cannot suspend legislation or policies that give people access to food and the guidance gives the specific example of unjustifiable changes to social welfare legislation. I am sure many of you are making the links here with the UK’s Government’s welfare reform program. Scotland is also required to protect our right to food against violations by third parties. Businesses being the obvious example. This means that the food sold in our markets must be safe and nutritious, this also extends to the obligation to regulate advertising and supporting parents and professionals to encourage healthier eating and physical exercise. The obligation to fulfil is about being proactive and facilitating food security. This covers many bases of policy from land reform to minimum wage. An important element of the fulfil obligation includes providing social safety nets for the most deprived. So what is the state of realisation of the right to food in Scotland? The impact of public sector cuts and welfare reform has undoubtedly given rise to concerns about the right to food in Scotland. When we first started mapping the gaps in human rights in Scotland back in 2009 issues around access, accessibility adequacy was nowhere near as a common a concern among those with direct experience of poverty and those campaigning for social justice as they are now. Here we are in 2014 with the scandal of food banks as a defining political issue. It appears that there most certainly is a compelling evidence that the UK is regressing on its obligations rather than progressively realising it. The disproportionate impact of lack of access to nutritious food on women, children and disabled people is also an indictment of Scotland’s human rights record in this area. What can be done to realise the right to food in Scotland? There is work going on in Scotland at the moment to give greater effect to the right to food as a recognised and enforceable legal right. This work is within SNAP, Scotland’s National Action Plan for Human Rights. The evidence base for SNAP found that Scotland needed a more systematic approach to assure and not assume the realisation of human rights in practice. SNAP brings together government, public bodies, trade unions, feminist organisations, civil society and people with direct experience of poverty to agree actions on all areas affecting people’s lives. One
cannot suspend legislation or policies that give people access to food and the guidance gives the specific example of unjustifiable changes to social welfare legislation. I am sure many of you are making the links here with the UK’s Government’s welfare reform program. Scotland is also required to protect our right to food against violations by third parties. Businesses being the obvious example. This means that the food sold in our markets must be safe and nutritious, this also extends to the obligation to regulate advertising and supporting parents and professionals to encourage healthier eating and physical exercise. The obligation to fulfil is about being proactive and facilitating food security. This covers many bases of policy from land reform to minimum wage. An important element of the fulfil obligation includes providing social safety nets for the most deprived. So what is the state of realisation of the right to food in Scotland? The impact of public sector cuts and welfare reform has undoubtedly given rise to concerns about the right to food in Scotland. When we first started mapping the gaps in human rights in Scotland back in 2009 issues around access, accessibility adequacy was nowhere near as a common a concern among those with direct experience of poverty and those campaigning for social justice as they are now. Here we are in 2014 with the scandal of food banks as a defining political issue. It appears that there most certainly is a compelling evidence that the UK is regressing on its obligations rather than progressively realising it. The disproportionate impact of lack of access to nutritious food on women, children and disabled people is also an indictment of Scotland’s human rights record in this area. What can be done to realise the right to food in Scotland? There is work going on in Scotland at the moment to give greater effect to the right to food as a recognised and enforceable legal right. This work is within SNAP, Scotland’s National Action Plan for Human Rights. The evidence base for SNAP found that Scotland needed a more systematic approach to assure and not assume the realisation of human rights in practice. SNAP brings together government, public bodies, trade unions, feminist organisations, civil society and people with direct experience of poverty to agree actions on all areas affecting people’s lives. One
righttofooddf.docx