The Right to Freedom from Hunger
No time to wait on hunger
Today, as many as 1.7bn people are food insecure, of whom probably 950 million chronically malnourished. 16,000 children die of hunger-related causes every day. Yet there is more than enough food produced in the world to feed every person and a record cereal harvest is predicted this year. Why then are millions dying or hundreds of millions suffering from chronic malnutrition?
The scourge of hunger and widespread food insecurity continues to grow at an increasing pace because as an international community, we have yet to address the sources of the problem.
Everyone has the Right to Adequate Food and governments have an obligation to fulfill this Right.
Through the UN Millennium Development Goals, government leaders committed to halve world hunger by 2015. Yet today hunger is increasing in most parts of the world.
There is no Excuse for Hunger
According to ActionAid's End Hunger Now campaign, emergency relief programs that hand out imported food are not sustainable. International aid programs have not adequately supported local farmers in the developing world, particularly in Africa where per capita food production has declined for the past 30 years. Climate change and rising fuel costs, along with structural inequalities resulting from market liberalization and the push for biofuels have exacerbated food scarcities as well.
As Olivier De Schutter, the current UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food explained, “Hunger is man-made. What misguided policies have caused, better focused policies can undo.” It is time to enact such policies.
Organizations and coalitions dedicated to finding permanent solutions to the food crisis, like ActionAid and GCAP, agree: developing countries need to make serious commitments that involve long term investments in agriculture, involve female producers, increase productivity and find ways to incorporate small-scale farmers into markets. Developed country governments must not contradict their promises to combat hunger with unjust trade deals and biofuels mandates.
The Obligations of States
States have an obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to adequate food, for all their people- providing food directly when necessary, and appealing to the international community when they are not able to do so. All states have an obligation to assist others to fully fulfill this right and refrain from any action that may interfere with its realization.
Governments must be held to their commitments to keep people everywhere free from hunger. They must be called on to enact policies to prevent starvation, ensure basic social protection, guarantee all women the right to own land, and hold corporations accountable for abuses of the rights of food, water, land, and seeds.
There is no Excuse for Hunger.
