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Constitutional and Legal Dimensions of the Right to Food in Taiwan: The Long March Toward Normative Internalization and Realization

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Book cover Taiwan and International Human Rights

Part of the book series: Economics, Law, and Institutions in Asia Pacific ((ELIAP))

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Abstract

The right to food has long been recognized in a number of international instruments. Faced with the evolving form and substance of the right to food, Taiwan has nonetheless encountered various challenges in its efforts to normatively internalize and realize this right. Because the country has been unable to formally participate in most international human rights treaties, Taiwan has incorporated numerous key elements of international human rights law into its domestic legal system through a myriad of approaches. Yet the manner in which Taiwan has opted to interact with international human rights law arguably raises more questions than it answers. This chapter reviews the development of the right to food in the context of international human rights law and highlights the key elements constituting the current form and substance of this right. It further assesses the many faces of the right to food in Taiwan, from constitutional to legislative to executive practices, and it identifies various challenges faced by the country in realizing the right to food. Noting the lack of a rights-based discourse in constitutional and legal settings in Taiwan due to numerous underlying issues, this chapter proposes a legal framework approach to address the normative challenges and to create an enabling environment for the progressive realization of the right to food.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217 (III) A, UN Doc A/810, at 76, art. 25.1 (10 Dec 1948) [hereinafter Universal Declaration of Human Rights], which reads “[e]veryone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

  2. 2.

    International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 11, opened for signature 16 Dec 1966, 6 I.L.M. 360, 993 U.N.T.S. 3 [hereinafter ICESCR].

  3. 3.

    For instance, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women recognizes the right of pregnant and lactating women to nutrition in Article 12(2); the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Article 24 recognizes children’s right to adequate nutrition and calls for actions to address disease and malnutrition. More recently, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which entered into force in 2008, recognizes the right to food in Articles 25(f) and 28(1) in different contexts. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, art. 12, opened for signature 18 Dec 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13; The Convention on the Rights of the Child, arts. 24, 27, opened for signature 20 Nov 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3; The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, arts. 25, 28, opened for signature 28 June 1952, 210 U.N.T.S. 131. At the regional level, examples of recognizing or incorporating the norm of the right to food include the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Article 14) and the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Article 12).The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, art. 14, opened for signature 11 July 1990, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/24.9/49; Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 12, opened for signature 17 Nov 1988, 28 I.L.M. 156 (1989). For more discussion, see International Development Law Organization (2015), pp. 17–18.

  4. 4.

    ICESCR, art. 11.1.

  5. 5.

    ICESCR, art. 11.2. More specifically, Article 11.2(a) states that States Parties shall take measures to advance approaches to producing, conserving, and distributing food through the use and sharing of scientific and technical knowledge, agrarian system development or reform, and efficient utilization of natural resources. Article 11.2(b) requires States Parties to ensure an “equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need,” considering the interests and difficulties of both importing and exporting countries.

  6. 6.

    UN Office High Comm’r for Human Rights [hereinafter OHCHR] (2010).

  7. 7.

    Id., at p. 9.

  8. 8.

    UN Econ. & Soc. Council, Comm. on Econ., Soc. & Cultural Rights [hereinafter CESCR], General Comment 12: The Right to Adequate Food (Art. 11), UN Doc. E/C.12/1999/5 (12 May 1999) [hereinafter General Comment No. 12].

  9. 9.

    United Nations Millennium Declaration, G.A. Res. 55/2, at para 19, UN Doc. A/55/L.2 (18 Sept 2000).

  10. 10.

    Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [hereinafter FAO] (2005).

  11. 11.

    OHCHR (2010), supra note 6, at p. 1.

  12. 12.

    Many have discussed the implications of ICESCR Article 11 as well as the relevant General Comments (in particular General Comment No. 12). See, e.g., Söllner (2007); Haugen (2007), at p. 154; Seatzu (2011); Ziegler et al. (2011), at pp. 15–22.

  13. 13.

    General Comment No. 12, at para. 6.

  14. 14.

    Id., at para. 7.

  15. 15.

    Id., at paras. 8, 12.

  16. 16.

    Id., at paras. 8, 13.

  17. 17.

    Id., at para. 6. See also Haugen (2007), supra note 12, at p. 154.

  18. 18.

    Id., at para. 6. To realize the latter right, the CESCR notes that States Parties have the obligation to take necessary actions to mitigate and alleviate hunger even under the circumstances of natural disasters and the like.

  19. 19.

    ICESCR, art. 4.

  20. 20.

    CESCR, General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), at para. 28, UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4 (11 Aug 2000) [hereinafter General Comment No. 14].

  21. 21.

    Hutter (2015), at p. 56.

  22. 22.

    Id.

  23. 23.

    CESCR, General Comment No. 3: The Nature of States Parties’ Obligations (Art. 2, Para. 1, of the Covenant), UN Doc. E/1991/23 (14 Dec 1990) [hereinafter General Comment No. 3].

  24. 24.

    Sepulveda (2003), at p. 279.

  25. 25.

    General Comment No. 12, at para. 4.

  26. 26.

    The Committee rejected a widespread narrow interpretation of the right to life merely as a safeguard against arbitrary killing and encouraged States Parties to take “positive measures” to protect the right to life in a broader sense, which includes “measures to eliminate malnutrition and epidemics.” Human Rights Comm., General Comment No. 6, at para. 5, UN Doc. A/37/40(1982) (30 Apr 1982).

  27. 27.

    See Cotula and Vidar (2003), at pp. 6–7; Ziegler et al. (2011), supra note 12.

  28. 28.

    The CESCR notes that the fulfillment of the right to health includes access to food: “[T]he right to health embraces a wide range of socio-economic factors that promote conditions in which people can lead a healthy life, and extends to the underlying determinants of health, such as food and nutrition, housing, access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, safe and healthy working conditions, and a healthy environment.” General Comment No. 14, at para. 4.

  29. 29.

    When articulating the notion of “adequacy,” the CESCR points to a diet containing “a mix of nutrients for physical and mental growth, development and maintenance, and physical activity….” General Comment No. 12, at para. 11.

  30. 30.

    ICESCR, art. 2.2.

  31. 31.

    General Comment No. 12, at para. 18.

  32. 32.

    Id., at para. 15. “The obligation to respect existing access to adequate food requires States Parties not to take any measures that result in preventing such access. The obligation to protect requires measures by the State to ensure that enterprises or individuals do not deprive individuals of their access to adequate food. The obligation to fulfil (facilitate) means the State must proactively engage in activities intended to strengthen people’s access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure their livelihood, including food security. Finally, whenever an individual or group is unable, for reasons beyond their control, to enjoy the right to adequate food by the means at their disposal, States have the obligation to fulfil (provide) that right directly.”

  33. 33.

    General Comment No. 3, at para. 9. For relevant discussions, see Desierto (2015), at pp. 87–88.

  34. 34.

    UN Commission on Human Rights, The Right to Food: Report by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Mr. Jean Ziegler, Submitted in Accordance with the Commission on Human Rights Resolution 2000/10, at para. 14, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2001/53 (7 Feb 2001); see also Human Rights Council, Promotion and Protection of All Human Rights, Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to Development: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, at para. 17, UN Doc. A/HRC/7/5 (10 Jan 2008); Ziegler et al., (2011), supra note 12, at p. 18.

  35. 35.

    Human Rights Council (2012), supra note 34, at para. 18; see also General Comment No. 12, at paras. 7, 11.

  36. 36.

    Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, at para. 2, UN Doc. A/HRC/25/57 (24 Jan 2014) [hereinafter Report of Olivier De Schutter].

  37. 37.

    G.A. Res. 71/282, at para. 21 (3 Aug 2016).

  38. 38.

    G.A. Res. 2758 (XXVI), at p. 2 (25 Oct 1971); see also Wang (2002), p. 537; Huang (2003), p. 81.

  39. 39.

    Chang (2011), p. 598.

  40. 40.

    Id., at p. 223.

  41. 41.

    Id.; see also Wang (2009).

  42. 42.

    Gongmin Yu Zhengzhi Quanli Guoji Gongyue Ji Jingji Shehui Wenhua Quanli Guoji Gongyue Shixingfa [公民與政治權利國際公約及經濟社會文化權利國際公約施行法] (Act to Implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) (2009) (Taiwan) [hereinafter the Implementation Act]. Article 2 of the Implementation Act states that “[h]uman rights protection provisions in the two Covenants have domestic legal status.” Article 8 further stipulates that “[a]ll levels of governmental institutions and agencies should review laws, regulations, directions and administrative measures within their functions according to the two Covenants … [those] incompatible to the two Covenants should be amended within two years ….”

  43. 43.

    Id., art. 4.

  44. 44.

    Id., art. 6; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [hereinafter ICCPR], art. 40, opened for signature 16 Dec 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171; ICESCR, arts. 16–17.

  45. 45.

    Ministry of Justice (Taiwan) (2012b).

  46. 46.

    Ministry of Justice (Taiwan) (2016b).

  47. 47.

    See Severson (2013).

  48. 48.

    See Review Meeting on Taiwan’s initial reports under the ICCPR and ICESCR: Consideration of reports submitted by States Parties under Articles 16 & 17 of the Covenant: List of issues submitted by the Review Committee for the initial ICESCR report, at pp. 11–12 (21 Jan 2013). http://www.humanrights.moj.gov.tw/HitCounter.asp?xItem=294736. Accessed 30 Sept 2017; see also Review of the initial reports of the Government of Taiwan on the implementation of the International Human Rights Covenants: Concluding observations and recommendations adopted by the International Group of Independent Experts, Taipei, 1 Mar 2013, at paras. 38–39, 50. http://www.humanrights.moj.gov.tw/HitCounter.asp?xItem=385451. Accessed 30 Sept 2017 [hereinafter Concluding Observations and Recommendations].

  49. 49.

    Ministry of Justice (Taiwan) (2012a).

  50. 50.

    Covenants Watch (2012), pp. 65–73.

  51. 51.

    Ministry of Justice (Taiwan) (2016a), at paras. 198–201.

  52. 52.

    Covenants Watch (2016).

  53. 53.

    Id., at p. 245. Interestingly, Covenants Watch cited the Guiding Principles on Human Rights Impact Assessments of Trade and Investment Agreements (A/HRC/19/59/Add.5), which were prepared by United National Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter on the right to food.

  54. 54.

    See, e.g., Hsu (2014), at pp. 842–43; Chen (2015), at pp. 341–42; Huan (2010), at pp. 5, 19–20; Chang (2015); Liao (2011), at p. 5.

  55. 55.

    For more discussion, see Chang (2011), supra note 39.

  56. 56.

    More specifically, the Constitutional Court cited Article 11 of the ICESCR when underscoring people’s right to enjoy an adequate standard of living with safety, peace, and dignity. See Dafaguan Shizi Di 709 Hao [大法官釋字第709號] (J.Y. Interpretation No. 709) (26 Apr 2013) (Taiwan).

  57. 57.

    See generally Chang (2011), supra note 39; Hwang (2015), at pp. 59–60.

  58. 58.

    Chang (2011), supra note 39.

  59. 59.

    Yeh (2015).

  60. 60.

    Kuoyi Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Ministry of Interior, 105 Nian Du Pan Zi Di 162 Hao [105年度判字第162號] (Sup. Admin. Ct. [最高行政法院] 14 Apr 2016) (Taiwan).

  61. 61.

    Wu Youyāo v. Lai Qingli et al., 102 Nian Du Zhong Su Zi Di 957 Hao [102年度重訴字第957號] (Taiwan Taipei Dist. Ct. [台北地方法院] 29 May 2015) (Taiwan).

  62. 62.

    Lin Shuling et al. v. Taitung County Government, 102 Nian Du Ting Zi Di 7 Hao [102年度停字第7號] (Kaohsiung Admin. High Ct. [高雄高等行政法院] 28 June 2013) (Taiwan).

  63. 63.

    Liao Biyun v. Wang Yingxue, 104 Nian Du Su Zi Di 169 Hao [104年度訴字第169號] (Taiwan Nantou Dist. Ct. [台灣南投地方法院] 17 Aug 2016) (Taiwan).

  64. 64.

    Chen Zhengzong et al. v. Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan, 99 Su Zi 1882 Hao Pan Jue [99訴字1882號判決] (Taipei Admin. High Ct. [台北高等行政法院] 15 Sept 2011) (Taiwan). While the Supreme Administrative Court later remanded the case, it did not express its opinions about the Taipei High Administrative Court’s flawed interpretation of the right to food and more broadly about the nature of the ICESCR. See Chen Zhengzong et al. v. Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan, 102 Nian Pan Zi Di 70 Hao [102年判字第70號] (Sup. Admin. Ct. [最高行政法院] 7 Feb 2013) (Taiwan).

  65. 65.

    http://misq.ly.gov.tw/MISQ/IQuery/misq5000QueryBillDetail.action?billNo=1051110070202100. Accessed 30 Sept 2017.

  66. 66.

    http://www.mohw.gov.tw/dl-13263-4857e204-22a2-409d-a760-b4318ba97b67.html. Accessed 30 Sept 2017.

  67. 67.

    Legislative History. http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawHistory.aspx?PCode=L0040001. Accessed 30 Sept 2017; see also Lin (2016).

  68. 68.

    http://misq.ly.gov.tw/MISQ/IQuery/misq5000QueryBillDetail.action?billNo=1050325070201400. Accessed 30 Sept 2017.

  69. 69.

    http://misq.ly.gov.tw/MISQ/IQuery/misq5000QueryBillDetail.action?billNo=1050225070200300. Accessed 30 Sept 2017.

  70. 70.

    http://misq.ly.gov.tw/MISQ/IQuery/misq5000QueryBillDetail.action?billNo=1050304070200700. Accessed 30 Sept 2017.

  71. 71.

    http://misq.ly.gov.tw/MISQ/IQuery/misq5000QueryBillDetail.action?billNo=1060316070200800. Accessed 30 Sept 2017.

  72. 72.

    Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 25.1.

  73. 73.

    Weisheng Fuli Bu [衛生福利部] (Health Promotion Administration) (2017) Guomin Yingyang ji Jiankang Yinshi Cujin Fa Cao’an Zong Shuoming [國民營養及健康飲食促進法草案總說明] (General Information on the Proposed National Nutrition and Healthy Diet Promotion Act), https://www.hpa.gov.tw/Pages/ashx/File.ashx?FilePath=~/File/Attach/7466/File_7017.pdf. Accessed 30 Sept 2017.

  74. 74.

    See generally Coomans and Yakpo (2004); FAO (2009).

  75. 75.

    FAO (2009), supra note 74, at p. 174.

  76. 76.

    Id.

  77. 77.

    See OHCHR (2010), supra note 6, at pp. 22–23.

  78. 78.

    See G.A. Res. 71/282, at para. 21 (3 Aug 2016).

  79. 79.

    Report of Olivier De Schutter, at paras. 5, 9, 12; Human Rights Council, Report Submitted by the Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter on the Right to Food, at paras. 9–12, 26–35, UN Doc. A/HRC/19/59 (26 Dec 2011).

  80. 80.

    Silvasti and Riches (2014), at pp. 206–208.

  81. 81.

    Concluding Observations and Recommendations, at paras. 14–15.

  82. 82.

    Key concepts on ESCRs—Can economic, social and cultural rights be litigated at courts? http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/ESCR/Pages/CanESCRbelitigatedatcourts.aspx. Accessed 30 Sept 2017.

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  1. National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

    Ching-Fu Lin

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  1. Ching-Fu Lin
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  1. U.S.-Asia Law Institute, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Jerome A. Cohen

  2. Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA

    William P. Alford

  3. Constitutional Court, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan

    Chang-fa Lo

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Lin, CF. (2019). Constitutional and Legal Dimensions of the Right to Food in Taiwan: The Long March Toward Normative Internalization and Realization. In: Cohen, J., Alford, W., Lo, Cf. (eds) Taiwan and International Human Rights. Economics, Law, and Institutions in Asia Pacific. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0350-0_29

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