Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food on her mission to Azerbaijan, A/HRC/43/44/Add.1
The Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver, conducted an official visit to Azerbaijan from 1 to 11 October 2019 at the invitation of the Government. The Special Rapporteur’s objective was to assess the enjoyment of the right to adequate food in the country, to engage in a constructive dialogue with all stakeholders and provide useful recommendations to the Government and others. While Azerbaijan has made impressive efforts to establish new institutions, the challenge now is to ensure that the right to food is provided for all and the related goals are implemented through the allocation of adequate budgets and securing growth that benefits all levels of society. That effort is still in its early stages and needs to incorporate a human rights-based approach to ensure sustainable development in the agricultural sector that is sensitive to the needs and traditions of the country’s regions and people of different ethnic backgrounds. You can access the report in full here.
Concluding Remarks and Recommendations
The Special Rapporteur notes that human rights are of central importance to the success and achievements of the sustainable development efforts of Azerbaijan, which are closely connected with achieving high levels of food security and self-sufficiency.
The next 10 years are going to be crucial. Azerbaijan should concentrate its efforts on achieving self-sufficiency and strengthen its independence from big agricultural powers and companies to safeguard food security in the country. To achieve this, it is crucial to increase the market competitiveness of small farmers. If the Government is ready to promote the country’s human capital through education, incorporate a human rights-based approach into its agricultural policies and adopt meaningful public consultation, especially with vulnerable groups such as women, children, rural communities and persons with disabilities, sustainable development could be accomplished. If this course is followed, Azerbaijan will deserve great praise for its record of achievement and reform.
The Special Rapporteur wishes to reiterate her commitment to continue the dialogue initiated during her visit. She looks forward to working with the Government in a spirit of cooperation on the implementation of her recommendations. Of her many recommendations, the Special Rapporteur urges the Government and other stakeholders to prioritize the following issues:
(a) Ratification of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
(b) Ratification of the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence;
(c) Development of human rights education and raising awareness, understanding and acceptance of economic, social and cultural rights, in particular on the right to food;
(d) Adoption of a comprehensive legal framework on the right to adequate food that integrates all relevant sectors, such as the environment, trade, nutrition, health, the empowerment of women and the protection of smallholder farmers, provision of a monitoring mechanism and promotion of food sovereignty for all;
(e) Integration of a human rights-based approach to the legal and policy framework, which will ensure that priority will be given to the needs of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, and allocation of adequate resources for the implementation and enforcement of the existing legal framework;
(f) Continuation of efforts towards implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 2 to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, and establishment of a national monitoring system;
(g) Investment and encouragement of small-scale farmers to form associations to increase their capacity to process their products and access the market;
(h) Implementation and monitoring of the environmental regulations that protect against soil degradation and water pollution, and enhancement of efforts to protect the access of small-scale farmers and rural communities to water resources;
(i) Investment in climate change mitigation and adaptation measures and full integration of the right to food into climate change and disaster policies, paying special attention to those who are especially vulnerable, including farmers, rural communities and coastal communities, while also taking a gender perspective;
(j) Enhancement of the control and monitoring systems against the excessive use of pesticides and banning of the use of glyphosate; (A/HRC/43/44/Add.1 21).
(k) Promotion of organic agriculture and agroecology, including by providing support, such as financial mechanisms and training programmes, for ecological farming;
(l) Adoption of the necessary gender-sensitive legal and policy measures for the recognition and exercise of women’s property rights; for closing education and employment gaps and ensuring that women participate in public life. In the agricultural sector, the Government needs to ensure that women’s role is visible and legally supported;
(m) Allocation of effective financial resources to provide easy access to agricultural and food sector credits to enhance the role of women in the sector;
(n) Adoption of a regulatory framework to control the private sector, especially producers of sugary drinks and food that contains excessive amounts of fat, sugar and salt, and the banning of unhealthy food advertisements from the media and from school canteens;
(o) Provision of support and protection to mothers and their infants and young children to facilitate optimal feeding practices. In line with this obligation, Azerbaijan should adopt measures to foster women’s informed decision-making, including through access to objective and accurate information on the benefits of breastfeeding, as well as protection from biased and misleading information through the inappropriate marketing practices of manufacturers and distributors of baby food products;
(p) Provision of all necessary human, technical and financial resources for the establishment of a comprehensive system for data collection, analysis and monitoring, and that the data collected be disaggregated by age, gender, ethnicity, geographic region and socioeconomic background;
(q) Significant increases in spending on health, education and social protection;
(r) Development of a comprehensive strategy regarding internally displaced persons that includes the possibility of development. The desire for a political resolution to the occupation of land and the need for voluntary return as the preferred solution must be respected;
(s) Guarantees of genuine civil society space for the robust discussion of ideas, raising important concerns, sharing knowledge and experience, and promoting transparency.