The Human Right to Food (1989–1994)

The year 1994 began with a demand from Zapatista rebels in Chiapas, Mexico for land, livelihood, adequate food and access to health care and education, expressed in terms of the basic human right to subsistence. This uprising of indigenous Maya indicates how far the concept of “human rights” now permeates grassroots consciousness and politics. In the five years since the Bellagio Declaration: Overcoming Hunger in the 1990s (1989) there has also been substantial advocacy at the summit for the human right to food (Table 1), and in some cases measurable goals have been set.