people who are informed. Rights can only be respected, protected and fulfilled by a country that is aware of its obligations and of means to bring about necessary changes.”    The site includes training materials and an e-learning course, tools to raise awareness of the right to food, and a virtual library containing manuals, technical papers, policy briefs, case studies and publications.    It also features information on the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security, which were endorsed by the FAO Council in 2004 and provide practical guidance to countries in their efforts to eradicate hunger by adopting a human rights-based approach.    The right to food    The right to food is a basic human right and, as such, is universal and inalienable from other human rights. The causes of undernutrition and death from hunger and malnutrition are infinitely complex. In the apt words of Brazilian sociologist and former Chairman of the FAO Council, Josué de Castro (1908-1973):    "Hunger is exclusion. Exclusion from land, income, jobs, wages, life and citizenship. When a person gets to the point of not having anything left to eat, it is because all the rest has been denied. This is a modern form of exile. It is death in life."    The right to food can be defined as the right to have regular, permanent and unrestricted, physical or economic, access to food that is adequate and sufficient in terms of quantity and quality. It is not the right to be fed, but the right to feed oneself in dignity. However, if individuals are deprived of access to food for reasons beyond their control, recognition of the right to life obliges States to provide them with sufficient food for their survival.    The right to food and international law    The right to food is recognized at national, regional and international level. At national level, some countries like India and South Africa have included this right in their constitutions. At international level, the right to food exists in several legal texts and instruments:    Click on link below to access the portal Visit the related web page
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