Olivier De Schutter
Olivier De Schutter is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, and a practising academic specialising in economic and social rights. A Harvard graduate now resident in Belgium, he was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food by the Human Rights Council in March 2008 and assumed his functions on 1 May 2008.[1] He still teaches international human rights law, European Union law and legal theory at the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium, as well as at the College of Europe. He is also a visiting professor at Columbia University. Additionally, he was a visiting scholar (2010-2012) at American University Washington College of Law's Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.
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Background [edit]
The son of a diplomat, his primary and high school education took place in Bombay (now Mumbai), India; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and Kigali, Rwanda. He studied law at the Université catholique de Louvain, Pantheon-Assas University and Harvard University, before obtaining a Ph.D. from Louvain-la-Neuve. His doctoral thesis was published in French as Fonction de juger et droits fondamentaux. Transformation du contrôle juridictionnel dans les ordres juridiques américain et européens, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1999, 1164 pp. His subsequent publications are in the areas of governance and human rights, with a particular focus on the issue of globalization and human rights and economic and social rights more generally, and on the protection of fundamental rights in the European Union. Among his books on human rights are International Human Rights Law. Cases, Materials, Commentary, published by Cambridge University Press in 2010. In his work, he seeks to link the human rights principles of participation, accountability, and non-discrimination, with the idea of learning-based public policies, that are permanently tested and revised in the light of their impact on the poorest and most vulnerable.
Work as Special Rapporteur [edit]
As part of his role as a Special Rapporteur for the UN, De Schutter's has responsibility for trying to ensure governments honour their obligation to safeguard their citizen's Right to food. He works mainly in developing countries, but has also taken an interest in advanced economies such as Canada, conducting an 11 day formal investigation in Canada during 2012. As Special Rapporteur he has released official reports on agroecology, nutrition, contract farming, fisheries, gender and other key issues tied to securing the right to food, and throughout has advocated the need for smallholder farmers to be at the centre of food security strategies and urged countries to reinvest in their agricultural sectors rather than rely on imports from volatile world markets. He has also been critical of large-scale land acquisitions and biofuel production in food insecure countries. De Schutter is featured in Marie-Monique Robins 2012 documentary Crops of the Future, where his encouraging study of agro-ecology and the solutions to our planet's food crisis is presented.[2] [3]
International Federation for Human Rights [edit]
Before being appointed the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, De Schutter was the General Secretary of the International Federation for Human Rights, and international human rights non-governmental organisation based in Paris focused on the issue of globalization and human rights (2004–2008). Between 2002 and 2007, he chaired the EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights, a high level group of experts set up at the request of the European Parliament providing the European institutions with independent expertise on fundamental rights issues and reporting on the situation of fundamental rights in the EU.
Family life [edit]
Olivier De Schutter is married to Anne Carlier, with whom he has three children.
References [edit]
- ^ Olivier De Schutter | United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. srfood.org 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
- ^ Charlie Cooper (2013-02-17). "UN official alarmed by rise of food banks in UK". The Independent. Retrieved 2013-02-23.
- ^ Jessica Elgot (2013-02-19). "Food Poverty: UN Special Rapporteur Finds Austerity, Food Banks And Working Poor In UK 'Extremely Worrying'". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-02-24.
External links [edit]
- Marie-Monique Robin: Les moissons du futur (Crops of the Future- How to feed the world in 2050?), 90’, Coproduction: ARTE France, M2R Films, CFRT, SOS Faim Belgique
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