Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food,welcomes the ongoing work to elaborate the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication as a complement to the 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.
The Special Rapporteur has given specific attention to the situation of small-scale fisheries. In 2012, he presented a thematic report to the General Assembly on fisheries and the right to food (A/67/268), prepared following an expert consultation in Nairobi on 2 and 3 April 2012, convened together with the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The report highlights how the legal and normative framework of the right to food requires States to move towards more sustainable resource use while ensuring that the rights and livelihoods of small-scale fishers and coastal communities are respected and the food security of all groups depending on fish is improved. The present Guidelines can make an important contribution towards these objectives.
In particular, the Special Rapporteur welcomes the references the draft Guidelines in their current form include to the importance of (a) grounding of the guidelines in international human rights standards and principles; (b) free, active and meaningful participation participation of small-scale fishers is key in the design, implementation and assessment of the fisheries policies and interventions affecting them; (c) access to information and transparency; (d) accountability; and (d) policy coherence across various sectors.
As a contribution to the technical consultations on the guidelines due to be held in Rome from 3 to 7 February 2014, the Special Rapporteur would like to provide the following comments and
suggestions to the draft version of the guidelines contained in document TC-SSF/2014/2.
Olivier De Schutter was appointed the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food in March 2008 by the United Nations Human Rights Council. He is independent from any government or organization, and he reports to the Human Rights Council and to the General Assembly. All reports are available on
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Food/Pages/FoodIndex.aspxon. See www.srfood.org for a thematic classification of all reports and statements of the Special Rapporteur. The Special Rapporteur can be contacted at srfood@ohchr.org