Abstract

PIP: This paper presents a speech delivered by Stephen Lewis, deputy executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on the implications of understanding malnutrition as a human rights violation for UN-supported programs. According to Lewis, good nutrition is a right guaranteed for children under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This international agreement combines all rights equally: economic, social, cultural, political and civil rights. The determinants of good nutrition, such as food, care and health, are all covered in the provision that guarantees children the right to the highest attainable standard of health. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women contains similar provisions with respect to the health and nutrition of women. These instruments of human rights serve as tools to recast understanding of every country's obligation, the program and policy strategies supported by UN agencies, and views on those who would impede the realization of the right of children and women to good nutrition. UNICEF has taken the initiative to make the rights embodied in these conventions a reality. A summary of what this means for UNICEF and other agencies of the UN with respect to malnutrition were presented, as well as the continuing efforts of UNICEF to address the problem of malnutrition in the context of human rights violation.