Conceptualizing and Implementing a Rights-Based Approach to Address Food Insecurity at City Level in Developed Countries - A Pilot Trial in York

This doctoral project seeks to conceptualize and implement the right to food at the city level in the UK, with York as a case study. It aims to unveil the full potential and roles of cities in promoting the right to food and contribute conceptually, methodologically, and empirically to human rights scholarship and practice.

The project asks the overarching research question: How can a rights-based approach be conceptualized and applied at the city level to address food insecurity? It will be followed by three subsidiary questions:
- What are the obligations and roles of cities in realizing the right to food?
- How do different stakeholders at city level, such as residents, civil society actors, food banks (both public and private), and local authorities understand the right to food and correlative obligations?
- How can stakeholders be centrally involved in the process of designing a context-specific rights-based approach that addresses their concerns relating to the realization of the right to food?

Methodologically, the project will use a case study-based approach and a mix of socio-legal research methods to answer its research questions. It will develop a case study on York to explore the potentialities of implementing a rights-based approach to realize the right to food at the city level. To develop the case study, this project will partner with the York Human Rights City Network (YHRCN) and draw upon the YHRCN's practical knowledge on localizing international human rights standards to develop its analysis.

To answer the first subsidiary question on the obligations and roles of cities in realizing the right to food, the thesis will rely on doctrinal legal research. By examining international and national legal instruments as well as relevant jurisprudence, the normative content of the right to food and the obligations of the UK as well as cities in realizing this right will be analyzed within the wider human rights and international law regime.

To answer the second question relating to different stakeholders' interpretation of the right to food and correlative obligations, interviews will be conducted with foodbank users as rights holders, staff members at food banks as non-state actors to provide access to food, NGOs that advocate for the right to food, and policy makers and local government officials as the duty bearers.

To answer the third question on involving stakeholders in designing a context-specific rights-based approach, this project will apply a collaborative participatory approach to research and bring together different stakeholders at the city level at workshops and/ or citizen assemblies where they will co-construct a road map for implementing the rights-based approach.

The project aims to make contributions along three dimensions. Conceptually, the research will provide insights into the potentialities and design of rights-based approaches aimed at solving social problems in developed countries. Using York as a case study, this project will provide broader conceptual understanding of the roles of cities in implementing social rights contracted by central governments. Methodologically, by co-constructing a road map for addressing food insecurity within the rights-based framework, this project will contribute original knowledge on the potential and limitations of using a participatory approach in enforcing international human rights law at the city level. In terms of empirical contribution and policy relevance, this project will contribute new data on people's lived experiences of food insecurity and on concrete ways to integrate human rights into local food policies at the city level in York, and in cities with similar characteristics.