Responsiveness of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement to diet-related non-communicable diseases: A human rights analysis

Abstract

Non-communicable diseases are the leading cause of death world-wide and have increased significantly on the African continent. Changing diets are a significant contributor where people are given more access to unhealthy foods. Trade liberalisation has been revealed as a structural driver of the so-called 'nutrition transition'. There have been calls to take a human-rights based approach to trade law, and specifically in the context of food, to protect diets under the rights to food and health. In 2008 the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food proposed practical steps to introduce a human rights lens to trade law which can protect food environments. This article measures the African Continental Free Trade Agreement against these proposed measures. It focuses on AfCFTA due to its potential to impact on inter and intraregional trade. AfCFTA also recognises the importance of human rights in a trade law context as part of the text of its establishing agreement. an obligation indeed rests on the South African legislature urgently to implement similar laws to save the lives and protect the various other rights of unsafely abandoned infants. It is proposed that 'baby savers' and 'baby safe haven laws' urgently should be introduced in South Africa to prevent further deaths through the unsafe abandonment of infants in places such as toilets, pit latrines and open fields.