The General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) of the Ghana Trades Union congress is advocating strongly for a constitutional provision on the right to food for all Ghanaians. It said “food is fundamental to human survival and it is necessary for everyone to have access to food.” The union, has therefore, urged the Constitution Review Commission to include in the Constitution, the right to food as a fundamental right of every Ghanaian resident. A statement signed by the General Secretary of the union, Kinsley Ofei-Nkansah, said “millions of Ghanaians are hungry because they cannot afford to buy balanced diet. “Meanwhile, international laws, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which Ghana was the first to ratify, bind the government to respect the right to food as a constitutional right.” Giving the relevant portions which make the right to food an obligation, GAWU said Article 11 of ICESCR states that: “The States parties to the present covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free content. “The states parties to the present covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international co-operation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed.” GAWU said it had submitted a petition to the Commission to support earlier ones by a number of organizations, including ActionAid Ghana and the Food Security Policy Advocacy Network (FoodSPAN). It observed that although the food production had increased over the years, countries were recording increasing levels of hungry people. “As far back as 2005, there were a quarter of a billion people hungry in the world; today there are about 1billion people hungry in the world; that is why the right to food has become so important,” it stated. Explaining how to ensure that right to food is respected by the government should it be included in the Constitution, Mr. Ofei-Nkansah said “there are three levels of obligations within the context of right to food which have been accepted under international laws,” and named them as: “the State must respect, protect, and fulfill the rights to food.” He said “the State shall not do anything which reduces peoples’ stability to food, so for example the government shall not get up and clear 10,000 people from their lands with no substantial compensation.” In terms of the implementation and realization of the right to food in the Constitution of some African countries, he said South Africa was exceptional because “there is a strong commitment to the right to food in their Constitution and Bill of Rights.”