From Land to Food / From Values to Rules Colloquium
In partnership with Lascaux, the European research programme
The From Land to Food / From Values to Rules colloquium,
on June 28 and 29, 2010
In addition to the themes presented above, which will serve as a basis for organizing plenary sessions and round tables, the 4th World Forum on Human Rights will be developing a special work project in partnership with the European Lascaux programme. Its theme will be Law, Food, Land. http://www.droit-aliments-terre.eu
The Forum will thus host a colloquium entitled From Soil to Plate / From Values to Rules, that will be open to the general public at no cost on June 28 and June 29.
READ THE PROGRAMME
1. Monday, June 28, 2010 (part 1)
A plenary session in two parts:
- 9:30 am - 12 pm: Access to Land, a developing human right
- 2:00 - 4:30 pm: Access to food, a human right to be guaranteed
- 6:30 pm: Opening ceremony of the 4th World Forum on Human Rights
2. Tuesday, June 29, 2010
- 9:30 am - 12 pm: Farming development and reduction of poverty
Round table based on experiences such as Humani-Terre in India, in Columbia, in Palestine and in Mali - 2:00 - 4:30 pm: Citizen Forum: a debate between NGO's and researchers
From Food to Land, from Values to Rules. Which solutions ?
No call for papers will be made, but anyone who attends may participate in discussions during the various sessions that will be proposed.
The objective of the Lascaux programme is to ensure that "law serves the cause of the sustainable and equitable development of farming and the food industry in both poor and rich countries." The programme seeks to "find the legal causes of global food crises and food-related problems, and to increase awareness of the right to food". The Lascaux teamwhich is headed by François Collart-Dutilleul, a professor of private law at the University of Nantes and a member of the University Institute of Franceis composed of some 80 researchers from around the world. Although most of these academics are legal experts the team also includes economists, sociologists and anthropologists.
The colloquium
Over the past few decades, we have seen a very encouraging increase in European and international legislation that has expanded, classified, described and combined a large number of human rights, including the right to sufficient and healthy food, and to a lesser extent the right of peasant farmers to have access to arable land. There is now a very broad consensus on the importance of these human rights.
And yet the number of famine victims continues to increase steadily, along with the number of poor farmers who lack arable land and are victims of the economic system, indifference and the environment. But these factors are too vague to enable us to determine exactly what the problem is. It is not enough to point our fingers at:
- the inadequate regulation of an economic system based solely on free-market forces;
- the cynical indifference of institutions and companies that go about their work and business with no consideration for the suffering they cause or allow to happen;
- disruptions to the environment that may result in global warming, a shortage of fresh water and soil infertility caused by pollution. Read more...
