Background and Aim: Food security is a condition in which all members of the human community, at all times, have physical, economic, social and cultural access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. This international and national norm is derived from fundamental human rights of the first to the third generation, including the right to security, the right to food, the right to adequate food, the fundamental right to be free from hunger, the right to social security and welfare, the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to development. Within the international community, food security was initially considered a subsidiary target of the Millennium Development Goals and was subsequently recognized as an independent and primary goal of the Sustainable Development Goals in the UN General Assembly resolution (September 2015). This norm, which initially possessed a predominantly socio-economic character upon its formation, has gradually evolved into a social, economic, technical and legal value. Numerous global, regional and national challenges in the realms of poverty, malnutrition and hunger have elevated food security to a priority in national and international macro-level policymaking and planning. According to the definition contained in international instruments, the right to development entails advancement in all political, cultural, economic and social spheres, coupled with the equitable distribution of resources and benefits derived from development among all people. There is doctrinal disagreement regarding whether the people are the holders of third-generation rights and states bear the concomitant duties and in instances such as the right to development, whether states-without themselves being the direct holders of third-generation rights-act on the international level as representatives of their nations to realize these rights, or whether developing states themselves are considered the direct holders of this right. Numerous global, regional and national challenges in the areas of poverty, malnutrition and hunger have made food security a priority for national and international macro-policy and planning. This research aims to map the interdisciplinary knowledge between public and criminal policy issues concerning food security within the framework of the right to development as a creator of a new and transnational coordinating role for achieving sustainable food security. It seeks to answer the following questions: Has sustainable development listed food security as one of its objectives? What policies regarding food security have been formulated in the Sustainable Development document?
Methods: This research has been conducted and written using a qualitative approach and an analytical-descriptive method through the collection, study and analysis of library resources, international documents and online materials.
Ethical Considerations: In all stages of writing the present research, the ethical aspects of library-based study including the originality of the texts, honesty and trustworthiness have been observed.
Results: The right to development, as a third-generation human right, forms the basis of food security. Food security is also one of the indicators and goals of sustainable development. In other words, food security is realized within the context of sustainable development and is itself a factor in creating sustainable development. The second goal of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals explicitly lists ensuring food security, improved nutrition and sustainable agriculture as objectives and programs for achieving sustainable development by 2030. Furthermore, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, emphasized the issue of food security. The findings indicate the recognition of the food security norm by Iranian policymakers within the framework of international instruments, along with an analysis of the manifestations of diverse public policies in the developmental, economic, social, political, cultural and technical dimensions of food security in international documents. On the other hand, certain behaviors deviating from the food security norm have emerged and evolved as criminal phenomena, in parallel with the value of food security and have gradually taken on more complex forms. Countless deviations of professional, disciplinary, civil and criminal offenses, that threaten food security and its core pillars (availability, access, utilization and stability) and subsidiary components are clear manifestations of the criminal phenomenon threatening food security and are the subject of study for the science of criminal policy.
Conclusion: In the future envisioned by the international community, food security remains intertwined with comprehensive policymaking and targeting across various dimensions of food security. It appears that achieving sustainable food security will only be possible through sustainable development, or in local terms, balanced growth and progress in technical, scientific, economic and environmental dimensions, under stable and responsible governance conditions. This, despite potential discrepancies between domestic and international targets (focusing particularly on differences in development and progress objectives), can still serve as a doctrine for national policymaking. |
