The Asian Center, in cooperation with the Third World Studies Center, University of the Philippines Diliman, held an informal dialogue with Dr. Hilal Elver, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food on 26 February 2015, 9 a.m. to 12 noon at the Third World Studies Center, Palma Hall, University of the Philippines Diliman. The theme of the informal dialogue was “Right to Food: Current Demands on Phlippine Development Policies and Programs (Perspectives from the Academe)" which is part of Dr. Elver’s eight-day visit to the Philippines, during which she looked into the efforts of the Philippine government in realizing the right to food; the impact of environmental and climate change on food production and distribution; and the role and concerns of women peasants and small landholders, among other topics.
Scholars from different disciplines such as economics, environmental studies, political science, sociology, among others, discussed several dimensions of the right to food. This interdisciplinary exchange highlighted gender issues; the quality of production or the need to increase productivity and income, respectively; the increasing exclusion of large parts of the population from access to land-based and maritime resources which often coincides with extra-economic/physical force applied along the establishment of plantation industries; mining projects; and other forms of legal and illegal land use conversions; the potential role of the reintrodution of traditional seeds; and other isuses.
Several Asian Center faculty took part in the dialogue, such as Dr. Marina Durano, Associate Professor Rolando Talampas, and Dr. Ulrich Rotthoff.
UN Special Rapporteur Elver particularly emphasized the role of family planning as an important instrument in attaining food security. A Special Rapporteur is an “independent expert appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme.” Dr. Elver was assigned UN Special Rapporteur in May 2014 and assumed functions on June 02, the same year. Her mandate includes “examining ways and means of overcoming existing and emerging obstacles to the realization of the right to food” and presenting “recommendations on possible steps with a view to achieving progressively the full realization” of this right.
Photo: Hilal Elver during the informal dialogue. Photo courtesy of the UP Third World Studies Center.
Photo: Hilal Elver during the informal dialogue. Photo courtesy of the UP Third World Studies Center.
The Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian and in Philippine Studies. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center also offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy.