5.2 The International Code of Conduct of the Human Right to Adequate Food

In its Plan of Action the World Food Summit mandated the High Commissioner for Human Rights to take the lead in better defining the right to food and nutrition and ways to implement it. Governments in particular need to come to grips with what is required of them to meet their obligations. These requirements have been developed in general terms in a draft International Code of Conduct on the Human Right to Adequate Food (FIAN/WANAHR/Institute Jacques Maritain International, 1997). The Code of Conduct is aimed at State Parties which have ratified the relevant Conventions, with a view to the complementary roles of civil society and the private sector. The Code was prepared by international NGOs and has now been endorsed by a great number of NGOs from all parts of the world. It was launched in September 1997. While the Code would be voluntary for member states, it may - if and when brought up for formal adoption by the appropriate intergovernmental body - pave the way for a more legally binding instrument at a later stage. The Code provides a definition of the normative content of the right to food, it proposes corresponding State obligations at national and international levels, responsibilities for international organisations and regulations for economic enterprises, as well as responsibilities for participants in civil society. It addresses means and methods for implementation, a framework for national monitoring as well as recourse procedures and international reporting, monitoring and support mechanisms.