The Rights to Food and Water: Dependencies and Dilemmas

Abstract

This paper analyses how businesses affect the right to water and the right to food. It looks primarily at businesses as water users, rather than as water providers, and as food producers. It examines the private sector impacts on these rights through the "Protect-Respect-Remedy" framework developed by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on business and human rights. As the Framework affirms, the corporate responsibility to respect rights applies to all human rights, and involves due diligence to understand potential impacts on rights and put systems in place to prevent and address any violations. Thus, the private sector’s responsibility to respect, and its attendant due diligence obligations, apply to the rights to food and water.

Delving into the normative content of the rights to food and water, and looking in particular at the minimum core content of these rights, makes clear that those who suffer from violations of the right to food or the right to water are typically those who are poor, vulnerable, and experience a "rights deficit" more generally. Commercial agriculture and industry compete with other users of water, including individuals. The amount of water needed to fulfill the right to water for an individual is very small, as is the amount of water needed by subsistence farmers to produce food for personal consumption. However, examples abound internationally of disproportionate water use and pollution by businesses that significantly impacts access to water for surrounding communities. This paper discusses examples which show that where a business adversely impacts access to water through its operations, it is also highly likely to be contributing to abuses of the right to food for individuals in the local area.

Private sector impacts on water and food are, of course, situated within and mediated by the regulatory regime and policy choices made by the State, the primary duty holder vis-à-vis human rights. Weak regulation may generate opportunities for profit, but it can also create the potential for violations of the rights to food and water, and this is a dilemma that companies have to navigate. Moreover, macroeconomic forces also influence how a business impacts access to food and water for individuals, and given the global nature of food markets, these impacts are often felt by communities located far from a company’s site of operations.

In light of this, how should companies strengthen their due diligence to ensure that they are respecting the rights to food and water? The paper presents a set of questions for companies to consider, which encompass efficiency, waste disposal, ensuring adequate supply of water in the area of operations to other users, working conditions, use of free, prior, informed consent, and fair dealings with local communities.

Keywords: right to food, right to water, business and human rights, corporate social responsibility, CSR

JEL Classification: M14