Zach Curinga

Document Type

Article

Date

Fall 12-2018

Keywords

food security, disability, human rights, United Nations, policy

Language

English

Disciplines

Disability Studies | Food Science | Food Studies | Nutrition | Public Health | Public Policy | Social Welfare

Description/Abstract

American society is currently structured to function for those individuals bestowed with inherent abilities. As such, it ignores access to participate socially and culturally for those who are disabled. There is a trend that elected representatives often limit access of the socio-cultural rights of others who are unlike themselves, interpreted by their own personal, non-disabled, socioeconomic experience. This trend is the root of the problem for those who are disabled: they cannot access and participate in society fully, which makes them often disregarded by their representatives who do not face their same barriers.

In this thesis, I apply a human rights lens – specifically the UN principles of respect, protect, and fulfill – to better understand the relationship between disability and food insecurity. By applying these principles, this analysis briefly looks at the progressive realization of food and disability rights in contradistinction with how these specific rights are being realized at an international level. By paralleling the incremental evolution of disability rights abroad, this study considers recommendations for policy to be instituted in the United States in order to put it on par in relation to disability rights with other countries. In doing so, this study aims to capture the problematic relations of policy and those affected but also the gaps that the social safety nets or emergency food systems have when protecting those who are disabled.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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