A/HRC/26/31 various factors such as perceived palatability or lack of visibility of healthier options and their benefits. Retail stores and supermarket chains may stock healthy foods, but lesser shelf-space may be allocated to them or they may be placed at the back of the store.36 This would have a negative effect on consumption patterns in favour of healthier foods. To rectify this, States could urge and require retailers to arrange their products in ways that would attract the consumer to healthier options. States could also promote healthier foods through media and social channels traditionally used by food and beverage companies, from television to Internet advertisements. C. Policies on marketing and promotion of unhealthy foods 22. To prevent harm to people’s health and fulfil their obligation under the right to health, States should put in place national policies to regulate advertising of unhealthy foods. States should formulate laws and a regulatory framework with the objective of reducing children’s exposure to powerful food and drink marketing. Such regulations should ensure that the food industry provide accurate and reader-friendly nutrition information when advertising their products. 23. To address the issue of aggressive marketing, some States have supported selfregulation and have allowed food companies to voluntarily regulate their practices related to marketing and nutritional content of unhealthy foods to children.37 Companies often voluntarily adopt self-formulated guidelines and standards to restrict Government regulation and respond public demands. They have also taken joint initiatives and formulated guidelines for member companies to restrict advertising and promoting practices with respect to children. However, self-regulation by companies has not had any significant effect on altering food marketing strategies.38 Due to a variety of reasons, such as the non-binding nature of such self-regulation, lack of benchmarks and transparency, inconsistent definition of children and different nutrition criteria, companies may be able to circumvent guidelines, blunting the intended effect of marketing guidelines they instituted. 24. Collaboration between Governments and food corporations has been recommended as an alternative to self-regulation. One of the major reasons cited for promoting partnerships between private food companies and Governments is that food corporations have the ability to promote healthier dietary habits and are therefore a part of the solution to reduce and prevent the obesity epidemic.39 However, the conflict of interest between the State’s duty to promote public health and companies’ responsibility towards their shareholders to increase profits renders private–public partnership suspect. In addition, the close relationship between food and beverage companies and Government agencies may lead to a lack of transparency and independence of regulatory authorities, which may 36 37 38 39 10 Heart Foundation, The Supermarket as an Environment for Facilitating Dietary Behaviour Change (June 2012), pp. 14–15. Available from http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/NHF-Supermarket-rapid-reviewFINAL.pdf. Executive Office of the President of the United States, Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity within a Generation: White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President, (Washington D.C., May 2010), Recommendation 2.5. Available from http://www.letsmove.gov/sites/letsmove.gov/files/TaskForce_on_Childhood_Obesity_May2010_Full Report.pdf. WHO, Marketing Food to Children: the Global Regulatory Environment (Geneva, 2004), p. 13. Institute of Medicine of the National Academics, Building Public–Private Partnerships in Food and Nutrition (Washington D.C., 2012), pp. 9–22. Available from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK97331/pdf/TOC.pdf.