The Right to Adequate Food and Its Implementation in Ethiopia

Abstract

International law recognizes the right of everyone to adequate food and the fundamental freedom from hunger and malnutrition. The article is to determine whether the right to adequate food was realized in Ethiopia in reference to the normative content of the human right to adequate food and to identify and discuss existing constraints in attaining food adequacy, availability and accessibility.According to this Article, the right to adequate food in Ethiopia can be inferred from both substantive provision like article 15, 40-43 and social policy objectives under article 90. This right could further be unequivocal when we see those articles of the same Constitution with ratified regional and international instruments more specifically article 11 of ICSECR and its GC-12. Regardless of legal recognition, ensuring the enjoyment of this right by vulnerable poor individuals remains a complex matter, particularly economic access at all times to adequate food and means for its procurement hardly possible for street children in study area. Its realization was hindered by lack of adequate national legislation and policy frameworks, lack of awareness about recourse mechanism and content of right to adequate food, lack of direct government provision of food and inadequate incorporation of human right based approach to efforts of food security for vulnerable and this article provided possible recommendation for future.

Keywords: Food, human rights, implementation and Ethiopia

DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/136-02

Publication date:September 30^th 2023