The Inaugural Legal Symposium on Food and Nutrition Policy in Asia, held in Bali, Indonesia in May 2024, brought together lawyers and advocates from across Asia to tackle legal challenges in developing, promoting and defending food and nutrition policies.
In attendance were legal experts and advocates dedicated to using law to advance public health policies and transform food systems from 12 countries and 23 organizations.
Joint organizers, the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) and Forum Warga Kota (FAKTA) Indonesia (an independent non-profit advocacy organization based in Jakarta, Indonesia) brought together civil society representatives and academics from India, Vietnam, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Indonesia to build legal capacity within the advocacy community. Legal experts from Asia and around the world to as far as Brazil, Mexico and the USA facilitated workshops and shared case studies on policy development and advocacy, human rights law and strategic litigation.
The McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer was proud to participate and delivered a session on navigating trade law and food policy issues in Asia.
The symposium’s key objectives were to:
- Build a robust and sustainable network of public health lawyers across Asia to help hold the food and beverage industry legally accountable and promote evidence-based and community-driven public health policies for food systems transformation;
- Lay the basis for the future development of a set of viable legal strategies for food and nutrition policy and non-communicable disease regulation, including the support of ongoing advocacy campaigns in Asia.
The Public Health Challenge for Asia
In 2022, nearly half of the children under the age of five who were overweight or living with obesity in the world lived in Asia. In the same year, the World Health Organization (WHO) recorded a 31% prevalence of obesity in the South-East Asian region alone. This translated to around 6.6 million children below the age of 5 years old and 1 in every 5 adults who were overweight or living with obesity.
WHO noted a dramatic increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents aged 5–19 from 8% in 1990 to 20% in 2022, while global prevalence doubled from 1990 to 2022. This alarming trend of overweight and obesity is expected to rise in the next five years unless public health policies that create healthier food environments help reverse this trend.
Yet, the food industry often resists regulation, or proposes self-regulation instead of having healthy food laws and policies put in place which require compliance and external accountability. Where they are put in place, healthy food policies are frequently being challenged by the food industry in both domestic courts and international tribunals. Therefore, public health lawyers and champions must be prepared to develop and defend food and nutrition policies beginning with building strong legal capacity in the advocacy community.
Building technical legal capacity throughout the policy cycle
The legal symposium aimed to build legal skills at every stage of the policy cycle from policy development to defending policies against legal challenges.
Workshop facilitators and delegates shared cutting-edge legal strategies, lessons learned and how to employ legal work strategically to implement and enforce best practice regulations to reduce diet-related non-communicable diseases. The group also discussed how to leverage human rights frameworks within the region to advance food policies and how to address trade challenges posed by policy opponents by using evidence free from conflicts of interest.
According to the FAKTA Indonesia team, “the Asia Legal Symposium was very useful for carrying out advocacy efforts, especially of excise taxes on packaged sweetened drinks in Indonesia, which is the main focus of the country at the moment. The workshop enriched the knowledge and insight of multiple CSOs from various countries that have implemented best practices.”
Civil society organizations across Asia shared fresh and innovative approaches to food policies and case studies on using strategic litigation to obtain relief from courts and to enable regulatory agencies to issue a position on novel issues in food and governance.
The McCabe Centre presented on legal challenges to food and nutrition policies in the international arena. We presented on the principles of trade challenges raised at the World Trade Organization such as non-discrimination and trade restrictiveness that constitute technical barriers to trade and considered violations of states' obligations under trade agreements. The session provided participants with tools to navigate these trade challenges and develop policies that preempt and mitigate legal challenges.
Lawyer and Regional Manager for Asia from the McCabe Centre, Ma-Anne Rosales, shared that the workshop gave participants a rare opportunity to connect and learn from lawyers and advocates on the frontlines of the food and nutrition policy campaign in Asia.
"There is so much to be gained from sharing and listening to these stories of successes and challenges that foster a sense of community among participants. It reminds us that there is always support available, and more importantly, that we need to keep the conversation going,” Ma-Anne said.
Next steps - building a regional legal network
Participants aim to create a community of practice that fosters the regular exchange of information and legal strategies, and continuously raises the bar for legal skills to promote, develop and defend food and nutrition policies.
There are plans for a regional network, for lawyers and advocates, with a focus on food and nutrition policy. The McCabe Centre will remain involved and will provide further updates on how to participate as they become available.
“We welcome the opportunity to collaborate on this inaugural symposium and ongoing activities to empower lawyers and advocates to shape the future of food and nutrition policy in Asia . The McCabe Centre focuses on advancing law to fight cancer, and working together we can achieve so much more,” - Hayley Jones, Director, McCabe Centre for Law & Cancer.
Images provided courtesy of the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI).