Press conference by SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON RIGHT TO FOOD

 

(Issued on 31 October 2005.)

Every child who died of hunger in today’s world was the victim of an assassination, Jean Ziegler, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

Introducing his report on the right to food, he said that the Food and Agriculture Organization’s recent report, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2004,stated that the world’s agricultural production could provide nourishment to 12 billion people, yet 852 million people were permanently undernourished; 100,000 people died of hunger every day; and a child under 10 years of age died from hunger every five seconds.  That was a daily massacre of human beings through malnutrition.

The tragedy was the most intense in Africa, he said.  For example, bad harvests last year had destroyed the lives of millions of people in the Sahel, especially in the Niger, where, instead of the usual 1.6 million tonnes of millet, only 430 tonnes had been harvested.  One third of the population was on the verge of destruction, but international organizations had responded inadequately.  United Nations agencies could not be blamed, however, as they simply lacked the means to resolve the crisis.  The majority of Member States, particularly the Western countries, had provided a totally insufficient response.

Continuing to focus on Africa, he said that more than 400,000 people living in refugee camps in the United Republic of Tanzania were receiving only 1,400 calories a day, whereas the World Food Programme (WFP) recommended a daily minimum of 2,100 calories per adult.  Those refugees, therefore, were receiving only two thirds of the nourishment necessary for survival.

The resources available to international organizations were declining as instances of human tragedy were increasing, he said.  In 2003, for example, the WFP had over 10 million tonnes of food at its disposal for distribution; today they had only 7 million tonnes.  There was a lot of indifference towards that tragedy on the part of the world’s powerful States.  Despite the efforts of non-governmental organizations and international organizations to mobilize States to take action, the general state of public opinion, particularly that in the Western world, and particularly towards Africa, was one of growing indifference.

He said complaints had recently been received from non-governmental organizations suggesting that the cutting of food and water supplies to cities under attack had been adopted as military strategies by parties to the conflict in Iraq, including both Coalition forces and insurgents.  For example, the Iraqi and Coalition armies had used such measures to incite the populations of certain cities to flee into tented refugee camps set up outside.  The motivation for such actions was to preserve the civilian population and isolate insurgents within the cities, a clear breach of international humanitarian law.  Most of the civilian population did not leave as they were either afraid of, or held back by, the insurgents.  Children were, therefore, dying from poisonous water, lack of food and diarrhoea.

Asked about the current situation regarding food security in Liberia, he said that country’s economy had suffered a great deal.  As of December 2004, more than 18 per cent of the population and over 50 per cent of children below 10 years of age were gravely and permanently undernourished.  That destruction could not be recuperated and perhaps a whole generation would be gravely affected by such under-nourishment.

In response to a question about the situation in northern Chechnya, he said he had received no special appeals from non-governmental organizations in that region.

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For information media • not an official record