A/HRC/16/40 that are based on the acknowledgement that food as the product of agriculture is and cannot be treated as if it was “socks or tyres”61 are thus steps towards such a world, without discrimination and with equal opportunities. B. Concepts and instruments promoting the right to food of people working in rural areas 52. The Human Rights Council has emphasized the importance that it attributes to the rights of people working in the rural areas by mandating the Advisory Committee to undertake a study identifying ways and means to further advance their particular rights. In view of that study, the present report will merely highlight important areas and strategies adopted by different stakeholders relevant to the topic. 53. The question of land and agrarian reforms that assure access to land and security of tenure is closely linked to the right to food of people from rural areas, in particular landless workers, smallholders and rural women. The linkage was reasserted recently by world leaders.62 Land reforms in several countries have had a significant impact on reducing poverty and hunger and increasing economic growth.63 54. To address increasing inequalities, civil society organizations are promoting new forms of cooperation and association. One of the most important associations in this field is the movement for food sovereignty, La Via Campesina, which has members from 69 countries from all regions of the world. In June 2008, after more than seven years of consultation with its member organizations, the movement adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Peasants: Men and Women, and presented it as a response to the world food crisis before the Human Rights Council, and the General Assembly in 2009.64 The declaration is an important example of an anti-discriminatory strategy that could improve the protection of the right to food. C. Legal and social protection of the urban poor 55. The circle of vulnerability of the rural impoverished often continues in the urban setting, where members of rural families migrate.65 Limited employment opportunities, casual employment, uncertain daily wages and the lack of social safety nets and appropriate housing are increasing the food insecurity of the urban poor. As such, strategies aimed at empowering the urban poor to realize their right to food must comprise employment and social security policies, which include just employment and minimum wage components, in order to allow these persons to earn enough on a sustainable basis to have access to food. Land tenure and adequate housing legislation is needed to guarantee a stable environment with access to sanitation and safe drinking water. 61 62 63 64 65 September 2010. Speech by the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, at the conference on the theme “Confronting the global food challenge”, Geneva, 24-26 November 2008. International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development. Final Declaration, Porto Alegre, 7-10 March 2006. See E/CN.4/2006/44/Add.2, A/HRC/7/5/Add.2 and Add.3. See the statement of La Via Campesina before the General Assembly of 6 April 2009, at www.viacampesina.org. Asbjørn Eide, “The human right to food and contemporary globalization”, 11 October 2008. Available from www.worldhunger.org/articles/08/hrf/a_eide.htm. 15