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12.3 Access to Remedy
Violations of the right to food can occur through the direct action of States or non-state entities.
According to General Comment 12, these include: the formal repeal or suspension of legislation
necessary for the continued enjoyment of the right to food; denial of access to food to particular
individuals or groups; the prevention of access to humanitarian food aid in internal conflicts or
other emergency situations; adoption of legislation or policies which are manifestly incompatible
with pre-existing legal obligations relating to the right to food; and failure to regulate activities
of individuals or groups that violate the right to food of others, or the failure of a State to take
into account its international legal obligations regarding the right to food when entering into
agreements with other States or with international organizations.79 Any person or group who is a
victim of a violation of the right to adequate food should have access to effective judicial or
other appropriate remedies at both national and international levels.80
13. Obligations of Non-State Actors
The right to food as envisaged under the human rights treaties is essentially state-centric as they
mainly impose on the States to implement this right. But this state-centric approach is
increasingly problematic on several grounds. First, it fails to address the responsibilities of key
global actors such as transnational corporations and international financial institutions that are
not themselves states but can influence human rights outcomes significantly. Second, the current
state-centric approach adopts far too narrow a view of state responsibilities, which does not
include ‘extra-territorial obligations’ to prevent harm to people affected by the state's economic
or other policy actions, who happen to live in other states.81 Therefore, non-state actors such as
multinational corporations or enterprises have special obligation to realize the right to food as
they exercise now unprecedented level of control over the production, processing and
distribution of food. In this context, the right to food entails a protective obligation which
79
80
81
General Comment Para 19.
General Para 32.
Susan Randolph, The Right to Food: A Global Overview