Rights-Based Frameworks and Global Goals

The right to adequate food is recognized as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living under Article 25 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and elaborated as a binding legal obligation for signatory states under Article 11 of the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' General Comment 12, adopted in 1999, further defined the right as requiring that food be available, accessible, and adequate in quality and quantity. Several countries have enshrined the right to food directly in national law, including South Africa, Brazil, and Mexico by constitutional provision, and India through judicial interpretation, notably the Supreme Court's rulings in the Right to Food Campaign litigation of the early 2000s, giving citizens legal grounds to challenge government failures on hunger.