The Human Right to Food and Nutrition

Central European University A Program for University Teachers, Advanced Ph.D. Students, Researchers and Professionals in the Social Sciences and Humanities Summer University

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The Human Right to Food and Nutrition: Principles and Policies

Module One

Distance Learning

July 1 – July 19, 2002

Module Two

Budapest

July 22 – August 2, 2002

Module Three

Distance Learning

August 26 – December 12, 2002

Course Director:

George Kent, University of Hawai’i, Honolulu, Hawai’i, United States

Resource Persons:

Deborah Hines, World Food Program, Managua, Nicaragua

David Clark, Nutrition Section, UNICEF, New York, USA

Malcolm Langford, European University Institute, Florence, Italy

Joseph Mulupi, Humanitarian Accountability Project, Sierra Leone

Course objectives

The purpose of this course is to develop an understanding of the human right to adequate food and nutrition, and to develop skills in applying that understanding. The conceptualization of the human right to food and nutrition has advanced rapidly in recent years. However, as in most other human rights work, emphasis has been placed on the obligations of national governments to people living under their jurisdictions. In this course, we will give special attention to the international implications of nutrition rights, to clarify the obligations not only of nation states but also of other parties such as international agencies, transnational corporations, and international nongovernmental organizations.

The goals of this course include:

Learning about . . .

	the nature of rights systems generally;
	the content and character of the international human rights system, in the framework of international law;
	the historical foundations of the human right to food and nutrition;
	the meaning of the human right to food and nutrition as it has been clarified since the World Food Summit of 1996;
	the application of the nutrition rights approach in various contexts, e.g., in specific countries, and in relation to refugees, infants, drinking water, prisons, etc.;
	the role of pedagogy in building shared understandings about human rights.

And, with these foundations, building skills in ...

analyzing concrete situations to identify violations of the human right to food and nutrition;

formulating proposals for policy and legislation that would operationalize the realization of the human right to food and nutrition in specific contexts;

preparing teaching materials to support school or university based teaching, community-based education, and political lobbying work.

Each participant will be expected to carry out a project on the ways in which a selected agency’s work might be adapted to conform more closely with human rights law and principles.

Three modules

This course involves three distinct modules, involving both conventional and Internet-based distance learning.

Module One, July 1-19, 2001, on the Internet, will be used to introduce the participants to the course and to each other. Participants will use this period to get an overview of the global human rights system, and also to identify their own special interests in that field.

Module Two, July 22 – August 2, 2002, will be a two-week face-to-face course conducted at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. This part of the course will be used to review and discuss the reading materials, and also to develop skills in applying the concepts by carrying out projects. Projects may be undertaken individually or in groups. A sheet describing some possible project topics will be distributed.

In this module we will meet Monday through Friday each week, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM, with an hour for lunch, and shorter breaks in the mornings and afternoons. In the mornings, the class will meet together to hear and discuss presentations from the Course Director, the Resource Persons, and guests. Groups will meet to work on their projects in the afternoons, except on the last two days, when we will be together for presentations of the projects.

Module Three, August 26 – December 12, 2002, on the Internet, will be an optional opportunity to apply what has been learned in the context of a graduate course on Nutrition Rights. This is a distance-learning course offered by the Course Director, George Kent, from the University of Hawai’i. It will mix participants from the CEU course together with new participants who are getting their first introduction to the human right to food and nutrition. Those who have completed the first two modules of the CEU course may choose to engage in Module Three in either of two ways. They may participate informally, as Resource Persons, sharing the knowledge and insight that they have developed in the Budapest course. Alternatively, they may come in as formally registered participants, paying tuition (about US$540) to the University of Hawai’i for the three-unit graduate course. Those who successfully register and complete all the requirements of the distance education course would get three units of graduate credit from the University of Hawai’i on their official records.

Regardless of whether they are involved formally or informally, participants in Module Three will be expected to present the projects they developed during Modules One and Two.

Sequence

Module One will be devoted primarily to introductions, orientation, and an introduction to human rights generally. In Modules Two and Three, the course will generally follow the structure of the text on Nutrition Rights: The Human Right to Adequate Food and Nutrition. Those with Internet access can find the text at

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kent/tutorial2000/titlepage.htm

The major themes are:

I.	Overview
II.	Food and Nutrition
III.	The International Human Rights System
IV.	The Human Right to Food and Nutrition
V.	National and Other Rights Systems
VI.	Rights/Entitlements
VII.	Obligations/Commitments
VIII	Accountability Mechanisms
IX.	International Law and Governance
X.	Applications

In addition to the main text, there will be several additional required readings, as indicated in the reading schedule that will be provided.

Non-discrimination policy statement

Central European University does not discriminate on the basis of – including, but not limited to – race, color, national and ethnic origin, religion, gender or sexual orientation in administering its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

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	analyzing concrete situations to identify violations of the human right to food and nutrition;
	formulating proposals for policy and legislation that would operationalize the realization of the human right to food and nutrition in specific contexts;
	preparing teaching materials to support school or university based teaching, community-based education, and political lobbying work.