A/HRC/22/72 5. The drafting group took these contributions into account in the preparation of the preliminary study, which it presented during the ninth session of the Advisory Committee. The oral comments of various stakeholders and the fruitful discussions among the members of the Committee further shaped the study and made possible its conclusion in the present form. 6. The study examines the international legal framework protecting the right to food of rural women, followed by the identification of patterns of discrimination that impede rural women’s full enjoyment of this right. Strategies and policies to address the identified forms of discrimination are discussed, and several good practices are highlighted. The study provides a special focus on female-headed households and temporary and seasonal workers. II. The international legal framework applicable to rural women 7. Any analysis on the enjoyment of the right to food of rural women must start with the acknowledgement of the principles of universality and interdependence of human rights. In addition to this legal imperative, empirical evidence shows that the realization of the right to food of rural women is intrinsically linked to a number of other human rights. Among these are the rights to education (including vocational training), to health care, to water and sanitation, to housing, to decent work, to property and to resources and technology for food production, to credit and other financial services, to economic and social benefits and protection (including protection in case of disasters), to information access to justice, political representation and participation and indeed the general prohibition on non-discrimination. 8. A key instrument in the analysis of the right to food of rural women is the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). In its article 11 the Covenant provides explicit recognition of the right to food under its two dimensions: the right to adequate food as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living (para.1), and the right to be free from hunger (para. 2). Additionally, in the framework of international cooperation to achieve freedom from hunger, States need to adopt measures to improve not only the methods of production, conservation, distribution of food and reforming the agrarian systems, but also to ensure the equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need. 9. The protection of the right to food is reinforced by article 2 of the Covenant which provides for the prohibition of discrimination, including on the ground of sex, and for the equal enjoyment of the rights enshrined in the Covenant by women and men. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights articulated in its general comment No. 12 that the measures adopted by Governments have to reflect a particular attention to the need to prevent discrimination in access to food or resources for food. 3 In the words of the Committee, States need to ensure “guarantees of full and equal access to economic, resources, particularly for women, including the right to inheritance and the ownership of the land and other property, credit, natural resources and appropriate technology; measures to respect and protect self-employment and work which provides a remuneration ensuring a decent living for wage earners and their families […]; maintaining registries on rights in land (including forests)”.4 3 4 4 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 12; see E/C.12/1999/5 of 12 May 1999. Ibid., para 26.