Despite States’ legal obligations under international human rights law, food insecurity remains a systemic and structural challenge: market mechanisms distribute food according to purchasing power rather than human need, leaving millions in chronic nutritional deprivation, particularly those facing intersecting disadvantages of gender, disability, displacement, or poverty. In response, this proposal to guarantee Universal Access to Nutritious Food (UANF) operationalizes the right to adequate food, as affirmed under Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and clarified in General Comment No. 12 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, by translating it into concrete commitments across four mutually reinforcing policy pillars: direct public food provisioning through schools, hospitals, and community institutions; income and purchasing power support through universal food allowances and minimum income schemes; regulation of food markets and environments to curb harmful practices and ensure affordability; and promotion of sustainable, agroecological food production aligned with ecological limits . Financing draws on a blended model combining progressive taxation, domestic resource mobilization, and international cooperation. Universal approaches already demonstrate their efficiency compared to targeted interventions: Finland’s universal school meals programme and India’s Public Distribution System in the state of Odisha consistently outperforms means-tested models in reducing stigma, improving diet quality, and reaching the most vulnerable; Brazil’s Zero Hunger strategy and its national food and nutrition security system (SISAN) show how the right to food can be embedded in law while linking food access, nutrition outcomes, and rural livelihoods ; and Belgium’s Social Security for Food pilots, such as La CLASS, demonstrate how universal food budgets can be delivered with as little as 15% public funding, with 85% drawn from reorganized household food expenditure.
There are almost 100 different projects of Food Social Security up and running in France (called social security for food in the Roadmap). Their implementation is proving very successful. There has also been a promising experiment in Geneva, Switzerland, derived from the integration of the right to food in the Constitution of the Canton of Geneva, following a popular vote in 2023. In partnership with local authorities, members of a citizens’ association contribute according to their means and receive a fixed amount in a complementary currency that they can spend in stores that ensure a fair price to local nutritious food producers. Most significantly, on 15 January 2026, the Brussels Parliament voted a law that recognizes and integrates the Food Social Security into the regional tools to fight hunger and inequalities. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is also an increasingly popular practice. Not only because the agroecologically produced food is hyperlocal and nutritious, but also because of the various practices of social and solidarity economy involved. These include solidarity boxes at a reduced rate for vulnerable group members, working shares, where people can contribute to the cost through farm work, and both physical and financial support for producers in times of need. This all falls under the principle of sharing risks and benefits and also highlights the advantages to both producers and consumers of direct farm to fork circuits.
