By a Politico Staff Writer
Ten media practitioners have taken part in a training geared towards help them get better understanding on the concept to do with violation of the right to adequate food and identify recourse measures. The event, which was organized by Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF), in partnership with the German NGO Welt Hunger Hilfe and the Community Media Network (CoMNeT), introduced journalists to various topics such as Right to Food Guidelines, the Right to Adequate Food in Practice and the establishing of a Regional Right to Food Advocacy Platform.
One of the event’s facilitators, Abdulai Kamara, explained the right of persons to adequate food which is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other conventions including the African Charter on Human Rights, and the international Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Kamara said signatory states have the responsibility to respect the right to food by creating laws and mechanisms that prevent violations by third parties and to guarantee the right to food. He said countries do have special obligation toward vulnerable groups such as women, children, the elderly and landless persons.
“They must also be enabled to have decisions that could jeopardize their rights reviewed by means of legal remedies’’, he pointed out. Kamara also said people must be able to access resources to produce enough food on their own land, raise livestock or have an income that would ensure purchasing of healthy food.
Advocating for the incorporation of the Right to Food into the legislation and policy of Sierra Leone, according to another facilitator, Frank Webber, would be the primary objective of a movement that he disclosed to have already been formed, to do so. He said Sierra Leone’s 1991 constitution made no clear reference to the right to adequate food. He pointed out that deeper awareness of the Right to Food would help agents of accountability to communicate in a more informed manner and aid them in comprehending the importance of keeping rights holders informed in a timely fashion and through the appropriate channels. The training of the journalists was held at the Campaign for Good Governance Office in Waterloo, Western Rural Area.
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