UN criticises EFTA for jeopardising the right to food

Bern, June 7th, 2024 – The member countries of European Free Trade Association (EFTA) are jeopardising the right to food. This is what the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, writes in a letter to the four countries. Fakhri refers to a clause in EFTA free trade agreements with countries of the Global South. This obliges the partner countries to introduce strict intellectual property rights on seeds, comparable to patents. The Swiss coalition Right to Seed is calling on the EFTA countries to remove this clause. It threatens farmer seed systems, the backbone of food security in many countries of the Global South.