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	Is the Doha round delivering on poverty? by IRIN News   20 January 2011   Scepticism marked discussions at a just-ended global poverty summit in Johannesburg on whether the Doha Development Round of negotiations at the World Trade Organization could help reduce the number of poor people in developing countries.   The Doha talks, which began in 2001, are aimed at reducing barriers to market access throughout the world, with the development of poor countries at the heart of their agenda. They look at three main sectors - agriculture, intellectual property and services.   Jomo Kwame Sundaram, the assistant secretary-general of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and a leading Malaysian economist, said it had been extremely difficult to measure any socio-economic benefits of such access.   He said studies in his country had shown that a paddy farmer’s child had better nutrition than the children of a rubber farmer who now had access to global markets.   Improving income levels did not automatically imply better lives for the poor in any country, as other factors such as the implementation of policies that benefit the poor within countries matter a lot more, said Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel prize-winning economist and chair of the Brooks World Poverty Institute, the organizers of the Johannesburg summit.   He cited the USA as an example of where gross domestic product had grown substantially but not filtered down to the poor, who were worse off than a decade ago. "It [high economic growth levels] had a trickle-up effect," said Stiglitz.   Over the past decade the Doha talks have failed to get developed countries to stop subsidizing their farmers and agricultural exports, something that directly threatens livelihoods and food security in the developing countries.   While some European Union (EU) countries have abolished or reduced agricultural subsidies, the USA has not. It reintroduced subsidies for cotton farmers in 2008, pointed out Bernard Hoekman, an international trade expert at the World Bank, severely affecting cotton farmers in West African countries like Benin, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso.   The Johannesburg summit called for the rapid elimination of export subsidies, especially for cotton, sugar, groundnuts, dairy products and fish.   Sundaram said sub-Saharan Africa did not stand to benefit from the Doha talks. He pointed out that many least developed countries (LDCs), most of them in Africa, lacked the capacity to compete in the global market. LDCs are seeking duty and quota-free access to markets in developed countries at the Doha talks.   The Doha talks are also discussing EU fishing industry subsidies which encourage European fishing beyond Europe - something that adversely affects the millions of African fishermen, said the World Bank''s Hoekman. "If those subsidies are removed it will prevent overfishing, benefiting the poor fishing communities along the African coast and the environment." Visit the related web page
	Human Rights Council discusses Right to Food by FAO, UN Human Rights Council & agencies   Jan 2011   The Human Rights Council has discussed two recent studies on the right to food prepared by its drafting group on the right to food. The first study looked at discrimination in the context of the right to food and the second looked at the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas.   Jean Ziegler, Chair of the Advisory Committee group on the right to food, presenting the study on discrimination in the context of the right to food, said that of all the human rights, the right to food was the one that was probably the most violently and frequently violated around the world.   Over 1 billion people were permanently and severely malnourished. Every three seconds a child died of lack of food and every four seconds a person became blind from lack of vitamins. However, the world agricultural sector could feed 12 billion individuals around the world.   The report dealt with the legal framework of the right to food and contained precise examples of how discrimination functioned in the context of the enjoyment of the right to food and the access to food.   It also gave the structural reasons behind the problem. A third part of the study stated possible policies and strategies to address such discrimination for States and non-state actors.   Mona Zulficar, a member of the working group on the right to food, said that the study discussed structural discrimination and focused on the groups of people that were suffering the most in the context of the right to food, specifically the peasant farmers, the rural population, the urban poor, rural women, children, refugees and other vulnerable groups such as indigenous people and people suffering from disabilities.   Jose Bengoa Cabello, another member of the working group, presenting the preliminary study on the rights of peasants, said that the first section of the document highlighted the importance of the link between the right to food and the rural population. The rural population was the worst affected from malnourishment and the lack of food.   The document also mentioned fisher-folks and small-holder farmers. A section was also devoted to landless people and how one could guarantee the right to land.   Another important focus of the study was the one devoted to female farmers and female seasonal workers. The farmers world was not the subject of any specific protection in international human rights law.   There was a fair and legitimate claim for the establishment of legal instruments that would protect peasants and farmers. The Committee should ask the Human Rights Council to mandate the Committee with the production of a document in which they would include a draft of the rights of peasants. Many countries agreed that this was the logical next step that should be taken.   Ms. Zulficar, speaking on the study on the rights of peasants, said that the paper they were presenting was a preliminary document. While the study on discrimination, had focused on different aspects, the one they were presenting now was looking at how to advance the rights of the rural population. The recommendations made were thus also directed towards the creation of a specific instrument on the rights of peasants. It could be a declaration to be followed by a convention.   Speaking today on the topic of discrimination in the context of the right to food were China, Bolivia, Brazil and Sudan and the Mouvement contre le Racisme et pour l"Amitié entre les Peuples (MRAP).   Speaking on the issue of the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas were Ecuador, Bolivia, Sudan and La Via Campesina.   In a recommendation on the study on discrimination in the context of the right to food, recommended that the Human Rights Council consider requesting the Advisory Committee to undertake comprehensive studies on the following topics, since the study on discrimination in the context of the right to food has revealed a pressing need for further research in these areas.   The right to food of the urban poor, including strategies to improve their legal protection and best practices; the right to food of rural women, including patterns of discrimination, strategies and policies for their legal protection and best practices, with a special focus on female-headed households and temporary seasonal workers; the relationship between severe malnutrition and childhood diseases, and guidelines to improve the legal protection of malnourished children; and the right to food of people forced to leave their homes and land because of hunger, and guidelines on their legal protection. Visit the related web page
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