11 realise the right to adequate food. These Guidelines are a human rights-based practical tool addressed to all States. The Voluntary Guidelines require States to adopt a holistic and comprehensive approach to hunger and poverty reduction. Such an approach entails, inter alia, direct and immediate measures to ensure access to adequate food as part of a social safety net; investment in productive activities and projects to improve the livelihoods of the poor and hungry in a sustainable manner; the development of appropriate institutions, functioning markets, a conducive legal and regulatory framework; and access to employment, productive resources and appropriate services.27 The Guidelines state that States should pursue inclusive, non-discriminatory and sound economic, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, land-use, and, appropriate land-reform policies so that farmers, fishers, foresters and other food producers, particularly women, to earn a fair return from their labour, capital and management, which can ensure food security for them.28 7. The Right to Food under International Human Rights Law Right to food has been recognized as a fundamental human right by different international human rights instruments. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), 1948 is the first international instrument to recognize the right to food. Article 25 of the UDHR declares “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), 1966 recognised that everyone has the right to adequate food and that it is the fundamental right of everyone to be from hunger. Article 11 of the ICESCR recognizes the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including adequate food, clothing, housing and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The State parties shall take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right. It also recognizes the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger. For the purpose of realization of the right to food, the ICESCR requires the State parties: 27 28 Voluntary Guideline 3, para 2.4 Ibid, Guideline 3,