Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/10
The right to food
Commission on Human Rights resolution 2000/10
The Commission on Human Rights,
Recalling
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides that everyone
has the right to a standard of living adequate for her/his health and
well-being, including food,
Recalling also the provisions
of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
in which the fundamental right of every person to be free from hunger
is recognized,
Recalling further the Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition,
Bearing in mind
the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the Plan of Action of
the World Food Summit, held in Rome from 13 to 17 November 1996,
Recalling all its previous resolutions in this regard, in particular resolution 1999/24 of 26 April 1999,
Recognizing
that the problem of hunger and food insecurity have global dimensions
and that they are likely to persist and even to increase dramatically
in some regions, unless urgent, determined and concerted action is
taken, given the anticipated increase in the world's population and the
stress on natural resources,
Reaffirming that a peaceful,
stable and enabling political, social and economic environment, both at
a national and an international level, is the essential foundation
which will enable States to give adequate priority to food security and
poverty eradication,
Reiterating, as did the Rome
Declaration, that food should not be used as an instrument of political
or economic pressure, and reaffirming in this regard the importance of
international cooperation and solidarity, as well as the necessity of
refraining from unilateral measures not in accordance with
international law and the Charter of the United Nations which endanger
food security,
Convinced that each State must adopt a
strategy consistent with its resources and capacities to achieve its
individual goals in implementing the recommendations contained in the
Rome Declaration and Plan of Action of the World Summit and, at the
same time, cooperate regionally and internationally in order to
organize collective solutions to global issues of food security in a
world of increasingly interlinked institutions, societies and
economies, where coordinated efforts and shared responsibilities are
essential,
Stressing the importance of reversing the
continuing decline of official development assistance devoted to
agriculture, both in real terms and as a share of total official
development assistance,
1. Reaffirms that hunger
constitutes an outrage and a violation of human dignity and, therefore,
requires the adoption of urgent measures at the national, regional and
international levels for its elimination;
2. Also reaffirms
the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food,
consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of
everyone to be free from hunger so as to be able fully to develop and
maintain their physical and mental capacities;
3. Considers
intolerable that 825 million people, most of them women and children,
throughout the world and particularly in developing countries, do not
have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs, which infringes
their fundamental human rights and at the same time can generate
additional pressures upon the environment in ecologically fragile areas;
4. Stresses
the need to make efforts to mobilize and optimize the allocation and
utilization of technical and financial resources from all sources,
including external debt relief for developing countries, to reinforce
national actions to implement sustainable food security policies;
5. Encourages
all States to take steps with a view to achieving progressively the
full realization of the right to food, including steps to promote the
conditions for everyone to be free from hunger and as soon as possible
enjoy fully the right to food;
6. Takes note with interest
of the updated study on the right to adequate food and to be free from
hunger submitted by Mr. Asbjørn Eide to the Sub-Commission on the
Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, in accordance with
Sub-Commission decision 1998/106 (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/12);
7. Also takes note with interest
of the report submitted by the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights on the right to food, in accordance with Commission
resolution 1999/24 (E/CN.4/2000/48 and Add.1);
8. Welcomes
the work already done by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights in promoting the right to adequate food, in particular its
General Comment No. 12 (1999) on the right to adequate food (art. 11 of
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), in
which the Committee affirmed, inter alia, that the right to
adequate food is indivisibly linked to the inherent dignity of the
human person and is indispensable for the fulfilment of other human
rights enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights and is also
inseparable from social justice, requiring the adoption of appropriate
economic, environmental and social policies, at both the national and
international levels, oriented to the eradication of poverty and the
fulfilment of all human rights for all;
9. Recommends
that the High Commissioner organize a third expert consultation on the
right to food, following those held in 1997 and 1998, this time with a
focus on implementation mechanisms at country level, inviting experts
from all regions to share their experience;
10. Decides,
in order to respond fully to the necessity for an integrated and
coordinated approach in the promotion and protection of the right to
food, to appoint, for a period of three years, a special rapporteur,
whose mandate will focus on the right to food;
11. Requests the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, in the fulfilment of her/his
mandate, to accomplish the following main activities:
(a)
To seek, receive and respond to information on all aspects of the
realization of the right to food, including the urgent necessity of
eradicating hunger;
(b) To establish cooperation with
Governments, intergovernmental organizations, in particular the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and
non-governmental organizations, on the promotion and effective
implementation of the right to food, and to make appropriate
recommendations on the realization thereof, taking into consideration
the work already done in this field throughout the United Nations
system;
(c) To identify emerging issues related to the right to food worldwide;
12. Requests
the High Commissioner to provide all necessary human and financial
resources for the effective fulfilment of the mandate of the Special
Rapporteur;
13. Requests the Special Rapporteur to submit
a report on the implementation of the present resolution to the
Commission at its fifty-seventh session;
14. Requests
Governments, relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes,
treaty bodies, as well as non-governmental organizations, to cooperate
fully with the Special Rapporteur in the fulfilment of her/his mandate,
inter alia through the submission of comments and suggestions on ways and means of realizing the right to food.
52nd meeting
17 April 2000
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 49 votes to 1,
with 2 abstentions. ]
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