Realizing Human Rights in Food Systems
While all our work takes a rights-based approach, we have a particular focus on realizing human rights within food systems, including the rights to food and nutrition. Through our scholarship, we increase understanding of these rights, and of the risks posed by investments in land and agriculture. Through our trainings and advocacy, we encourage protection and respect of rights in the context of land-based and agricultural investments.
Examples of our research and scholarship focused on the rights to food and nutrition, and human rights and agricultural investments, include:
- Tying the Knot: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Human Right to Adequate Nutrition, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, Volume 57, Number 1 (2018)
- Corporate Agricultural Investment and the Right to Food: Addressing Disparate Protections and Promoting Rights-Consistent Outcomes, Journal of International Law & Foreign Affairs
- Investments and Human Rights in the Agricultural Sector, Research Handbook on Human Rights and Investment (Elgar), pp. 414–451 (2018)
- Extraterritorial Obligations of States and the Right to Food, Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics (2014)
Beyond this academic work, CCSI’s training and advocacy encourage better understanding, protection, and respect of human rights in the context of agricultural investments. Examples include:
- Presentations and trainings on human rights and agricultural investments, including sessions tailored for and presented to institutional investors, commercial banks, impact investors, academics, and students, as well as for multi-stakeholder audiences comprised of government representatives, civil society representatives, and others.
Various memos and submissions on relevant topics, including, for example: a memo to the UK Government on using the UK National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights to address risks arising from agricultural investments; a submission to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on developing disclosure requirements to mitigate land tenure risks; a submission to the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) on supporting greater redress for harm in the context of project abandonment or failure; a submission to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, regarding its draft General Comment on “State obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Context of Business Activities,” on state obligations as they relate to international investment agreements, extraterritoriality, and corruption.