Special Rapporteur on the right to food

Purpose of the mandate

Hunger and food insecurity are global problems. According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (2019)¹, more than 820 million people in the world were still hungry in 2018. This problem is likely to get worse given the expected increase in the world’s population and the stress on natural resources.

This mandate was created to address the need for an integrated and coordinated approach to promoting and protecting people’s right to food.

Learn what the right to food means, and how it intersects with other human rights

About the mandate

The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food was originally established by the Commission on Human Rights in April 2000 by resolution 2000/10. Following the replacement of the Commission by the Human Rights Council in June 2006, the mandate was endorsed and extended by the Human Rights Council by its resolution 6/2 of 27 September 2007.

Learn more about the mandate and the resolutions that established it

Current mandate holder

Ms. Sofía Monsalve Suárez (Colombia) was appointed Special Rapporteur on the right to food by the Human Rights Council at its 61st session, in March 2026 and took up her functions on 1 May 2026.

Hailing from the Colombian Andes, she now lives in the German Odenwald and holds a research position at the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health. With an academic background in philosophy and political science, Sofía brings decades of experience at the intersection of human rights, food systems, and social justice. For 25 years, she worked with FIAN International, a human rights organization dedicated to the right to food and nutrition. She has long-standing expertise in supporting grassroots social movements to defend their right to food and related rights, alongside extensive knowledge of the UN human rights system, the FAO, and the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS). She has also collaborated closely with leading universities across multiple countries and was a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food).