A rights-based approach to food systems ensures that everyone has the legal and social entitlement to adequate food, empowering communities and holding institutions accountable for nutrition and equity. Read more, including some key resources and latest news.
Food systems need to be addressed from a human rights-based perspective and in particular the Right to food. This entails addressing hunger’s structural causes by ensuring that rights holders (such as small-scale farmers, women and youth) can claim their food system-related rights and participate in governance mechanisms, and by supporting duty bearers (authorities) in the effective respect, protection and fulfilment of rights-based instruments such as UNDROP (UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants) or the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Agriculture (ITPGRFA), of which Switzerland is a signing party. Alongside these frameworks, Switzerland actively supports the development, negotiation and implementation of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) policy recommendations and Voluntary Guidelines (On the right to food, On food systems and nutrition, On responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests).
Switzerland also strives to protect and strengthen the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Over 70% of the land in Africa is governed by customary land rights. It is important that land governance systems (laws, regulations, management) are inclusive and take into consideration customary land rights but also alternative dispute mechanisms, and especially protect and promote the access of women and young people to land and other productive resources.
Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2018, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) affirms the human rights of peasants, family farmers, pastoralists, fishers, agricultural workers, and rural communities. It recognises their specific contributions to food security, biodiversity, and sustainable food systems, while addressing the structural inequalities and discrimination they face. UNDROP protects rights related to land, seeds, natural resources, decent livelihoods, food, water, social protection, participation in decision-making, and a safe, healthy environment, grounding food systems transformation in a rights-based approach.
Supporting UNDROP requires translating its principles into laws, policies, and programmes at national and local levels, including securing land and resource rights, protecting seeds and traditional knowledge, and ensuring access to services and markets:
Promotion of these rights through awareness-raising, capacity-building, and inclusive dialogue with rural communities, civil society, and public institutions,
Protection of these rights depends on accountability mechanisms, access to justice, and monitoring of rights violations.
Integrating UNDROP into development cooperation, food system strategies, and climate action—through participatory, gender-responsive, and context-specific approaches—helps ensure that rural people are recognised as rights-holders and as key agents of sustainable development.
Although part of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and included in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Right to Food is less widely known than other human rights, as it is broader, more complex, systemic and closely linked to broader structural and economic factors. It entitles every person to have physical and economic access at all times to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and cultural preferences. Beyond access to food, it encompasses the right to adequate food systems, including sustainable agricultural practices, equitable distribution, and participation in decisions affecting food security. The right to food also emphasizes the obligations of states to respect, protect, and fulfil this right, particularly for vulnerable groups such as rural communities, women, children, and marginalized populations.
For the Right to Food to be recognised and enforced, it requires the development and enforcement of policies and legal frameworks that guarantee access to adequate, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food for all:
Support towards duty-bearers :
Embedd the legal recognition of the Right to Food in national constitutions, laws, and policies, and assist governments in aligning food, agriculture, land, and social protection policies with this right, ensuring that food security is achieved in a sustainable, equitable, and rights-based manner.
Strengthen land and resource tenure rights for smallholders, Indigenous peoples, pastoralists, and women through land registration, legal aid, and implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT).
Improve access to local and regional markets for small producers through infrastructure, storage, cooperatives, and fair procurement policies (e.g., public institutions buying from smallholders).
Protection of this Right, through notably monitoring, accountability mechanisms, and remedies to prevent violations, such as land grabs or discriminatory practices.
Support inclusive data systems disaggregated by gender, age, ethnicity, and geography to identify who is food-insecure and ensure no group is invisible.
Strengthen social protection schemes (cash transfers, school feeding, food vouchers) designed as entitlements rather than charity, with clear grievance and appeal mechanisms.
Support towards rights holders :
Promotion of this Right through awareness-raising, community empowerment, and civil society strengthening, so that people can claim their rights and participate in food system governance.
Provide legal literacy and rights awareness programs so communities understand their entitlements related to food, land, water, and social services.
Build capacity of farmer organizations and community groups to participate meaningfully in policy dialogue, budget processes, and local food system planning.
Support agroecological and climate-resilient practices that reduce dependence on costly inputs while protecting biodiversity, soil health, and long-term food sovereignty.
Establish and fund community-based monitoring systems where citizens can track food availability, nutrition outcomes, and government service delivery, feeding into accountability mechanisms.
Support multi-stakeholder food policy platforms that include civil society, small producers, and marginalized groups in food governance at local and national levels.
Food sovereignty is the principle that people, communities, and nations have the right and the ability to shape their own food and agriculture systems - according to their social, cultural, economic, and ecological realities. It places control over resources, such as land, water, seeds, forests, fisheries, and knowledge, primarily in the hands of those who produce, harvest, and depend on food, rather than distant markets or corporations. Food sovereignty emphasises democratic governance of food systems, where smallholders, pastoralists, Indigenous peoples, but also consumers, participate meaningfully in decisions that affect what is grown, how it is grown, and how it reaches people.
It also frames food as more than a commodity: food is a cultural, social, and ecological good tied to identity, dignity, and community well-being. This perspective prioritizes local and territorial markets, culturally appropriate diets, and agroecological production methods that sustain biodiversity and natural resources. At its core, food sovereignty is about power, rights, and self-determination in the food system.
SDC and partners support this through various types of activities :
Promoting agroecology and low-input, biodiversity-based farming systems.
Establishing farmer cooperatives and producer organisations to increase bargaining power.
Supporting community seed banks and protection of farmers’ seed rights and traditional varieties.
Securing collective and individual land, pasture, forest, and fishing rights for local communities.
Facilitating participatory land-use planning and territorial governance led by communities.
Strengthening local food markets, short value chains, and territorial markets.
Supporting local food processing and storage infrastructure to reduce post-harvest losses and import dependency.
Promoting women’s leadership and decision-making in food and land governance.
Encouraging youth engagement in farming through access to land, training, and finance.
Creating multi-stakeholder food councils that give communities a formal voice in food policy.
Developing public procurement schemes (e.g., schools, hospitals) that source from local smallholders.
CFS HLPE reports The HLPE-FSN studies are the result of a continuous dialogue between HLPE-FSN experts and a wide range of stakeholders, whether public, private or from the civil society, and knowledge holders across the world, combining different forms of knowledge, building bridges across regions and countries, as well as across various scientific disciplines and professional backgrounds, and following a rigorous scientific peer review process.
Food security is more than producing enough food. Many countries face systemic barriers that limit access to land, resources, and services, resulting in unequal food access despite sufficient supply. The People-Centered Food Systems (PCFSy) Project addresses these challenges by helping governments and communities integrate human rights principles into food systems.
21 July 2025
Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence
The EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR), which aims to minimize the contribution of the EU to global deforestation, is facing challenges in its implementation. One such challenge lies in applying the required due diligence provisions in producer countries such as Peru, where the impacts of the EUDR may be significant. Peru has a prominent tropical forest area and exports most of its cocoa and coffee to the EU, crops which are grown mainly by smallholder farming families and Indigenous communities. This study explores the ongoing implementation of the EUDR in Peru, through a case study in the country's cocoa and coffee sectors.
7 April 2025
RAISE - Giving Those Affected a Voice
The international consortium RAISE, led by Fastenaktion and co-financed by the SDC, is committed to agroecological change and the implementation of peasants’ rights. RAISE partner Nyang'ori Ohenjo, representative of Kenyan civil society, attended the WEF in Davos and gave a statement during the Pre-session of Kenyan UPR in Geneva. Read the interviews with Fastenaktion and Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse (VSF) to find out more about his engagement and how important it is for those affected to make their voices heard in political processes.
