FIAN
Encyclopedia
Introduction
FIAN - that is FoodFirst Information and Action Network.
FIAN is an international human rights organization that has advocated for the realization of the right to food for more than 20 years. FIAN consists of national sections and individual members in over 50 countries around the world. FIAN is a not-for-profit organization without any religious or political affiliation and has consultative status to the United Nations
.
FIAN’s mission is to expose violations of people's right to food wherever they may occur. The organization stands up against unjust and oppressive practices that prevent people from feeding themselves. The struggle against gender discrimination and other forms of exclusion is integral part of its mission. It strives to secure people's access to the resources that they need in order to feed themselves, now and in the future.
FIAN analyzes and documents concrete cases of violations of the right to food. The organization raises awareness on the right to food among social movements, non-governmental organisations and governmental bodies and responds to requests from victim groups whose right to food is threatened or has been violated and mobilise support. With protest letter campaigns, advocacy and recourse to the law, FIAN exerts public pressure in order to hold governments accountable for violations of the right to food. FIAN follows up on cases until the victims get appropriate redress. Within the United Nations system and other legal regimes, the organization advocates respect of human rights in order to strengthen and improve the international human rights protection.
FIAN’s vision is a world free from hunger, in which every woman, man and child can fully enjoy their human rights in dignity, particularly the right to adequate food, as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and other international human rights instruments.
Organizational Structure
FIAN is an international membership based organisation. FIAN's institutional members are its national and regional sections which are legal entities in their own right and have their own membership and elected decision-making bodies.
The sections are first formed as co-ordinating groups in a country or region. At the local level, members of FIAN form groups mainly run by volunteers.
FIAN has some 45 active local groups worldwide. Total membership of FIAN currently stands at 3600 members and has twelve country sections: in Austria
, Belgium
, Brazil
, Germany
, Ghana
, Honduras
, India
(and there also in the states of Tamil Nadu
, Andhra Pradesh
, Karnataka
, Uttar Pradesh
and West Bengal
), Mexico
, Norway
, the Philippines
, Sweden
and Switzerland
. The Co-Ordinations are: Bangladesh
, Ecuador
, France
, Nepal
, Netherlands
and Sri Lanka
, and the affiliated groups are: Bangalore
, Italy
, Madhya Pradesh
, Maharashtra
, Rajasthan
, South Tyrol
(Italy) and Pittsburgh (USA).
The overall mission, vision and the strategy of FIAN is defined and revised by the International Council (IC), and represented by delegates of the sections who meet once in two years. The IC elects the International Executive Committee (IEC), which is headed by the president, and supervises the implementation of FIAN’s strategic plans. The IEC meets bi-annually to review and strategize FIAN programs, methods and budgets. The operative working unit being in charge of the execution of FIAN’s programs is its International Secretariat (IS) located in Heidelberg (Germany), and coordinated by the Secretary General.
FIAN's work
FIAN uses various working tools to achieve the realization of the right to adequate food.
Case-work and Interventions
At international Fact Finding Missions, FIAN identifies and addresses human rights violations. FIAN interviews people threatened or affected by violations of their right to food and verifies the facts of a situation. Face-to-face contacts to local counterparts are established and serve as a basis for trustful co-operation. On request of those affected, FIAN reacts quickly, analyses the case and mobilises members and supporters worldwide to send out Urgent Action protest letters. Violations are also followed-up in long-term case-work by local FIAN action groups. In close co-operation with the affected communities, FIAN persistently approaches the responsible authorities and identifies breaches of right to food obligations. FIAN’s analysis is based on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
as interpreted in the UN General Comments, in particular General Comment 12 on the right to adequate food. Existing recourse mechanisms and legal remedies under national and international human rights law are applied to provide redress to the victims.
Lobby and Advocacy
Reliable contacts and networks, a sound documentation of cases and two decades of experience provide a solid basis for effective lobbying and advocating the right to food. FIAN holds states, international institutions and private actors accountable at the national and international levels. The Right to Food Guidelines adopted by the FAO
in 2004 is one of the tools FIAN uses to monitor states’ right to food policies. FIAN tries to improve the existing right to food protection system and to establish new instruments. Intense follow-up work strives to secure the effective implementation of existing instruments, making the right to food politically and judicially enforceable everywhere for everyone.
Information and Education
Targeted information campaigns and awareness-raising on the right to food are at the core of FIAN’s work - to empower social movements and non-governmental organizations to hold states accountable for violations of the right to food, to clarify for governments and other duty-bearers the content and implementation needs of their obligations, and to motivate supporters from civil society to join action against human rights violations. The systematic information gathered from more than 400 individual cases over the past two decades is analyzed and fed into various professional publications.
Impact
FIAN was involved prominently in the development of the human rights protection system, for instance in the strengthened procedure of State’s and parallel reporting on economic, social, and cultural human rights in the UN human rights system; the elaboration of the UN General Comment No. 12 on the Right to Food in 1999 as the most authoritative legal interpretation of the right to food in international law; and the adoption of the “Voluntary Guidelines on the Right to Food” by the FAO member states in 2004.
FIAN’s commitment was awarded internationally:
Public Eye on Davos - Positive Award: In 2006, FIAN International together with two partners won the Public Eye on Davos - Positive Award, which is given every year on the occasion of the World Economic Forum in Davos, for their commitment in favour of the rights of workers of the Mexican tyre factory Euzkadi.
Silver Rose Award: In 2005, two staff members of the FIAN Section Germany received the Silver Rose Award for their commitment for the rights of workers in the flower industry, the participation in the development of the International Code of Conduct for the Production of Cut flowers (ICC) and its successful implementation in the framework of the Flower Label Programm (FLP).
Face-It-Act-Now Campaign: http://www.face-it-act-now.org/
Urgent Actions: http://fian.org/cases/letter-campaigns
Publications: http://fian.org/resources/documents/others
FIAN - that is FoodFirst Information and Action Network.
FIAN is an international human rights organization that has advocated for the realization of the right to food for more than 20 years. FIAN consists of national sections and individual members in over 50 countries around the world. FIAN is a not-for-profit organization without any religious or political affiliation and has consultative status to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
FIAN’s mission is to expose violations of people's right to food wherever they may occur. The organization stands up against unjust and oppressive practices that prevent people from feeding themselves. The struggle against gender discrimination and other forms of exclusion is integral part of its mission. It strives to secure people's access to the resources that they need in order to feed themselves, now and in the future.
FIAN analyzes and documents concrete cases of violations of the right to food. The organization raises awareness on the right to food among social movements, non-governmental organisations and governmental bodies and responds to requests from victim groups whose right to food is threatened or has been violated and mobilise support. With protest letter campaigns, advocacy and recourse to the law, FIAN exerts public pressure in order to hold governments accountable for violations of the right to food. FIAN follows up on cases until the victims get appropriate redress. Within the United Nations system and other legal regimes, the organization advocates respect of human rights in order to strengthen and improve the international human rights protection.
FIAN’s vision is a world free from hunger, in which every woman, man and child can fully enjoy their human rights in dignity, particularly the right to adequate food, as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
and other international human rights instruments.
Organizational Structure
FIAN is an international membership based organisation. FIAN's institutional members are its national and regional sections which are legal entities in their own right and have their own membership and elected decision-making bodies.
The sections are first formed as co-ordinating groups in a country or region. At the local level, members of FIAN form groups mainly run by volunteers.
FIAN has some 45 active local groups worldwide. Total membership of FIAN currently stands at 3600 members and has twelve country sections: in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
(and there also in the states of Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
, Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
, Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...
, Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
and West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
), Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. The Co-Ordinations are: Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, and the affiliated groups are: Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
, Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
, Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
, South Tyrol
South Tyrol
South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...
(Italy) and Pittsburgh (USA).
The overall mission, vision and the strategy of FIAN is defined and revised by the International Council (IC), and represented by delegates of the sections who meet once in two years. The IC elects the International Executive Committee (IEC), which is headed by the president, and supervises the implementation of FIAN’s strategic plans. The IEC meets bi-annually to review and strategize FIAN programs, methods and budgets. The operative working unit being in charge of the execution of FIAN’s programs is its International Secretariat (IS) located in Heidelberg (Germany), and coordinated by the Secretary General.
FIAN's work
FIAN uses various working tools to achieve the realization of the right to adequate food.
Case-work and Interventions
At international Fact Finding Missions, FIAN identifies and addresses human rights violations. FIAN interviews people threatened or affected by violations of their right to food and verifies the facts of a situation. Face-to-face contacts to local counterparts are established and serve as a basis for trustful co-operation. On request of those affected, FIAN reacts quickly, analyses the case and mobilises members and supporters worldwide to send out Urgent Action protest letters. Violations are also followed-up in long-term case-work by local FIAN action groups. In close co-operation with the affected communities, FIAN persistently approaches the responsible authorities and identifies breaches of right to food obligations. FIAN’s analysis is based on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from January 3, 1976...
as interpreted in the UN General Comments, in particular General Comment 12 on the right to adequate food. Existing recourse mechanisms and legal remedies under national and international human rights law are applied to provide redress to the victims.
Lobby and Advocacy
Reliable contacts and networks, a sound documentation of cases and two decades of experience provide a solid basis for effective lobbying and advocating the right to food. FIAN holds states, international institutions and private actors accountable at the national and international levels. The Right to Food Guidelines adopted by the FAO
Fão
Fão is a town in Esposende Municipality in Portugal....
in 2004 is one of the tools FIAN uses to monitor states’ right to food policies. FIAN tries to improve the existing right to food protection system and to establish new instruments. Intense follow-up work strives to secure the effective implementation of existing instruments, making the right to food politically and judicially enforceable everywhere for everyone.
Information and Education
Targeted information campaigns and awareness-raising on the right to food are at the core of FIAN’s work - to empower social movements and non-governmental organizations to hold states accountable for violations of the right to food, to clarify for governments and other duty-bearers the content and implementation needs of their obligations, and to motivate supporters from civil society to join action against human rights violations. The systematic information gathered from more than 400 individual cases over the past two decades is analyzed and fed into various professional publications.
Impact
FIAN was involved prominently in the development of the human rights protection system, for instance in the strengthened procedure of State’s and parallel reporting on economic, social, and cultural human rights in the UN human rights system; the elaboration of the UN General Comment No. 12 on the Right to Food in 1999 as the most authoritative legal interpretation of the right to food in international law; and the adoption of the “Voluntary Guidelines on the Right to Food” by the FAO member states in 2004.
FIAN’s commitment was awarded internationally:
Public Eye on Davos - Positive Award: In 2006, FIAN International together with two partners won the Public Eye on Davos - Positive Award, which is given every year on the occasion of the World Economic Forum in Davos, for their commitment in favour of the rights of workers of the Mexican tyre factory Euzkadi.
Silver Rose Award: In 2005, two staff members of the FIAN Section Germany received the Silver Rose Award for their commitment for the rights of workers in the flower industry, the participation in the development of the International Code of Conduct for the Production of Cut flowers (ICC) and its successful implementation in the framework of the Flower Label Programm (FLP).
External links
Face-It-Act-Now Campaign: http://www.face-it-act-now.org/
Urgent Actions: http://fian.org/cases/letter-campaigns
Publications: http://fian.org/resources/documents/others