This study provides an introduction to the right to food and human rights principles in international law, explores the relationship between international fisheries instruments and the right to food and seeks to identify components that are considered important for the implementation of the right to food in fisheries legislation.

The ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) has been developed over the last decade in response to perceived and actual deficiencies in previous methods of management. The EAF recognizes that fish are only one albeit important part of a much wider ecosystem incorporating an array of physical and biological components that humans interact with and exploit.