Tying the Knot: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Human Right to Adequate Nutrition

JESSICA FANZO, KAITLIN Y. CORDES, ELIZABETH FOX, AND ANNA BULMAN *

Malnutrition is alarmingly prevalent, affecting one in three people worldwide. In this Article, we argue that a key reason the global community has been unsuccessful in combatting malnutrition is a lack of clarity outside the field of nutrition regarding the true meaning of “nutrition.” In particular, this has limited the effectiveness of international human rights law as a mechanism for addressing malnutrition.

In this interdisciplinary Article, which draws from both the legal and nutrition fields, we unpack the meaning of nutrition and demonstrate that a standalone right to adequate nutrition does indeed exist in international human rights law as a sum of other rights. This right to nutrition is, essentially, the sum of the human rights to food, health, education, water and sanitation, a healthy environment, information, political participation, and social security, along with rights ensuring adequate protection of and nondiscrimination against specific groups, such as women, children, and indigenous peoples. Having located the right to nutrition within international human rights law, we argue that it is important to package adequate nutrition as a standalone human right, and we propose the following definition:

“The right to adequate nutrition is realized when all people have access to (i) a diverse, adequate, quality, and safe diet that meets their basic nutritional needs, (ii) the biological means, conditions, and resources needed to support a health status that effectively man- ages or is absent of illness and disease, and (iii) the underlying resources that influence the contextual factors that affect a person’s nutrition and health status, such as water, sanitation, hygiene, information, education, skills, income, physical and social capital, economic and natural resources, social protection, and political participation.”

We then provide a diagnostic tool for using a human rights-based approach to address malnutrition, and conclude with practical recommendations for improv- ing nutrition policy and governance in light of nutrition’s status as a standalone human right.

* Jessica Fanzo, Ph.D., is the Bloomberg Distinguished Associate Professor of Global Food & Agricultural Policy and Ethics at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), the Berman Institute of Bioethics, and the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. She is the Director of the Global Food Ethics and Policy Program at Johns Hopkins, and is the co-Chair for the Global Nutrition Report.

Kaitlin Y. Cordes is a public international lawyer, and is Head of Land and Agricul- ture and Lead: Human Rights and Investment at the Columbia Center on Sustainable In- vestment.

Elizabeth L. Fox, Ph.D., is a Hecht-Levi Postdoctoral Fellow in the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. Her work focuses on improving the implementa- tion of nutrition policies and interventions to reflect the broader social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental factors that influence individuals’ nutrition decisions.

Anna Bulman is a public international lawyer whose work focuses on global food systems through the lens of trade, investment, and human rights law. She is currently an ad- visor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights.

We are very grateful to scientific writer and graphic designer Claire Davis for updat- ing the UNICEF malnutrition framework for us. We also thank Jody Harris for her review of an earlier draft of the manuscript. All errors and omissions remain our own.