A/HRC/28/65 cases to be examined under the Optional Protocol concentrate principally on the territorial link.9 11. Victims of violations now have a means of making effective appeals through an international mechanism, once they have exhausted the grievance mechanisms within their own countries, or if there is an excessive delay in processing their claims through national procedures. The Optional Protocol also provides for interim measures for victims in exceptional circumstances in order to prevent irreparable damage to victims (art. 5). 12. The Optional Protocol also permits States to declare that they recognize the competence of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to review interState communications in cases where one State party considers that another State party has failed to fulfil its obligations under the Covenant. The Committee may also have recourse to an inquiry procedure whereby it would consider allegations from reliable sources indicating grave or systematic violations by a State party of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant.10 While the Covenant does not have a mechanism to enforce decisions, findings and decisions by the Committee can increase awareness and scrutiny of specific violations at the international level. An international peer review mechanism such as the universal periodic review could be employed as a means of highlighting the failure of States to implement decisions under the Covenant.11 13. As outlined above, the right to food was once considered a controversial “positive” right, however recent years have witnessed a paradigm shift in terms of the global discourse on the right to food, with progress in jurisprudence and academic deliberations affirming that the right to food is justiciable.12 With the ratification of the Covenant, the right to food will have greater publicity, especially when NGOs and individuals start to use various remedies. The right to food is now a right than can be legitimately claimed. Complaint procedures remind governments of their responsibility to respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate food. The Optional Protocol will be influential in ensuring the implementation of the right to food at the international and national level. III. Recent framework laws, jurisprudence and the justiciability of the right to food 14. The Right to Food Guidelines have done much to raise awareness and increase recognition of the right to adequate food and nutrition as a human right. They have also been instrumental in promoting the importance of recognizing the right to food in national legal frameworks. Guideline 7, in particular, invites States to initiate constitutional or legislative review to facilitate the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security. States are also advised to envisage “administrative, quasijudicial and judicial mechanisms to provide adequate, effective and prompt remedies accessible, in particular, to members of vulnerable groups”. 15. Constitutional provisions and framework laws can be effective means of promoting the progressive realization of the right to food at the domestic level. The adoption of 9 10 11 12 Riedel, Giacca and Golay (eds,), Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in International Law (Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 30. International NGO Coalition for OP-ICESCR, “A toolkit for action (Booklet 3), Why should States ratify the Optional Protocol on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights?”, p. 1. Ibid. Jose Luis Vivero Pol, “Hunger for Justice in Latin America: the justiciability of social rights in hungry democracies” (2011). 5