Chairperson of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights, Professor Damilola Olawuyi, SAN, has called on States, agribusinesses and other stakeholders in the food sector to implement sustainable and rights-based food security investments and programmes that address food fraud and advance food justice.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who is also the global vice chair of the International Law Association, made these remarks while presenting a report to world leaders at the 62nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
Themed: Agribusiness, Food Security and Human Rights, the report considers how governments, businesses, investors and other stakeholders in the food and agribusiness sector can best design and implement sustainable and rights-based food security programmes that address food fraud and advance food justice, in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
To accelerate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, SDG 2, on zero hunger and to lower the rising cost of food, a growing number of countries and investors in the agribusiness sector have announced food security investments and programmes aimed at ramping up food production and ensuring food availability, affordability and accessibility.
While elaborating the need to ensure that such investments and programs do not result in adverse human rights impacts such as land-grabbing, food waste, environmental pollution and food fraud practices, which he describes as including the economically motivated adulteration of food, misleading food labelling, fraudulent packaging, seed theft, abuse of food assistance programmes and illicit trade in food products.
Olawuyi called on governments and businesses worldwide to seize the momentum of the ongoing efforts to attract investments in the food sector to create sustainable food value chains that penalise food fraud.
According to him, “International law has key roles to play in ensuring the safety and sustainability of the food we eat. People want to be sure that when they pick up their food supplies, the product is not adulterated, wrongly labelled or containing misleading claims about its environmental sustainability.
This report therefore provides timely and practical legal insights that can help agribusinesses, investors, policymakers, scholars, and institutions worldwide navigate these complex and evolving realities while supporting more resilient and sustainable food and agribusiness value chains that advance the SDGs and leave no one behind.”
He noted that the design, financing and implementation of food security programmes and agricultural investments should not replicate or create new forms of human rights abuses.
“Human rights must therefore be urgently placed at the heart of global efforts to advance food security and sustainable food systems in a manner that promotes food affordability, addresses food fraud and advances food justice in line with UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
We must also ensure inclusive policies that strengthen and support smallholder farmers to access finance, technologies and training required to actively particupate in food supply value chains.”
Olawuyi also called on investors and businesses to embed human rights in their policies and strategies as part of a robust risk management process, while calling for increased coordination at all levels of governance to integrate human rights standards into food security, climate and sustainable development policies and strategies, and provide effective remedies for people affected by human rights and environmental abuses linked to food production and supply chains.
He challenged all stakeholders to avoid greenwashing and misleading claims or food labels, including those concerning food origin, climate and environmental footprints, types of processing, constituents and production methods, calling for clear, credible, and transparent food marketing and labelling.
While emphasising the need for capacity development, human rights awareness and education, Olawuyi noted that “higher education institutions, civil society, Indigenous Peoples and human rights defenders, play a critical role in enabling businesses and investors to identify, prevent and address human rights risks across the food and agribusiness value chains,” said Olawuyi.
