Hunger Is a
Violation of Human Rights
The Human Rights Council of the United Nations has called on all States
and other relevant organizations to bring a human rights perspective into
their activities to reduce and prevent hunger.
A resolution agreed at the conclusion of the Council’s 22 May special
session in Geneva on the impact of the world food crisis said measures should
be taken to “ensure the realization of the right to food as an essential
human rights objective.”
In her speech to the Council, High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise
Arbour said that, “while it is imperative to respond immediately to
emergencies with commensurate humanitarian support and aid in order to
address conditions of hunger, a human rights focus will contribute to making
solutions more durable and more equitable in the medium and long run.”
Such an approach, Ms Arbour said, would confront the reasons why the food
crisis hurts some groups more than others, and help “clarify the imbalances
in society that trigger or exacerbate the food crisis.”
The High Commissioner also looked at the threat posed by the current crisis
to socially and economically marginalized groups. “The ongoing emergency,”
she said, “may also reinforce long-entrenched patterns of exclusion and
discrimination that have prevented the most vulnerable from claiming their
rightful access to food in the first place. We must examine and address the
repercussions of the crisis on those people already living in precarious and
marginalized situations, particularly women and children, minorities and
people with disabilities.”
In a statement to the Council, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food,
Mr Olivier De Schutter, said the food crisis was a man-made disaster with
identifiable causes that obliged all States to act without delay to bring
relief to the victims.
Mr De Schutter said agricultural policies, the international trade regime,
climate change and food aid may appear to some as purely social, economic or
humanitarian issues, but none of them could be addressed effectively without
taking the right to be free from hunger into account. He asked the Council to
send the message that “human rights are relevant to defining the future shape
of global food policy.”
The current crisis has been driven by what the World Bank estimates is an 83
per cent rise in overall food prices worldwide over the past three years. As
of March 2008, wheat and maize prices were 130 and 30 per cent higher,
respectively, than a year earlier. The cost of rice has more than doubled
since the end of January 2008.
The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that there are 854 million
people who suffer from hunger in the world today. Another two billion endure
malnutrition due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
“Yet,” said a note from the countries that requested the special session of
the Council, “the world can provide food to feed twice its current
population. Therefore, in a world overflowing with riches, hunger is not
inevitable. It is a violation of human rights.”