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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Mariana Chilton, PhD, MPH, Community Health and Prevention, Drexel University School of Public Health, 1505 Race St., Philadelphia, PA 19102, 1-215-762-6512, mmc33@drexel.edu and Donald (Diego) Rose, PhD, MPH, Community Health Sciences Department, Tulane University School of Public Health, 1440 Canal Street, Suite 2301, New Orleans, LA 70112.

Though the international community has accepted the definition and justiciability of the right to food, or right to be free from hunger, the United States government refuses to sign accords which declare this as a fundamental human right. Paradoxically, over the past decade, the US has undertaken perhaps the strongest effort in the world to measure food insecurity and hunger at a national level, while simultaneously encouraging research on the relationship between food insecurity, health and wellbeing. This paper explores the reasons underlying this paradox, identifies ways in which the human rights framework can be brought to the United States context, and addresses the challenges that naturally arise in this endeavor.

One of the challenges is to establish conceptual clarity and consensus on the meaning of hunger in the United States context, a goal implicit in recommendations of a recent panel of the National Research Council. A second challenge concerns the tension between a needs-based approach, which is the usual orientation to assessment and intervention in the field of public health nutrition, and a rights-based approach to adequate nutrition. A third challenge involves addressing our cultural aversion to the idea that social, economic and cultural rights are as important as civil and political rights. Finally, what the human rights framework brings to debates about food insecurity and nutritional wellbeing are the interdependent concepts of governmental accountability and basic human dignity. These characteristics of a rights-based approach have received inadequate treatment in our public and scholarly discourse.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Define and link the right to food and food insecurity.
• Describe current debates regarding measurement of hunger in US and globally.
• Identify ways in which the human rights framework can be used to address food insecurity and nutrition in the US context.

Keywords: Hunger, Human Rights

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No