The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (hereinafter VGGT) and the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (hereinafter SSF Guidelines) are two internationally agreed instruments that can be used by different actors to improve the governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests as well as to improve the socioeconomic conditions of small-scale fishers
and fishworkers, with the aim to contribute to the progressive
realization of the human right to food.
The VGGT and the SSF Guidelines were developed through an open intergovernmental process with the full and effective participation of civil society and a vast array of relevant actors. States committed to
these human rights-based international instruments that set out clear principles to improve the governance of tenure and equitable development of small-scale fishing communities.
Adopted by the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in 2012, the VGGT are situated in a context of decades of struggle for peoples’ access to and control over their territories and natural resources. The VGGT establish internationally accepted principles and norms to define responsible practice for the ownership, management, and use of land, fisheries and forests. They convey a powerful message: that the responsible governance of tenure of natural resources supports the realization of the human rights of peasants, small-scale fishers, pastoralists, Indigenous Peoples, the landless, rural workers, youth, men and women.
The SSF Guidelines are also the result of a bottomup participatory development process based on the recommendations of the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Sessions of the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations’ (FAO) Committee on Fisheries (COFI). Between 2010 and 2013, FAO facilitated a global consultation process, leading to the endorsement of the SSF Guidelines by the Thirty-first Session of COFI in June 2014. Like the VGGT, the SSF Guidelines place high priority on the realization of human rights, focusing specifically on the rights of vulnerable and marginalized peoples.