In the framework of the campaign Marchez et mangez malin!, launched by the Canton of Geneva, IBFAN-GIFA informed the public about the importance of optimal breastfeeding practices and healthy eating habits, such as drinking tap water instead of soft drinks, in order to prevent child overweight and obesity. Visitors were invited to fill empty reusable glasses with municipal tap water and hard copies of the IBFAN documents ‘Formula For Disaster. Weighing the Impact of Formula Feeding Vs Breastfeeding on Environment’ and ‘What on Earth has Infant Feeding got to do with Climate Change?’ (also translated into French) were distributed. Last but not least, our breastfeeding corner was used by several breastfeeding mothers, with whom we had the pleasure to talk while they nurtured their child in the best way! IBFAN-GIFA would like to thank all its volunteers who helped with this event, as well as the Canton of Geneva for its financial support.

 

IBFAN's submission to the OHCHR Study on Climate Change and the Right to Health explains why optimal breastfeeding practices constitute the first step towards protecting human health, short- and long-term and how they are crucial in the current environmental situation.
 

In its Concluding Observations, the CRC Committee referred specifically to breastfeeding for Brazil, Timor-Leste and United Arab Emirates. Bangladesh did not receive a direct recommendation on breastfeeding, but was urged to implement the Technical Guidance on child mortality (A/HRC/27/31) which refers directly to breastfeeding and calls specifically for implementation and monitoring of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.
 

Thirty-nine participants from 19 countries were trained, as well as representatives from IBFAN ICDC, IBFAN Regional Coordinating Office for Asia (BPNI) and Baby Milk Action (IBFAN UK). At the same date, in Heidelberg, another training session on breastfeeding and human rights was delivered by another IBFAN-GIFA officer to 6 FIAN staff, highlighting the importance of implementing the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding to ensure realization of children’s and women’s rights. 
 

She also pointed out the investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms enshrined in free trade agreements as the main obstacles to the realization of human rights. Then, Jumanda Gakelebone spoke about his struggle for the First People of the Kalahari and shared its concerns about the lack of human rights protection of indigenous people facing discrimination and land-grabbing by private companies operating in the country with total impunity. Camille Selleger, from IBFAN-GIFA, finally insisted on the indivisibility, interconnectedness and interdependence of human rights and recalled States’ obligations to promote, protect and support breastfeeding in order to ensure the realization of child’s right to health child, survival and development. She evoked IBFAN’s 35-year long experience showing that voluntary initiatives do not work in making corporations accountable for their human rights abuses and emphasized the need for a binding treaty to put an end to corporate impunity. 
 

Gisela Dütting and Rebecca Norton, from IBFAN-GIFA, as well as Patti Rundall from Baby Milk Action (IBFAN UK) had the opportunity to share their experiences and position about conflicts of interest. Read more: http://www.gifa.org/ibfan-speaks-on-conflicts-of-interest-at-issop-conference/
 

 

Member States continued elaborating the Draft framework from July 2015 on, aiming at presenting a new draft for the 136^th session of the WHO Executive Board in January 2016. In order to contribute into the process, summarize its key points and raise awareness about some challenges and concerns regarding FENSA, IBFAN-GIFA and IBFAN Asia collaborated on an article entitled 'A fox building a chicken coop? - World Health Organization reform: Health for All, or more corporate influence?' (Gupta, A. & Lhotska L., 2015).  Final negotiations took place in December 2015. Thus FENSA is likely to be further discussed and re-shaped after the 136^th session of the Executive Board in January 2016.

During the session, IBFAN-GIFA took the floor to highlight the need for an international binding instrument to protect all people, including human rights defenders and whistle-blowers, against the abuses of TNCs. We also emphasized the extraterritorial obligations of States to protect all people against harm derived from the activities of companies based in their territory and reiterated the importance of including all human rights contained in the core human rights conventions as well as the relevant ILO conventions in the scope of the future instrument.

In front of a full room, Mike Brady first emphasized the need to put health before business interests and showed that, despite its integration in the human rights framework through the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Code is still widely violated by baby food companies because of a lack of implementation and enforcement at national level. Indeed, States that host baby food companies may be reluctant to put their corporations at a competitive disadvantage by taking more robust action than other countries, stressing the need for an international mechanism that will help create a level playing field.
 

As an insight on The Origins of ‘Multi-Stakeholderism’—Why Words Matter, Lida Lhotska highlights how transnational corporations make their way through platforms such as Scaling Up Nutrition and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition due to the overused concept of “stakeholders”, which allows these corporations to participate in decision-making and can lead to conflict of interests, resulting in diverted funds.
 

The CSM, attended by about 150 civil society organizations and social movements, held a 2-day meeting, developing statements, positions and preparing for lobby work around the CFS. In these discussions, we kept on emphasizing the importance of breastfeeding at every step. During the 42^nd session of CFS, IBFAN-GIFA delivered a plenary statement on nutrition on behalf of all civil society organizations and social movements, highlighting the root causes of malnutrition including the violations of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. Despite our active participation in these fora, IBFAN-GIFA remains deeply concerned that the CFS is presented as the only working model to tackle food insecurity, while it puts the private corporate sectors and civil society on the same footing and blurs the lines between those who work for the public interest and those who pursue profit. 
 

The chapter 4 focuses on maternal, infant, and young child feeding, the intertwined subjectivities of mother and child, and the lack of corporate accountability. It highlights the various challenges encountered by women and their children during pregnancy and breastfeeding, in particular the lack of protection against misleading marketing practices of baby food companies, which interferes with the autonomy and self-determination of women and their communities and compromise progress towards sustainable diets based on democratically governed local food systems.
 

Following the workshop, a half-day symposium, with participation of Professor Amandine Garde and co-sponsored by the School of Law and Social Justice, Liverpool University, was organized for additional interested participants from civil society to facilitate exchange of experiences among actors from corporate accountability, health and development NGOs and academic communities concerned about how to protect policy and programme spaces from undue corporate influence.
 

Participants included experts in the area of risk assessment, disclosure and management of conflicts of interest, as well as experts in other areas, and representatives of Member States participated as observers. IBFAN-GIFA presented a case study related to conflicts of interest in protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding and participated in formulation of recommendations in working groups. WHO summarized the conclusions in an extensive report of the consultation and presented the key point in its report in view of the 136^th session of the WHO Executive Board.