Dear Sir,
A brief is written below for FSN.
INTRODUCTION
Human Right to Adequately Certified Religious Food to about quarter of the world population is jeopardized under current prevailing situation in the world. About 2 billion Muslim population spread over 57 Islamic countries (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation-OIC) and otherwise as minority migrants in other countries like Europe, EU, USA ,Australia, Canada etc. require availability, continuityand affordability of certified Halal food for the faithful & purified observance of their religion. According to UNO charter, it is a stated responsibility of all countries, nation states to provide adequate, nutritious, safe and secure food supply at affordable price to its citizens as articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and several other international instruments. However, about a quarter of the world’s Muslim population (~1.8 Billion) need that their food be religiously Halal (pure) compliant. Halal Food is is certified that the food products purchased are fit for Muslim consumption. The certifying bodies are organizations that generally charge a certification fee to certify a product as Halal. Basically the certification ensures food item has been prepared, handled, processed, truthfully labelled, packaged and transported as per the Islamic and Sharia laws for Muslim consumption. The consumers has to fully rely on the certification of the product, especially when, due to globalization, supply chains are long and not always completely transparent for the religious consumer. In most religious food consuming societies, the religious food production & consumption is considered as a pious way of life to wash sins and a practice of religious compliance. Therefore provision of Halal food does not only touch upon the consumer rights as such but also upon their human rights, where the right to practice religion is important and one of them. It has been noticed over the years that religiously prepared food can be rejected because of lack in transparency of countries related to the religious requirements and sometimes also due to more strict interpretations (Tafseer) of religiously prepared food. These circumstances can prevent food from reaching its destination, and on occasions even lead to the death of people in need of religious food. Below are two diagrams showing the distribution of different important religions worldwide and the comparative growth rates of religions in the world.
Fig. 1. RELIGIONS STATICS -DISTRIBUTION OF RELIGIONS IN THE WORLD
Fig. 2. COMPARATIVE GROWTH RATES OF RELIGIONS IN THE WORLD.
THE ISSUE- Human Right to Adequate Religious Food and Nutrition,
Provision of certified credible religious food to all religious performing persons in the world is at stake which amounts to the denial of their human rights. Factors related to and affecting the provision of religious food across the board are varied. There are Sunni and Shia sects among Muslims which may have further subdivision and variations in Tafseer/Explanations. Tafseer in Arabic means a scholarly discussion and consensus building of disputed matters of Islam which have arisen due to modern science or philosophical thought in the world. Like Genetically Modified Foods (GMF) with genetic transfer across species is controversial issue.
Halal Muslim Food Certifying Bodies (HCB) are either derived directly from the government organisations or can be government-regulated or accredited entities. Most of the Islamic countries are food deficient and need to import their food from other countries as “HalalCertified Food” but most food imported into the Muslim countries is coming from non-Muslim foreign countries like Thailand, The Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, India etc. about which Halal meat is most contested food.
The commercial scale of global Halal food trade, about 13 % of global food trade (~3 trillion US Dollars), with fast annual growth has created huge interest in this business. Therefore an effective resolution of the issue is badly needed. ISO Geneve has established a Technical Committee (TC 425 Halal) to deal with Halal trade and compliance matters at international level. The Committee is considering the Halal Food Rules, prepared by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Jeddah. Myself has been Pakistan expert member in this program.
Halal meat has to be from permitted animals via Halal slaughter method, without the preslaughter stunning procedure for immobilization. But it is not acceptable to animal welfare lobbies as it confronts European animal welfare laws. Procedure also adds extra cultural and commercial burden on food trade regulatory regimes. It may be noted that pig and blood in any form is prohibited in Islam.
أستاذ دكتور Hamid Ahmad