Rights of the child as imperatives for transforming food systems

Abstract

Ensuring access to nutritious food, maintaining a healthy planet, and eradicating child labor remain as critical priorities for protecting children’s rights. In this article, we explore issues and problems within the global food systems that impact children’s rights. We explore this through the lens of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We examine the intricacies of the food systems and their effect on children’s rights through five case studies from various regions around the world, looking at the lives of children in Australia, Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Mali, and elsewhere. The analysis encompasses topics such as school food programs, unhealthy junk food, climate impacts of farming, health impacts of pesticides, and child labor, all within the global food system. Our aim is to clearly demonstrate that adopting a child rights-based approach to food system governance can promote fairness and justice to children. Our argument is that it is cardinal for states to develop strategies and measures to curtail activities that hinder the realization of children’s rights and promote activities that enhance their realization. States bear a responsibility to restructure the institutional framework and to reinterpret the obligations of businesses to facilitate this objective.

Keywords

• biodiversity
• child labor
• children’s rights
• climate change
• food system
• human rights
• malnutrition
• right to a healthy environment
• un convention on the rights of the child
• sustainable development
• sustainability transition