The Right to Food Guidelines, Democracy and Citizen Participation Country case studies Routledge Studies in Food, Society and the Environment Series

It is now more than a decade since the Right to Food Guidelines were negotiated, agreed and adopted internationally by states. This book provides a review of its objectives and the extent of success of its implementation. The focus is on the first key guideline ? "Democracy, good governance, human rights and the rule of law" ? with an emphasis on civil society participation in global food governance. The five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are presented as case studies: representing major emerging economies, they blur the line between the Global North and South, and exhibit different levels of human rights realisation.

The book first provides an overview of the right to adequate food, accountability and democracy, and an introduction to the history of the development of the right to adequate food and the Right to Food Guidelines. It presents a historical synopsis of each of the BRICS states? experiences with the right to adequate food and an analysis of their related periodic reporting to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as a specific assessment of their progress in regard to the first guideline. The discussion then focuses on the effectiveness of the Right to Food Guidelines as both a policy-making and monitoring tool, based on the analysis of the guidelines and the BRICS states.

1. Introduction 2. Food, Human Rights, Democracy and Beyond 3. A historical Background of the Right to Adequate Food and the Right to Food Guidelines 4. United Yet Unique: the BRICS 5. Reporting on the Right to Food Guidelines: the Use and Usefulness of CESCR Periodic Reporting within Right to Adequate Food Realisation 6. Implementation of Guideline 1 of the Right to Food Guidelines by the BRICS: an Evaluation 7. Assessing the Policy-making Capabilities of the Right to Food Guidelines: How it Upholds and Undermines Right to Adequate Food Realisation 8. Democracy From Below

Katharine S. E. Cresswell Riol is a doctoral student at the University of Otago, New Zealand. She has a Master's degree from the University of Hohenheim, Germany, and has previously been employed as an academic writing advisor and freelance writer, as well as working and volunteering for several NGOs in the UK, Australia and Canada.