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	The human right to food is not an unattainable goal; rather, it remains unrealized by Hilal Elver Committee on World Food Security   In May 2023, the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) announced that an unprecedented number of 345 million people were battling extreme hunger in 58 countries, in 2022. These people required urgent assistance for food, nutrition, and livelihood in order to survive. This number is the highest recorded since 2017 when the GRFC began reporting such data.   The report uses 3 categories of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC): (3) Crisis, (4) Emergency, (5) Catastrophe/Famine conditions. Phase 5 signifies an extreme lack of food and other basic needs, even after implementing all possible coping strategies.   At this level, starvation, death, destitution, and critical acute malnutrition are evident. In addition to the cases of extreme hunger, over three billion people are unable to afford a healthy diet. These numbers represent more than mere statistics, they represent human beings who deserve dignity, and a decent life.   Food insecurity has been on the rise since 2014, but the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the ongoing Ukraine war, has disrupted global food supply chains, creating the most severe global food crisis since the Second World War.   Besides these unprecedented issues, extreme weather events related to climate change, such as prolonged and intensified droughts, as well as severe and unpredictable floods, are significantly reducing food production and distribution.   Given the adverse impact of these recent multiple crises, reaching the “Zero Hunger” target of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals No. 2, is clearly not viable until 2030.   Notably, these outcomes are not distributed equally across countries, regions, or social groups. While vertical and horizontal inequalities between countries and individuals are widening, the goal of eliminating hunger and malnutrition within marginalized communities remains daunting.   Social and economic challenges such as poverty, forced displacement and migration, intergenerational inequality, as well as multiple discriminations prevent equal access to available food in many developing countries.   Ironically, most people who suffer from hunger, malnutrition and poverty are concentrated in rural areas, and work in the food and agriculture sector, producing much of the locally consumed foods.   During my mandate as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, I witnessed such inequalities, injustices and human sufferings in various places that were already burdened by the severe impact of climate disasters, political conflicts, skyrocketing food prices, unilateral coercive measures, health hazards of agricultural chemicals, massive displacements due to development projects and extractive industries. Indigenous Peoples and peasants, especially women and children, are unequivocally impacted by such detrimental conditions, more than others.   Our job as Special Rapporteurs is to bring the voice of those voiceless people to the UN platforms and international media, shedding light on both deliberate and unintentional, yet irresponsible, policies.   I also witnessed that the right to food has merely become rhetoric, with nothing more than empty promises. Sadly, even many human rights organizations have not used the right to food and the human rights-based approach as a tool to fight against hunger and malnutrition. This is due to a lack of understanding of the procedural rules of human rights law, as well as insufficient institutional, financial, and political support for implementing the right to food.   Moreover, there is a sense of disappointment about the fact that human rights principles are not strong enough to reverse policies or effectively penalize perpetrators in order to discourage harmful behaviours.   At the same time, the public sector is gradually losing its regulatory power against global corporate interests and international trade rules. Activists are also losing ground in defending human rights, specifically the right to food, food sovereignty, and promoting local food systems against the global establishment. Furthermore, those who try to protect peoples’ land and water rights are often subject to psychological and physical violence by corporate-supported militias.   Women’s rights and gender equality are continuously undermined everywhere. After many years of efforts, the advancement of gender equality in food systems according to a new report of the Malabo Montpellier Panel is “slow and fragile”.   Also, the recent report by the FAO on “The status of women in agri-food systems” estimates that the global gender food security gap has registered an eightfold increase since 2008. The report also highlights that bridging the gender gap in farm productivity would reduce global food insecurity by approximately two percentage points, equivalent to alleviating the number of food-insecure people by 45 million. Additionally, it is estimated that this would contribute around USD 1 trillion to the global GDP.   These trends indicate that current global food systems often exclude the interests of women, Indigenous Peoples, small-scale family farmers and food producers in favour of a few powerful ones. As a result, food security has become highly monopolized and politicized, both at the national and international level, due to the involvement of numerous actors and economic interests.   Undermining the human rights system, specifically the right to food and other relevant rights, presents a major obstacle in eliminating hunger and malnutrition in the context of highly unequal food systems and destabilizes the pursuit of overall human security as well.   Considering the detrimental impact of multiple crises, building a common understanding about achieving food security for all is urgently needed, yet fiercely contested. As we have witnessed during the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, there are two distinct perspectives regarding how to address these current multi-layers, multi-actors, and multi-ideological features of global food governance.   The dominant perspective is production-oriented, a neoliberal market model, primarily relying on global food trade. This viewpoint is promoted by powerful states, the private sector, large-scale producers, and global food trade supporters. This system has proven to be ineffective for a significant number of smallholder farmers, producers, and food systems workers, while big food corporations continue to experience soaring profits.   The second perspective is the human rights-based approach to food security and nutrition. It prioritizes the right to food and nutrition for all, particularly women, children, food workers and peasants' rights, and equal access to resources. This approach supports small-scale farmers and producers, prioritizes self-sufficiency and local markets, and defends agroecology and food sovereignty.   The right to food was initially acknowledged 75 years ago in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Art. 25, along with other economic rights, which referred to “an adequate standard of living.”   Subsequently, the legally binding International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) was adopted in 1966 and entered into force in 1976 being signed and ratified by 170 countries, committing them to take measures to optimize available resources in order to gradually achieve the complete realization of the right to adequate food, both at the national and international level.   The right to food was also repeatedly recognized in the major human rights conventions, such as Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Convention on Right of Child, and the Convention on Right to Disable People, as well as a number of national constitutions.   More recently, the two important UN Declarations, the Declaration of Right of Indigenous Peoples (2007), and the Declaration of Peasants (2018) extended the content of the right to food by emphasizing individual human rights to communal rights.   Today, more than 30 countries explicitly and 54 countries implicitly recognized the right to food in their constitution. Latin American countries have emerged as champions in advocating for the right to food.   Nevertheless, after seven decades, there is still a significant gap between law and implementation, and some states continue to ignore and undermine economic, social and cultural rights, particularly the right to food.   It is important to recognize that, despite the successful recognition and implementation of civil and political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights are neglected, ignored and undermined.   Challenges of implementing a human rights approach   Since its inception, the right to food has often faced criticism due to its indefinable, undeliverable, and non-justiciable nature. On the other hand, the right to food is undeniably a fundamental human right closely connected to the ‘right to life’.   Ethics philosopher Henry Shue argues that basic rights, such as the right to food, are “an essential and necessary condition to the enjoyment of all other rights”. Similarly, Amartya Sen argues that “there is strong evidence that economic and political freedoms help to reinforce one another, rather than being hostile to one another”.   One of the reasons for the weak political will to implement the right to food stems from the conflict between the ethics of capitalism, the logic of the market, and the adherence to the realm of economic and social rights.   There is a prevailing perception that the right to food is a matter of charity, humanitarianism, or moral responsibility, rather than a legal entitlement that states are duty-bound to uphold for all individuals.   There is a fundamental distinction between these two perspectives. Accordingly, it is crucial for states to ensure that adequate institutions and avenues exist to enable rights holders to hold them accountable for violations of their rights and secure remedial relief for themselves.   It is widely agreed that the quality of institutions has a significant impact not only on the implementation of the right to food, but also on the state’s economy and the level of food security enjoyed by its population.   Moreover, institutions cannot be effective without corresponding mechanisms for monitoring and accountability at both domestic and international levels.   In 2013, the long-awaited Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR) entered into force, bringing complaints to the international level from those who experience violations of their economic, social and cultural rights.   Unfortunately, state parties are still reluctant to implement the international complaint mechanism, and thus, the protocol remains mostly dormant.   Another challenge is despite the spirit of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, which emphasize breaking the silos among various goals, fragmentation of global governance in UN institutions still exists.   Institutional fragmentation and silos within and between the Rome-based institutions and Geneva-based human rights organizations and their mechanisms have further weakened efforts to mainstream human rights into the food policy agenda.   In recent years, human rights have been under attack due to emerging nationalism, populism and predatory global capitalism. Unfortunately, world powers are retreating in their historical commitment to human rights.   Consequently, United Nations institutions are experiencing extreme financial shortfalls, especially the Human Rights Council and regional human rights mechanisms, such as the Inter-American human rights system.   The right to food and other economic rights are mostly violated by the private sector. However, corporations are reluctant to be held accountable for their human rights violations, except for “voluntary corporate social responsibility”.   Such a weak regulation simply reinforces the philosophy of the global food industry that enables corporations profiteering from the do-good motto: “feeding the world”, while simultaneously undermining any unintended – or even in some cases intended – consequences of the violation of human rights.   Unfortunately, developed countries that are benefiting from current free market-oriented global food systems, blocked the negotiations to establish legally binding agreements against human rights violations by the private sector.   This attitude intensifies inequality and poverty, and undermines self-sufficiency, sustainability, agroecology and many other policies that are part and parcel of a human rights-based approach.   Implementing the human rights-based approach would be an effective and appropriate policy tool for building democratic, just and equitable food governance that responds to current social and economic inequalities. This implies the following important policy changes that parliamentarians have the power to develop:   Strong political commitment and allocation of public resources;   Democratic institutional structure to reach meaningful participation in decision making processes, strong partnerships, and dialogues by including marginalized groups;   Emphasis on the most vulnerable communities, individuals, including women, youth and Indigenous Peoples who are the most impacted by immediate crises, yet most capable to solve it;   Dedicated attention to marginalized food systems actors, for sharing information, establishing evidence-based analysis, enabling access to technology and education.   Building effective mechanisms to increase monitoring and accountability against right to food violations.   Eliminating hunger and malnutrition and realizing the right to food are deeply interconnected. Achieving this goal is a substantial undertaking, given the legal, political, economic and environmental conditions of the current world order.   However, with political will, solidarity and compassion at every level, the transformation of aspirations into action, is achievable. States must implement those human rights instruments which ensure that all players, not only the powerful ones, are included in the decision-making processes. Those who disproportionately suffer from hunger must be represented and afforded the opportunity to advocate for their rights.   It is important to bear in mind that the human right to food is not an unattainable goal; rather, it remains unrealized. Resolving issues of hunger and malnutrition is not only a commitment to achieving fundamental human rights, but also a means to address the current crisis of inequality and promote justice and political stability in all aspects of the human and natural world.   Radical transformation of food governance is crucial if we aim to enhance the resilience of our food systems, particularly in the face of the challenges of our time.   Failure to address inefficiencies, inequities and injustices in global food policies, especially in the midst of escalating climate change, growing social unrest and political instability is unconscionable and unacceptable.   * Hilal Elver remarks at the Second Global Parliamentary Summit against Hunger and Malnutrition in Valparaiso, Chile; June 2023. Hilal is a member of the Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN). Research professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, as well as a distinguished global fellow at the UCLA Law School, Resnick Food Law and Policy programme. Between 2014-2020, she was the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.   http://www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe/insights/news-insights/news-detail/challenges-of-implementing-a-human-rights-approach-to-food-security-and-nutrition/en http://www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe/insights/news-insights/news-detail/reducing-inequalities-for-food-security-and-nutrition/en Visit the related web page
	Global hunger remains unacceptably high by Reena Ghelan UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator, agencies   Aug. 2023   We are now halfway through a year marked by large, sudden-onset emergencies, including the Turkiye-Syria earthquake and the crisis in Sudan. Despite these crises contributing to the growing needs globally, humanitarian appeals were only 21 per cent funded by mid-July, a situation similar to last year’s when funding gaps hit communities affected by food crises, notably in the Horn of Africa.   In addition, the United Nations Secretary General has warned that hundred of millions facing hunger will pay the price following the recent decision by the Russian Federation to terminate the implementation of the Black Sea Initiative. He further said that the Initiative, “has been a lifeline for global food security in a troubled world”.   For many, the past few months have also served as a wake-up call about the climate emergency. People choked through wildfires’ smoke in Northern America, while communities in South Asia suffered through yet another historic heatwave. At a time when global hunger remains unacceptably high – as evidenced by the recent report on the State of the Food Security and Nutrition 2023 - it is urgent to act on climate, as one of the drivers, if we want to reach the global goal of zero hunger by 2030.   Vulnerable countries are not only hit hard by the climate emergency but also by the debt crisis. UNCTAD’s recently published report showed that debt servicing is more unsustainable and expensive for low-income countries. These countries face the impossible choice of servicing their debt or serving their people. Contingency financing and debt restructuring are essential to help countries in crises strengthen sustainable food security.   And yet, amid this grim picture we are seeing glimmers of hope. From Niger to Somalia, women-led organizations are taking the lead in spearheading innovation. Local organizations are building climate resilience on the frontlines. They demonstrate the need for development and humanitarian partners to support change and communities to fight and prevent famine.   The numbers of people facing emergency levels of food insecurity (IPC/CH Phase 4) and of countries with populations facing catastrophic conditions (IPC/CH Phase 5) have been increasing almost steadily since 2016.   According to the latest famine and protracted IPC/CH Emergency analysis produced by the Global Network Against Food Crises, the most severe levels of acute food insecurity and acute malnutrition are found in parts of Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen. Too often, these levels have been sustained for a prolonged period.   Over 10.3 million people in these areas are in Emergency (IPC/CH Phase 4), and 129,000 people are in Catastrophe (IPC/CH Phase 5) as of June 2023. Immediate action is critical in order to save lives and protect livelihoods, and prevent further deterioration into catastrophic conditions.   Focus on the Sahel and the Horn of Africa   Over 55 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda were acutely food insecure (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) last year, according to the latest IGAD Regional Focus report. Food crises are forecasted to escalate across the region in 2023, particularly in Kenya and Somalia. The worsening situation is attributed to the compounding effects of multiple shocks, including climate extremes and disasters, conflict and insecurity, and economic shocks. The impact of the conflict in Sudan is likely to further deteriorate the regional food crisis situation.   The food crisis in West Africa and the Sahel is also alarming. The CILSS Regional Focus report highlights that over 28 million people in 13 countries faced acute food and nutrition insecurity between March and May 2023. These represent the highest levels of acute hunger since the first Cadre Harmonise analysis in 2013. Projections for 2023 paint a grim picture. Up to 41.47 million people in 16 countries are expected to be acutely food insecure and need humanitarian assistance during the June–August 2023 lean season. Of these, approximately 45,200 people in Burkina Faso and Mali are expected to face catastrophic levels of food insecurity. (IPC/CH Phase 5).   Famine Prevention needs an all-hands-on-deck approach   The global food crisis was at the centre of the conversations at the 2023 Humanitarian Affairs Segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), held from 21 to 23 June 2023 in Geneva. The discussions brought together Member States, the UN, a broad range of humanitarian and development partners, local community representatives, as well as representatives from the private sector and the academia. They provided an opportunity to discuss meaningful, locally-driven and people-centred solutions to preventing famine.   Several red threads emerged, including the need to address the key drivers of the global food crisis through political solutions to end conflict and mitigate its impact, as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation.   The importance of scaling anticipatory action to save lives, and the criticality of local actors - particularly women-led organizations - in driving sustainable impact was highlighted throughout.   Overall, the notion of not being to “humanitarian our way out of the current humanitarian situation” was prevalent, with a strong focus on the need for an all-hands-on-deck approach to preventing famine in 2023 through holistic solutions and resilient agri-food systems.   Speaking at the High-Level Panel, the UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator, Reena Ghelani, highlighted five areas for action.   • First, redouble global efforts to prevent, reduce and end conflict and violence. Conflict remains the main driver of hunger for 117 million people in 19 countries, almost half of those affected and it absorbs almost 80 per cent of food sector aid.   • Second, invest seriously in climate adaptation and mitigation in the most vulnerable countries. Climate change is the main driver of hunger for 57 million people, and while its impact will continue to be most acutely felt in the poorest and most crisis-affected countries, only a fraction of development or climate finance goes to such contexts.   • Third, address the social, governance and economic factors that fuel those crises. Economic factors are the main driver of hunger for 84 million people, almost triple the number compared to 2021. Around 60 percent of low income countries are in or at high risk of debt distress, leaving limited resources to address the crises in their own countries.   • Fourth, place women and girls at the centre of our efforts to combat these crises. Closing the gender gap in agriculture inputs alone could lift approximately 100-150 million people out of hunger and reduce poverty rates by between 12 and 25 percent.   • And fifth, the humanitarian and development community must be faster, better and less riskaverse. Only a third of development aid goes to countries with food crises. When it does, only 11 percent is channelled to the food or agriculture sectors, and not enough of it is invested in rural areas where 80 percent of the most food insecure people live. Humanitarian response, meanwhile, is funded at less than 21 percent and is not sufficiently focused on anticipatory action, resilience and sustainability.   As the UN Secretary-General recently noted, a world without extreme poverty or hunger could be within reach. We have the information, expertise and technology to achieve that. What we need now is the collective commitment and hard work and the tough choices to make it happen.   We can’t fight famine without gender equality   Gender equality is threatened by the current hunger emergency. There are now about 150 million more hungry women and girls than men, and the gender gap is increasing quickly.   A series of recent reports, including OCHA’s Gendered Drivers, Risks and Impacts of Food Insecurity, Beyond Hunger and FAO’s Status of Women in Agrifood Systems, lay bare the disproportionate impacts of the global hunger crisis on women and girls, including in the areas of education, gender-based violence, and sexual and reproductive health.   Women working in agrifood systems often face marginalization, as well as worse working conditions and pay than men. Women also have less secure tenure over land and less access to credit and training. Despite their active role and crucial contributions in food systems and climate action, women often lack access to decision-making and leadership positions.   We must elevate the voices of women’s organizations active in food security, and to ensure their leadership role is acknowledged and promoted through mutual support, funding, and a better access to land, credit and productive assets. Women and girls hold the key to fighting famine. We need to start listening to them. http://tinyurl.com/yuxfa77k   http://www.fightfoodcrises.net/crises/en/ http://www.fightfoodcrises.net/hunger-hotspots/en/   July 2023 (WFP)   The largest food and nutrition crisis in history continues to deepen its impact, 345 million people will be acutely food insecure this year and millions of people at risk of worsening hunger.   Conflicts, climate change and disasters, economic instability and financial crises – all compounded by the current funding crisis – converge in an overwhelming polycrisis driving the global food crisis.   An estimated 40.4 million people across 51 countries are in Emergency or worse levels of acute food insecurity in 2023. Without urgent life-saving action, these populations will be at risk of falling into catastrophe or famine conditions.   As of June 2023, the World Food Programme (WFP) plans to reach some 170 million people with rations for the remainder of this year.   An expected funding shortfall of a staggering 60 percent is already hampering activities, resulting in ration and caseload cuts in all regions. 2023 will be marked by very hard prioritization calls, as needs by far outpace funding levels.   http://www.wfp.org/publications/wfp-global-operational-response-plan-update-8-june-2023 http://www.wfp.org/publications/hunger-hotspots-fao-wfp-early-warnings-acute-food-insecurity-june-november-2023 http://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/increasing-risk-of-hunger-set-to-spread-in-hotspot-areas/en   July 2023   The adverse impact of climate change on the full realization of the right to food, statement by Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council.   We know that our environment is burning. It's melting. It's flooding. It's depleting. It's drying. It's dying. The predictable, regular swing of the seasons is wildly off course.   Cyclones of unprecedented proportions whip up lethal storm surges. A heatwave pulsates across the ocean, threatening marine life, fisheries and coral. And inland seas and lakes, which have nourished generation upon generation of farmers and fishers, are turning into dust bowls. I saw that earlier this year near the Aral Sea when I visited Uzbekistan.   Yet still we are not acting with the urgency and determination that is required. Leaders perform the choreography of deciding to act and promising to act and then... get stuck in the short term.   On our current course, the average temperature increase by the end of this century is predicted to be 3° Celsius, and our ecosystems – our air, our food, our water, and human life itself – would be unrecognisable.   Vast territories would disappear under rising oceans, or become effectively uninhabitable, due to heat and lack of water. Last August, the temperature in Basrah, in southern Iraq, rose to 52.6°C. I will be travelling to Iraq later this year, in part to highlight the risks of this dystopian future.   Our topic for discussion is the right to food, and clearly this is comprehensively threatened by climate change.   Extreme weather events, and both sudden and gradual disasters caused by climate change, wipe out crops, herds, fisheries and entire ecosystems. Their repetition makes it impossible for communities to rebuild and support themselves.   Globally, there has been a 134% increase in climate-fueled, flood-related disasters between 2000-2023.   More than 828 million people faced hunger in 2021. And climate change is projected to place at least 80 million more people at risk of hunger by the middle of this century – creating a truly terrifying scale of desperation and need.   Already, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, weather extremes related to climate change have damaged the productivity of all agricultural and fishery sectors, with negative consequences for people’s food security and livelihoods. Currently, this impact is worst for small-scale farmers, and for people in Africa below the Sahara; across Asia, in small island States, and in Central and South America.   As global heating accelerates, these repercussions will grow more widespread and more intense. No country will be spared. The worst hit will be people in countries where there is already food insecurity, and where protection systems are not sufficiently robust to respond effectively to climate shocks.   Often, these are countries that benefitted little from industrial development, and contributed next to nothing to the industrial processes which are killing our environment and violating rights.   If this is not a human rights issue, what is? We must not deliver this future of hunger and suffering to our children, and their children. And we don't have to.   We, the generation with the most powerful technological tools in history, have the capacity to change it. If we put an end to senseless subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, and start phasing out of fossil fuels.   If courts around the world that are engaged in climate litigation cases hold businesses and Governments to account. If we shun the greenwashers and those who cast doubt on evidence and facts, out of their own greed.   If we rise above the forces of polarisation, and unify around the imperative of doing the utmost to address climate change, and as a result fulfil human rights.   We must not leave this for our children to fix – no matter how inspiring their activism. The people who must act – who have the responsibility to act – are our leaders, today. Addressing climate change is a human rights issue. And the world demands action, now.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5347-adverse-impact-climate-change-full-realization-right-food   June 2023   Reducing inequalities for food security and nutrition   The High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) of the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched its flagship report on “Reducing inequalities for food security and nutrition”.   Despite significant progress in reducing global poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition over the past decades, the world continues to grapple with the alarming increase in hunger and malnutrition. The launch of this report comes at a crucial time and highlights the urgent need to address inequalities for food security and nutrition (FSN), and their devastating impact on communities worldwide.   The consequences of such inequalities are far-reaching, diminishing people's life chances, hampering productivity, perpetuating poverty, and impeding economic growth. Unequal food security and nutrition outcomes have even sparked political unrest, eventually leading to protests and food riots.   Inequalities in food security and nutrition, between countries and regions and within countries, communities and households, exist throughout the world. This report provides a conceptual framework for assessing inequalities in food security and nutrition, the inequalities within and outside food systems that underpin them, and the systemic drivers of such inequalities.   The report highlights the ethical, socioeconomic, legal and practical imperatives for addressing these inequalities. It emphasizes that food is a fundamental human right and that inequalities in food security and nutrition undermine this right.   In addition, by applying an intersectional understanding of inequalities – that is, considering the cumulative effects of multiple interacting inequalities on marginalized peoples – the report contributes to a more inclusive understanding and sustainable action to reduce food security and nutrition inequalities.   The report proposes a set of measures to reduce inequalities, both within and beyond food systems. It emphasizes the need for a transformative agenda, aiming for structural change towards equity.   By providing actionable recommendations addressing the systemic drivers of food security and nutrition and advocating for actions in favour of equity and equality, the report contributes to global efforts towards achieving food security and improving overall well-being, leaving no one behind.   http://www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe/insights/news-insights/news-detail/reducing-inequalities-for-food-security-and-nutrition/en   June 2023   UN expert calls for full legal protection for people displaced by climate change   A UN expert today called for full legal protection for people displaced by the impacts of climate change in order to guarantee their human rights.   “The effects of climate change are becoming more severe, and the number of people displaced across international borders is rapidly increasing,” said Ian Fry, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the context of climate change.   “In 2020 alone, 30.7 million people were displaced from their homes due to weather-related events. Droughts were the main factor,” Fry said in his latest in his latest thematic report to the Human Rights Council. “We must take immediate steps to give legal protection to these people.”   The Special Rapporteur said that people displaced by climate change face multiple human rights violations including of their rights to food, water, sanitation, housing, health, education and, for some, their right to life.   “The human rights implications of climate change displacement, in particular across international borders, are significant and truly disturbing,” the expert said.   He called it “profoundly worrying” that large numbers of people displaced across borders die or go missing every year at both land and sea borders. More than 50,000 lost their lives during migratory movements between 2014 and 2022, Fry’s report said.   “It is equally shocking to note that more than half of those deaths occurred on routes to and within Europe, including in the Mediterranean Sea,” he said.   According to the Special Rapporteur, displacement due to climate change can result from different types of situations, from sudden to slow progressing events like sea level rise or droughts.   Most people affected by these events are forced to move. Women and children being the most impacted by disasters and the effects of climate change, also make up for the majority of displaced people.   “The international community must realise its responsibility to protect people displaced across borders by climate change impacts,” the expert said.   Fry explained that the world was not operating in a total vacuum in terms of legal protection of people displaced due to climate change. He said there were several international human rights safeguards to address the issue.   “The Human Rights Council should prepare a resolution for submission to the UN General Assembly urging the body to develop an optional protocol under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees to address displacement and legal protection for people all over the world affected by the climate crisis,” the expert said.   “Until then, I urge all nations to develop national legislation to provide humanitarian visas for persons displaced across international borders due to climate change, as an interim measure,” he said.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/06/un-expert-calls-full-legal-protection-people-displaced-climate-change   July 2023   Michael Fakhri, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food releases new report, in which he examines the issues with regard to the realization of the right to food, in particular in the context of the response to and recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.   The report comes at a time when the right to food has been widely recognized as the way forward to respond to and recover from the food crisis and to transform food systems.   When the covid pandemic triggered a global food crisis that affected rich and poor countries alike, many people turned to local farmers’ markets, smaller businesses and social enterprises to express their right to food, according to Fakhri. After witnessing how corporate-dominated supply chains fractured, in a number of communities people took care of each other, began growing their own food and adopted enhanced community self reliance strategies.   Fakhri details how the formal end of the pandemic has made the food crisis that started in 2020 worse, in part because governments ended Covid-era policies that assisted people in accessing food amid the rise of global inflation, food prices and conflict.   To recover from the current food crisis and prepare for the future, Fakhri calls for national plans to enhance food security, developing an international coordinated response to the food crisis, and transforming food systems to make them more resilient to climate change and prevent biodiversity loss.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a78202-interim-report-special-rapporteur-right-food   Food, nutrition and the right to health - Report by Tlaleng Mofokeng, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health   In this report Tlaleng Mofokeng focuses on food, nutrition and the right to health. She analyses access to food and nutrition and related clinical and health outcomes, and their reflection of power asymmetries, policy and regulatory frameworks.   The Special Rapporteur examines how the lack of access to safe and nutritious food has an impact on growth, development and quality of life across the life cycle. She also identifies how increased consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages has driven the burden of non- communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. She focuses on good practices in different parts of the world and encourages a comprehensive approach to food security, nutrition and the right to health.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a78185-food-nutrition-and-right-health-report-special-rapporteur-right   Mar. 2023   Conflict and the right to food: - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri.   All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Nonetheless, the world is rife with discrimination and inequality. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic exposed just how deadly discrimination and inequality can be.   Along with others, the Special Rapporteur has identified systemic discrimination and structural inequality as root causes of human rights violations. Human rights law commonly addresses inequality by focusing on people who are poor, vulnerable or marginalized.   Echoing his own previous reports as well as recent ones by other mandate holders, the Special Rapporteur reiterates that human rights law requires scrutinizing how people are made poor, vulnerable or marginalized. How is inequality produced?   Structural inequality is not a natural occurrence or anomalous. It is produced by systems, including food systems. The right to food can be fully realized only once all actors involved understand how our food systems are making people vulnerable to harm.   The mandate holder has observed over the years how violence in food systems can be detrimental, especially to marginalized people, smaller communities, isolated families and workers who lack the resources for collective bargaining and action.   All food providers – be it a parent, worker, small-scale or large-scale food producer – are particularly vulnerable to violence in times of distress and crisis. When food providers are vulnerable, communities are vulnerable.   Violence in food systems has increased in recent years owing to the interdependence of various factors affecting global food security. For example, the rural communities dealing with the loss of traditional livelihoods and farmers who confront land-grabbing by powerful businesses are in many instances already severely affected by climate change and drought.   Communities that have to take on an overwhelming struggle against corporations for the preservation of their ancestral lands, traditional knowledge and seeds are often the ones that, during the global pandemic, relied heavily on their own such knowledge, ancestral dietary habits and holistic practices for survival.   In preparing the present report, the Special Rapporteur found that structural inequality had made mass amounts of people more vulnerable to violence; in turn, systemic violence has been a significant cause of structural inequality. This vicious cycle of structural inequality and systemic violence causes widespread human rights violations.   Food systems not only produce food but also generate and amplify violence that makes people more poor, vulnerable and marginalized. In the report, the Special Rapporteur gives an account of different forms of violence in food systems that harm people and generate the conditions that lead to human rights violations.   He does not attempt to address all forms of violence in food systems; instead, he draws from the inputs received to provide a narrative on how different interests and identities experience shared forms of violence.   The Special Rapporteur frames violence as systemic, focusing on how violence inherently structures food systems. He outlines four interconnected and overlapping forms of violence: discrimination; bodily harm or assault against a person’s physical and mental integrity; ecological violence; and erasure.   Food systems rely on a global economy of dependency and extractivism. In a joint study, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) found that violence and conflict remain the drivers of acute hunger in many parts of the world. They concluded that both hunger and violence would increase in 2022, especially as the global economy deteriorated.   Over the past four years, global rates of hunger have risen and are expected to continue to rise in the near future, leading to record humanitarian needs. Conflict and natural disasters alone cannot, however, explain this trend. Understanding systemic violence in food systems requires viewing them as part of the global economy.   Today’s global economy is the continuation of a centuries-long process characterized by a dynamic of dependency and extractivism undergirded by international law at large and national legal regimes. Countries and transnational corporations, in their pursuit of extracting resources from nature, have disrupted and reconfigured people’s social and ecological relationships, limiting people’s ability to have a stable livelihood and attacking people’s very existence.   This degree of disruption and reconfiguration is a violent act against people, undermining their dignity and humanity, often through categories of disability, race and gender. The resulting structural inequality is illustrated by the fact that people in situations of vulnerability and from marginalized communities are usually – and predictably – at the losing end of having their rights met, especially their right to food.   Systemic violence violates the right to life by limiting or denying people access to the necessities of life: land, seeds, water, fair and stable markets and dignified work. When people are dispossessed of their land or work in hostile conditions, they are more exposed to harm on a regular basis.   With less secure access to land or dignified work, people have less bargaining power because they are limited in their ability to negotiate favourable terms in commercial transactions or for work. This is how systemic violence makes people vulnerable and dependent while enabling a relatively small group to take advantage of their vulnerability. It allows the few who already have power and resources to gain the ability to restrict access to what is necessary to reproduce life, generating more violence and inequality.   During today’s food crisis, transnational corporations in the agrifood sector are profiteering while people struggle and suffer as life gets harder. Markets today amplify the crisis and are prone to volatility because of a global food system that relies on a small number of industrially produced staple grains, a small number of countries to produce those grains for export, and a small number of corporations that dominate the agrifood market.   Since the 1980s, the dominant global common sense has been that Governments should no longer use international agricultural policy to cooperate or to try and stabilize markets; instead, policymakers have been driven by short-term calculations of rapid production and maximizing profit.   * Access the report: http://undocs.org/A/HRC/52/4   Mar. 2023   Women, girls and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.   (Report of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, David Boyd).   All people depend on nature for their life, health and well-being, from the oxygen in air produced by plants on land and at sea, to crops pollinated by birds, bats and bees and other insects. Everyone has the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.   This includes clean air; access to safe water and adequate sanitation; healthy and sustainably produced food; non-toxic environments in which to live, work, study and play; healthy biodiversity and ecosystems; and a safe climate.   Unfortunately, gender-based stereotypes, biases, inequalities and discrimination profoundly restrict women and girls’ enjoyment of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.   This also affects the rights to life, health, adequate housing, food, water, sanitation, education and an adequate standard of living, cultural rights and child rights.   It has been 75 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights boldly stated that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.   The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which currently has 189 States parties, entered into force in 1981. Despite remarkable progress towards gender equality in some States, systemic discrimination persists.   Laws that discriminate against women and girls, sociocultural norms that reduce their agency, and stereotypes about femininity, masculinity and gender-assigned roles continue to restrict the political and economic power of women and girls in every State and every sphere of society.   The planetary environmental crisis affects everyone, everywhere, but not equally. Harmful gender norms, stereotypes, biases and discrimination exclude women and girls from participating in environmental decision-making and enjoying a fair share of nature’s benefits, while imposing disproportionate impacts related to the climate emergency, biodiversity collapse and pervasive pollution.   According to the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “the exclusion of half of society from effectively helping to shape environmental policies means those policies will be less responsive to the specific damage being caused, less effective in protecting communities and may even intensify the harm being done”.   Sustainable development depends on the gender-transformative realization of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, as recognized in United Nations resolutions.   In its pioneering resolution 48/13, adopted in 2021, the Human Rights Council emphasized that States must fully respect human rights obligations, including those related to gender equality.   In its resolution 76/300, adopted in 2022, the UN General Assembly recognized the importance of gender equality, gender responsive action to address climate change and environmental degradation, the empowerment, leadership, decision-making and full, equal and meaningful participation of women and girls, and the role that women play as managers, leaders and defenders of natural resources and agents of change in safeguarding the environment.   As demonstrated by their impressive but under-appreciated contributions to protecting the environment, women and girls are powerful, transformative agents of change who should be primarily viewed not as victims, but as equal, indispensable partners and leaders in the transition to a just and sustainable future.   In order for women and girls to realize their rights and potential, nature must be conserved, protected and restored, pollution must be prevented and urgent action must be taken to achieve a safe climate.   The voices of women and girls must be heard, their ideas implemented and their stewardship work rewarded. To facilitate these advances, society must dismantle the beliefs, norms, institutions and systems that perpetuate gender discrimination.   The global economy is broken. It is based on two pillars – the exploitation of people and the exploitation of the planet – that are fundamentally unjust, unsustainable and incompatible with human rights. Similarly, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) observed that environmental crises “are deeply rooted in an economic system that fails to value, protect, nourish and invest in what is essential”.   Like women’s disproportionate unpaid labour and contributions to the care economy, nature’s contributions to people are a critical foundation for human health and the economy but are taken for granted.   Skewed value systems that champion profit, growth and domination of nature fuel discrimination, environmental injustice and the oppression, erasure and exploitation of women, girls and other vulnerable groups.   Businesses abuse human rights with impunity, worsen inequality, pollute, destroy nature and exacerbate the climate crisis. Powerful marketing methods exploit stereotypes and drive gendered patterns of unsustainable consumption (e.g. meat, cars, cosmetics and fashion) to the detriment of women, girls, human rights and the environment.   As a result, women and girls face profound socioeconomic disadvantages that erode their political agency and power. Legal, social and cultural obstacles prevent them from securing jobs, promotions and leadership positions, and limit their access to land, natural resources, finance, technologies, agricultural equipment and inputs, training and extension services.   The following facts illustrate the pervasive, devastating nature of gender discrimination today:   (a) Women comprise 70 per cent of the world’s poor; rural women have fared worse than rural men and urban women and men on every development indicator;   (b) Women do three times more unpaid household and care work than men in both high- and low-income countries, resulting in time poverty, lower employment and lower earnings;   (c) Women are overrepresented in informal economies (and thus lack social and legal protections); receive 20 per cent lower wages than men for the same work; and frequently experience worse working conditions;   (d) Women are underrepresented in leadership, management and decision-making roles across all levels and all sectors:   (i) Across 156 countries, women hold only 22.9 per cent of parliament seats and represent only 16.1 per cent of ministers;   (ii) In 2022, only 8.8 per cent of chief executive officers at Fortune 500 companies were women.   At current rates of progress, it will take 286 years to repeal or amend discriminatory laws and close gaps in legal protection for women and girls, and 155 years to close the political empowerment gap.   Making matters worse, many gender gaps have widened as a result of the economic, health and social consequences of the coronavirus disease (COVID 19) pandemic.   Gender discrimination and stereotypes affect girls from a young age, as they are treated as inferior in many States and cultures, undermining their self-esteem and leading to lifelong inequality, deprivation and exclusion.   For example, domestic obligations imposed on girls – including water and fuel collection, cooking, cleaning, care-giving and other time-consuming tasks that interfere with girls’ education, play and development – are rooted in cultural norms and traditions that give men and boys preferential treatment.   States must tackle the root causes of gender inequality. To fulfil women and girls’ human rights, gender-transformative changes to laws, policies, programmes and projects, as well as education, awareness-building and training are urgently needed. Human rights, based on the bedrock of equality and non-discrimination, can and should be a catalyst for needed systemic changes.   Although the present report is focused on the right of women and girls to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, all human rights are interrelated, undermined by inequality and gender discrimination, and compounded by intersecting vulnerabilities related to race, ethnicity, poverty, age, sexual orientation, migration status and disability.   * Access the report: http://undocs.org/A/HRC/52/33 Visit the related web page
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