Safeguarding people’s health has been the global priority amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In Bhutan, emerging lessons show how nutrition and other aspects of health are intricately related to the management of food security during the current crisis, and beyond. The country’s leaders have used moral suasion alongside policy measures to demonstrate that good nutrition need not be a luxury.
Attribution: Om Bhandari, “Safeguarding Food Self-Sufficiency in the Time of COVID-19: Lessons from Bhutan,”
ORF Issue Brief No. 429, December 2020, Observer Research Foundation.
INTRODUCTION
Global trade was already facing disruptions before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to weakened growth and heightened US-China tensions; agriculture commodities were being disproportionately affected.
On Dec. 10, a joint sitting of both houses of parliament in Bhutan saw 63 of its 69 total members vote in favour of amending Sections 213 and 214 of the country s penal code on unnatural sex , with the remaining six members absent.
According to the
Associated Press (AP), the amendment entails changing these two sections to clarify that homosexuality between two adults shall not be considered unnatural sex.
The amendments now require the approval of Bhutan s King in order to become law.
Prior to amendment, homosexuality had been classified as a petty misdemeanour which carried an imprisonment term of between a month to a year, Bhutanese media