Infants and young children are the first victims of pollution and climate change. The negative impacts of pollution and climate change affect all people, but especially the world’s most vulnerable population: newborns, infants and young children, whose immune and reproductive systems are still immature. Even the healthy development of the foetus during intrauterine life can […]

IBFAN developed a slideshow to help breastfeeding advocates from around the world understanding conflicts of interest to safeguard democratic & evidence-based health and nutrition governance. This slideshow was part a capacity building workshop led by IBFAN in December 2015 in London and was prepared by Judith Richter, recognized expert on public interest safeguards in the field of […]

Working document, based on ILO database on Maternity Protection, sorted region by region and country by country

Contributions to the legal building blocks of the Treaty regarding the scope, the state duty to protect and direct obligations for corporations

By Friends of the Earth Europe, Brot für die Welt (Social Service Agency of the Protestant Church in Germany), SOMO (Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations), CIDSE (International Alliance of Catholic Development Agencies), IBFAN (International Baby Food Action Network), IBFAN-GIFA (Geneva Infant Feeding Association), Global Policy Forum

FIAN International and IBFAN’s joint input towards the elaboration of the General Comment on the Rights of Adolescents of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (March 2015). This contribution seeks to provide information and recommendations about the right to adequate food and nutrition of adolescents and related rights (e.g. the right to health, the […]

BPNI / IBFAN Asia’s latest publication “Formula for Disaster: weighing the impact of formula feeding Vs breastfeeding on environment” is out now. The path breaking publication aims to raise awareness of the positive impact of breastfeeding on our environment and throws light on the negative impact of formula feeding.

Enshrined in the article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, breastfeeding is protected against undermining marketing practices by the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. However, the misconduct of baby food companies continues to be a key cause for poor breastfeeding practices. Recently, the report Breaking the Rules 2014 highlighted the new trend […]

La mortalité infantile demeure un sujet de préoccupation majeur au niveau international. L’allaitement est reconnu comme étant l’une des interventions les plus efficaces et les moins coûteuses pour sauver la vie d’enfants. Dans le but de protéger l’allaitement, l’Assemblée mondiale de la santé (AMS) a adopté, en 1981, le Code international de commercialisation des substituts du lait maternel (le Code), dont le champ est aujourd’hui complété et étendu par une quinzaine de résolutions postérieures relatives de l’AMS. Le but du Code est de permettre aux parents de prendre des décisions totalement informées au sujet de l’alimentation du nourrisson et du jeune enfant, grâce à l’interdiction des pratiques commerciales qui sapent l’allaitement. […] Toutefois, depuis 1981, seuls 35 pays ont mis en œuvre le Code dans sa totalité. En l’absence de régulations commerciales efficaces, et malgré leur obligation découlant du droit international relative aux droits humains, les entreprises d’aliments pour bébés se rendent systématiquement coupables de violations des dispositions du Code par leurs pratiques commerciales malveillantes et par leurs tactiques qui induisent les consommateurs et les professionnels de la santé en erreur. […]

Infant and children mortality is still a major concern globally. Breastfeeding has proven to be one of the most effective, low-cost interventions to save children’s lives. In order to protect breastfeeding, in 1981, the World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (the Code), to date completed and extended by fifteen subsequent relevant WHA resolutions. The Code aims to ensure that parents can make fully informed decisions about infant and young child feeding by banning marketing practices that undermine breastfeeding. […] However, since 1981, only 35 countries have fully implemented the Code. In absence of effective marketing regulation, and notwithstanding their obligation under human rights law, baby food companies are systematically violating the Code provisions by malevolent marketing practices and tactics that mislead consumers and health professionals. […]

The 33-year experience of Code implementation provides a strong argument to illustrate the necessity of a binding treaty on obligations of TNCs under human rights, a crucial step to the fulfilment of human rights of every human being, in this particular case of every child. A binding treaty on TNCs obligations under human rights law would help ensure the right of children to adequate food and nutrition as well as to health through the respect of the Code at global scale.