UN expert calls urgently on agencies, Governments to reduce under-nourishment

The right to food should be respected in economic adjustment and trade liberalization policies prescribed by international organizations, which have an obligation to ensure that poor communities are not left in even greater poverty and hunger, a United Nations human rights expert says in a report released today.

Such international bodies as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) "should recognize that they have binding responsibilities towards human rights, including the right to food," the UN Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, says in his report to the General Assembly. "With power must come responsibility."

Special Rapporteurs are unpaid experts who serve in an independent personal capacity on a mandate from the UN Commission on Human Rights and who report back to the Commission.

"The Special Rapporteur is concerned that projects financed by international organizations such as the World Bank can have a negative impact on the right to food of vulnerable populations, sometimes causing them to be displaced from their land and to lose access to their traditional lands and livelihoods," Mr. Ziegler says.

"He is also concerned that the economic models of development currently promoted and imposed by international organizations such as the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO are threatening the right to food of small farmers across the world."

Food security should not be "left up to the vagaries of the market system that cannot address hunger in times of emergency" and emergency food aid should be excluded from market principles and provided free of charge, he adds.

Mr. Ziegler says all governments should take urgent action to halt increases in global under-nourishment around the world and should respond rapidly to the food crises occurring across Africa, as well as among indigenous peoples in most countries.

"While national governments have the primary obligation to ensure the right to food of their populations, they also have an obligation to seek international assistance and cooperation when they have insufficient resources, and other States have an obligation, depending on the availability of their resources, to facilitate the realization of the right to food through development cooperation and emergency aid," Mr. Ziegler says.

"Finally, it is unacceptable that the world, which is richer than ever before, can let 5 million infant children die every year from malnutrition and related diseases and that 852 million people do not get enough to eat every day," he says.