The urgency of this mandate has since grown, with global food shortages and reports from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that nearly one billion people are suffering from grave undernourishment.
However, according to Olivier de Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food, “FIAN is doing much more than just combating hunger. To be able to feed yourself is a human right”.
The only HR organisation promoting the right to food
FIAN’s mandate has always focused on supporting the struggle of those fighting against unjust and oppressi
ve practices that prevent them from feeding themselves and their families. This long-term, sustainable view is reflected in the organization’s strategy.
“Our objective is to achieve concrete solutions in the form of real policy changes to secure people’s access to the resources they need in order to feed themselves both now and in the future,” states FIAN’s Secretary-General Flavio Valente.
In order to support those struggling to realize their right to food FIAN rigorously reports on human rights violations and helps to build the capacity of individuals and communities to defend their rights in courts of law against complicit governments and corporations.
The brain-child of a group of committed activists, FIAN remains the only international human rights organization working exclusively to promote the right to food. “The organization pioneered the defense of economic, social and cultural rights as human rights, while most of the other human rights organizations were limited to civil and political rights”, recalls Rolf Künnemann, one of the founders.
From a basement to a network in 18 countries
Over the past 25 years FIAN International has formalized its role as a supporter of those struggling for the right to food, expanding from a basement headquarters to a network of national offices in 18 countries.
FIAN was granted consultative status to t
he United Nations in 1989. This has enabled the organization to influence the human rights protection system in favor of vulnerable groups including peasant farmers, the landless and women.
FIAN contributed to major legal guidelines
It has contributed to the elaboration of the UN General Comment No. 12 on the Right to Food in 1999, now the most authoritative legal interpretation of the right to food in international law.
The organization was also a key player in the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Right to Food by the FAO member states in 2004 and in the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
FIAN will celebrate its anniversary at several national and international events throughout the year and especially on the occasion of World Food Day on October 16, 2011.
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