A Comparative Analysis of Human Rights Law in Switzerland and the US to Address Post-Pandemic Hunger

In a post-pandemic world, the need to implement a human rights law approach to food insecurity is more vital than ever before. The contrasts between laws aimed at addressing food insecurity in countries that to vote against United Nations resolutions asserting food as a human right and those where food is recognized as a human right, highlight this necessity.[1] The disparity between two federalist countries—the US and Switzerland—exemplifies this.

As of 2023, 345 million people globally were facing or at risk of facing food insecurity– more than double the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.[2] Furthermore, “[t]he formal end of the pandemic has actually made the food crisis worse.”[3] This is partially because governments are ending “pandemic-era policies that ensured people had access to food”[4] at a time when the global economy is sluggish, with inflation rising and food prices that are volatile and high.[5]

Contrarily, from 2022 to 2023, the right to food “has been recognized by a growing number of states” where the right to food is becoming central to domestic and international policy.[6] Indeed, in 2021, “the [US] and Israel were the only countries to vote against a United Nations committee’s draft that asserted food as a human right.”[7]

The right to food is recognized in the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).[8] The FAO’s voluntary guidelines on the right to food  communicate three principles: adequacy, availability, and accessibility.[9] It is also conveyed that the right to food is not simply the right to eat, but the right to independently, regularly, and dignifiedly feed oneself.[10] Moreover, a human rights law approach to food insecurity entails enacting legislation that allows people freedom from reliance on the government for food.[11] A prime example is raising the minimum wage to meet the cost of living.[12]

Switzerland became a party to the ICESCR in 1992.[13] While its constitution “implicitly guarantees the right to adequate food through broader human rights,”[14] in 2023, Geneva became the “first Swiss canton to anchor the right to food in its constitution.”[15] In 2020, a survey of the general Swiss population estimated that around 2.2% of Swiss citizens were moderately to severely food insecure, with one study finding that 7% of particularly vulnerable groups may be food insecure.[16]

The US has never signed onto the UN’s resolution on the human right to food and continues to vote against it.[17] As of 2022, 12.8% of US households were food insecure.[18] US SNAP benefits, aimed at reducing food insecurity, are not compatible with human rights law as they perpetuate reliance on the government to feed oneself.[19] Furthermore, eligibility requirements are highly restrictive.[20]

Along with this, although the US has a federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, this is low compared to the average cost of living.[21] Some states have raised their minimum wages above this, with the highest in Washington D.C. at $17 per hour, followed by Washington at $16.28, then California at $16.[22] However, even with these comparatively high minimum wages, there is gap between the minimum and living wages in Washington of $3.84 and California of $5.74.[23]

The lower rates of food insecurity in Switzerland than in the US can be understood in the context of Switzerland’s human rights approach on food insecurity. Most reflective of their human rights approach to are Switzerland’s minimum wage laws. Although there is no federal minimum wage, many Swiss cantons have enacted high minimum wages.[24] Geneva introduced the highest minimum wage in the world in 2020.[25] It has continued to rise, reaching CHF 24.32 per hour, equivalent to $26.92 USD.[26] This equates to CHF 4,426 per month. The average cost of living for one person in Geneva is approximately CHF 3000.[27]

These Swiss approaches to food insecurity, particularly its cantons’ high minimum wage rates, align with the human rights law approach to food of the FAO’s voluntary guidelines because they allow citizens to independently, regularly, and dignifiedly feed themselves.[28] Furthermore, although the US federal and local minimum wages seemingly align with a human rights law approach, they are so low that they do not provide the capital necessary to purchase nutritious food and therefore fall short.[29] Switzerland’s high local minimum wages also demonstrates how even in a federalist government where welfare is largely left to smaller sects of a country as in both Switzerland and the US, embracing a human rights law approach to food insecurity on a federal level leads to implementation of the approach on a local level.

The discrepancy between food insecurity rates in Switzerland, where a human rights approach is implemented, and the US, where it is not, suggests that a human rights law framework is a critical tool in combating increasing food insecurity rates in a post-pandemic world.

Sarah Fellenbaum is a staff member of Fordham International Law Journal Volume XLVII.

[1] See Victoria Namkung, UN Hunger Expert: US Must Recognize ‘Right to Food’ to Fix Broken System, THE GUARDIAN (Nov. 9, 2023), https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/09/united-nations-right-to-food-us-hunger#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20the%20US%20and,third%20of%20the%20world%27s%20population.

[2] Michael Fakhri (Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food), Right to Food for Food Systems Recovery and Transformation, at 4, U.N. Doc. A/78/150 (July 18, 2023), https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/food/A_78_202_summary-report.pdf.

[3] Id. at 3.

[4] Id.

[5] Id. at 3.

[6] Michael Fakhri (Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food), Summary of Right to Food for Food Systems Recovery and Transformation, at 4, U.N. Doc. A/78/150 (July 18, 2023), https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/food/A_78_202_summary-report.pdf

[7] Namkung supra note 1.

[8] Id.

[9] See Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Voluntary Guidelines (2005), https://www.fao.org/3/y7937e/y7937e00.pdf.

[10] See id., at iii.

[11] See id.

[12] See generally Janet M. Fitchen, Hunger, Malnutrition, and Poverty in the Contemporary United States: Some Observations on their Social and Cultural Context, 2(1) Food and Foodways. 309, 309-33 (1987), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07409710.1987.9961923.

Notably, the right to food is the only right that includes “international cooperation as an explicit obligation.” The legal framework for the right to food “provides a detailed, coherent, and cohesive framework” for States to follow when transforming their food systems and enacting food related legislation; Fakhri supra note 2 at 22-23.

[13] See FOOD & AGRIC. ORG. OF UNITED NATIONS (FAO), The Right to Food Around the Globe: Switzerland, https://www.fao.org/right-to-food-around-the-globe/countries/che/en/#:~:text=Switzerland,1992%20by%20way%20of%20accession (last visited Apr. 9, 2024).

[14] Id.

[15] SWISSINFO.CH, Geneva to Anchor the Right to Food in Constitution, https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/geneva-to-anchor-the-right-to-food-in-constitution/48598952#:~:text=Geneva%20has%20become%20the%20first,a%20popular%20vote%20on%20Sunday.&text=Almost%2067%25%20of%20voters%20accepted,to%20sufficient%20and%20quality%20food (June 18, 2023).

[16] See Marcus Rigling, et. al., Is Food Insecurity Contributing to Malnutrition in Older Adults in Switzerland? – A Cross-Sectional Study, NAT’L LIBR. MED. (Aug. 16, 2023) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10466426/.

[17] See U.S. Mission Geneva, U.S. Explanation of Vote on the Right to Food, A/HRC/34/L.21 (Mar. 23, 2017) https://geneva.usmission.gov/2017/03/24/u-s-explanation-of-vote-on-the-right-to-food/.

[18] See USDA ECON. Rsch., FOOD Sec. &  NUTRITION ASSISTANCE (2003) https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-security-and-nutrition-assistance/#:~:text=In%202022%2C%2012.8%20percent%20of,of%20a%20lack%20of%20resources.

[19] See CENTER ON BUDGET AND POLICY PRIORITIES, A Quick Guide to SNAP Eligibility and Benefits (Updated Oct. 2, 2023) https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/a-quick-guide-to-snap-eligibility-and-benefits#:~:text=Gross%20monthly%20income%20%E2%80%94%20that%20is,2024%20is%20%242%2C072%20a%20month. See also Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations supra note 11.

[20] See CTR. ON BUDGET & POL’Y PRIORITIES, supra note 19.

[21] See Katharina Buccholz, The Living Wage Gap, STATISTA (Dec. 22, 2023) https://www.statista.com/chart/25574/living-wage-vs-minimum-wage-by-us-state/.

[22] See Anna Heloski, These 10 Cities Have the Highest Minimum Wage in the U.S., NERD WALLET (Jan. 25, 2024) https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/highest-minimum-wages#:~:text=1.,have%20minimum%20wages%20of%20%2415.

[23] See Buccholz supra note 21.

[24] See Drenusha Temaj, Switzerland Minimum Wage and Average Salary, STUDYING IN SWITZ. (Jan. 31, 2022) https://studyinginswitzerland.com/switzerland-minimum-wage/.

[25] See Kim Willsher, Geneva to Introduce Minimum Wage of £3,500 a Month, THE GUARDIAN (Sept. 30, 2020) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/30/geneva-raises-minimum-wage-covid-poverty-switzerland.

[26] See Minimum Wage Updated in Geneva, Switzerland from 01 January 2024 - January 01, 2024, WAGEINDICATOR.ORG (Last visited Apr. 9, 2024), https://wageindicator.org/salary/minimum-wage/minimum-wages-news/2024/minimum-wage-updated-in-geneva-switzerland-from-01-january-2024-january-01-2024#:~:text=The%20minimum%20wage%20has%20been,32%20per%20hour.&text=Note%3A%20This%20minimum%20wage%20increase%20might%20not%20reflect%20the%20inflationary%20trends.

[27] See Cost of Living in Geneva, Switzerland, LIVINGCOST.ORG (Updated Mar. 1, 2024) https://livingcost.org/cost/switzerland/geneva.

[28] See Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, supra note 11.

[29] See Buccholz supra note 21. See generally Fitchen supra note 12.

This is a student blog post and in no way represents the views of the Fordham International Law Journal.