WORKING ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Recommendations on breastfeeding from the CRC and CESCR Committees
From May 15 to June 2, 2017, the Committee on the Rights of the Child held its 75th Session in Geneva, while the 61st Session of the Committee on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was held between May 29 and June 23, 2017.
The CRC Committee reviewed the progress of the implementation of the Convention in 7 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Bhutan, Cameroon, Lebanon, Mongolia, Qatar and Romania. The CESCR Committee evaluated the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 6 countries: Australia, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Uruguay.
In its Concluding Observations, the CRC Committee referred specifically to breastfeeding for 5 of the 7 countries under review (Bhutan, Cameroon, Lebanon, Mongolia and Romania) and the CESCR Committee addressed breastfeeding in its recommendations to Uruguay.
CESCR General Comment No. 24 on State Obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the context of business activities
Released last August in its final version, the General Comment No. 24 (2017) adopted by the CESCR Committee provided an important clarification on State Obligations in reaction to the growing impact of business activities on the enjoyment of specific Covenant rights. After the Statement adopted by the CESCR Committee on State Obligations related to corporate responsibilities in the context of the Covenant rights (2011), this new General Comment comes as a complement to the previous contribution. For instance, the Committee had affirmed in 2011 the States’ obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the Covenant rights of all persons under their jurisdiction in the context of corporate activities undertaken by State-owned or private enterprises.
As a clarification, the General Comment No. 24 argues that the States obligation to protect “sometimes necessitates direct regulation and intervention. States parties should consider measures such as restricting marketing and advertising of certain goods and services in order to protect public health, […] such as of breast-milk substitutes, in accordance with the 1981 International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and subsequent resolutions of the World Health Assembly.” (para 19)
Other important sections of the General Comment define States’ extraterritorial obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the Covenant righs, the types of remedies and measures of implementation.
Download the full text of the CESCR General Comment No. 24 (2017) here.
Launch of the 10th Right to Food and Nutrition Watch
On October 19, the launch of the 10th anniversary issue of the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch took place at Palais des Nations, in Geneva. Coordinated by FIAN International, co-organized by IBFAN and other CSOs and social movements, the Watch launch took the form of a dynamic and interactive panel discussion.
It was the chance to discuss the current challenges around the world food crisis, and possible ways to tackle the structural causes of it. Some topics discussed included the right to food, the rights of indigenous people, the role of transnational corporations and their interference with the enjoyment to the right to food, the need for human rights-based approaches in policy making, the importance of food sovereignty. The harmful effects of bad marketing practices on children’ diets were also mentioned.
For IBFAN, it was also the occasion to share an important testimony from our group in Mexico on how infant feeding is being currently managed, after the earthquakes of last September. The report shows the recurrent failure to implement measures to protect breastfeeding and gives an interesting background to understand the current challenges for breastfeeding defenders in Mexico. The author, Marcos Arana Cedeño, contributed to the Watch with an important Insight article – Protecting Children’s Right to Food and Nutrition in Emergencies: Local Solutions Come First.
Download the 10th Right to Food and Nutrition Watch here.
Download the report Disasters in Mexico here.
Concluding Observations from the 76th Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child
From September 11 to 29, 2017, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) held its 76thSession in Geneva.
The CRC Committee reviewed the progress of the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 6 countries: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Denmark, Ecuador, Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan and Vanuatu.
The full post-session report is available here, including a summary of the main recommendations from the Committee and detailed information on direct and indirect recommendations given to the State parties under review.
3rd European WBTi training in Lithuania
In the first week of December, breastfeeding advocates from 8 countries participated in the third round of trainings on the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative and World Breastfeeding Costing Initiative, organised by BPNI/IBFAN Asia. The group met in Vilnius, Lithuania, and the countries represented were: Austra, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands and Slovenia. GIFA was invited to describe breastfeeding from a human rights perspective, as well as to explain the links between WBTi and the UN treaty bodies reporting mechanism. All participants actively contributed to the discussion and shared experiences from their different national backgrounds, in a very constructive and interactive way.
INTERNATIONAL CODE
OF MARKETING OF BREASTMILK SUBSTITUTES
Release of the 11th Breaking the Rules, Stretching the Rules global monitoring report
On September 2017, IBFAN-ICDC launched its 11th Breaking the Rules, Stretching the Rules 2017 Global monitoring report. The BTR 2017 is a compilation of marketing practices from around the world that violate the International Code, covering the past 3 years. Collected from IBFAN’s regional and country groups and volunteers, it contains almost 800 legally-vetted entries on 28 companies from 79 countries.
Find more information on the BTR, Code monitoring and latest legal updates on the official IBFAN-ICDC website.
Purchase the BTR 2017 or download the Executive Summary for free here.
IBFAN’s Call to Action to boycott the new BMGF initiative
A few years ago, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) turned its attention towards infant and young child feeding, a badly underfunded and neglected area of public health and nutrition. As traditional government donors pay little attention to this crucial area, it may seem like good news. However, when BMGF’s supported initiatives disregard basic principles that ensure the independence, integrity and credibility of public health policy making, those believing in primacy of human rights may need to sit up and pay attention. IBFAN believes that the Global Monitoring Mechanism (GMM), a new project supported by BMGF, calls for such attention and calls for it now, before irreversible steps have been taken.
IBFAN has made its concerns about the initiative clear to Meridian Institute – facilitating the upcoming related meeting in Frankfurt – and the BMGF representatives and feels sure that they understand why we think the proposal is a bad and dangerous idea and why we have decided not to attend.
We worry that there is a risk that those who do decide to attend will be viewed as supporting the process. For this reason, we are urging those who may have received an invitation not to go along.
IBFAN’s Call to Action is available in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Contact us to express your support and sign the Call!
France and breastfeeding: the Code and relevant WHA resolutions at the 2017 French National Breastfeeding Day
Villeneuve d’Ascq, France, 17 November 2017. On the occasion of the French National Breastfeeding Day – la Journée Nationale de l’Allaitement 2017, GIFA was invited to give a comprehensive presentation on the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent relevant WHA resolutions, stressing the importance of this unique international instrument in protecting breastfeeding from inappropriate marketing practices by the baby food companies.
Raising awareness on the existence of the Code and WHA resolutions is even more timely and important in France these days, after the news of the salmonella contamination found in Lactalis formula. Read Baby Milk Action’s press release here.
GLOBAL HEALTH GOVERNANCE
EB Special Session 4 at WHO: IBFAN’s concerns on the draft thirteen General Programme of Work
On November 22-23, 2017, a Special Session of WHO’s Executive Board took place in Geneva, after the closing of the open consultations on the draft Concept Note and draft thirteen General Programme of Work, setting WHO’s targets and priorities for the period 2019-2023.
IBFAN participated in the EBSS4 with an oral statement (available also in Spanish), and submitted two written comments to the draft GPW13. Some of the main points of concerns are listed below:
1 – the alignment of WHO’s role and its General Programme of Work with the SDGs, in particular with the partnership SDG 17, risks to undermine WHO’s capacity to fulfill its constitutional mandate and core functions;
2 – the distinct roles of each of the actors involved in the health arena is not clear anymore; they have become blurred by subsuming all actors under terms such as partner, stakeholder, or non-State actor; the boundaries between public and private have further been blurred by the massive building up of public-private hybrids; questions should be asked how to address this problem and how to achieve an meaningful overview over the flurry of public-private hybrids;
3 – there is a gap in the Draft Global Work Plan when it comes to purely public, human rights-centred, legal regulatory approaches, to deal with the ‘eradication’ of commerciogenic causes of all forms of malnutrition (and other health problems);
4 – the emerging GPW13 must come back to phrasing in human rights, public interest-centred language and abandon the business language that is permeating the two documents released prior to this EB Special Session.
5 – reference to FENSA should not be used to justify a change of WHO’s role to become a humble broker of more public-private hybrids. There are other documents which are relevant when assessing whether and when to create a public-private collaboration in the health arena. The FENSA framework must not become a framework to justify undue public-private entanglements.
6 – full funding of WHO should be put on the agenda to allow for the elaboration of a General Programme of Work that would not risk shifting WHO’s constitutional mandate and role. The expenditures could be recovered by avoiding the higher costs which often result from public-private approaches and by avoiding costs from unaddressed conflicts of interest.
Read the full IBFAN GIFA written comment here.
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY
3rd Session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on TNCs and OBEs with respect to human rights
The Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with respect to human rights will meet for the 3rd time, from 23 to 27 October at the Palais des Nations, in Geneva. The IGWG had published earlier in October a document called Elements for the draft legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights. This document outlines the main sections that will appear in the new binding Treaty, and it is the starting document on which the States delegations will negotiate during the 3rd Session.
As a reaction to this document, IBFAN has developed a written contribution in order to ask for a more comprehensive list of international relevant documents in the new Treaty, as well as for the inclusion of a provision on the importance of an independent and transparent monitoring mechanism, to avoid conflicts of interest and allow the new Treaty to meet its objectives.
Read the full text of IBFAN Written Contribution here.
Find out what is the Treaty Alliance here.
Sign the Treaty Alliance Statement and get more involved!
NEWS FROM SWITZERLAND
World Breastfeeding Week 2017
The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) joins the rest of the world to commemorate the 25th World Breastfeeding Week from the 1st to 7th August 2017. This year’s theme is “Sustaining Breastfeeding: Building Alliances without Conflicts of Interest” which stresses the need to work together for the common good of sustaining breastfeeding.
This year’s theme is a continuation from the WBW 2016 that marked a new start of aligning breastfeeding with sustainable development.
GIFA is joining the celebrations and wishes a Happy World Breastfeeding Week to everyone!
Read the full IBFAN’s Statement for the commemoration of WBW 2017 here.
Additionally, GIFA has participated in the Swiss celebrations of the World Breastfeeding Week 2017, with a stand in the hall of the maternity unit of HUG. Find more information on the Swiss WBW 2017 at HUG here.
IBFAN-GIFA @ Alternatiba
On September 27, IBFAN-GIFA participated in the Alternatiba Festival 2017, at Parc de Cropettes, Geneva. A rainy but lovely day to share experiences, useful information and raise awareness on the importance of breastfeeding. Thanks to naitrEnsemble for the amazing organization!
NEWS FROM THE NETWORK
IBFAN Calendar 2018 is now available!
Get a copy of the new IBFAN Calendar 2018!
For more information on shipping and cost details, contact the GIFA office.
Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies – Operational Guidance 3.0
The Infant Feeding in Emergencies (IFE) Core Group has recently finalized the 3rd version of the Operational Guidance for Emergency Relief Staff and Programme Managers, updated in October 2017. IBFAN is a member of the IFE Core Group and contributed directly to the review and update of the Operational Guidance.
Version 3.0 update was undertaken by the IFE Core Group in consultation with international, regional and country informants, co-led by the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) and UNICEF and coordinated by ENN. For more information see Baby Milk Action’s article.
Download the Operational Guidance here.
Happy 38th Anniversary IBFAN!
Happy 38th Anniversary @IBFAN!!! Happy 38th Anniversary @IBFAN_GIFA!! Breastfeeding defenders from all over the world   since 1979!
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