72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly 2nd Committee – Agenda Item 72 – Human Rights

Madam Chairperson,

 

• Thank you for giving me the floor.
• FAO is grateful for the opportunity to participate in this discussion and would like to welcome the interim report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Ms. Hilal Elver, in stressing the importance of the right to food in conflict situations.

 

Madam Chairperson,

 

• The recently released report, the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 (SOFI), shows alarming figures. After a prolonged decline over the last decade, the number of chronically undernourished people has jumped from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016, an increase of 38 million people.  
• The vast majority of the chronically food insecure and malnourished live in countries affected by conflict, and much of the recent increase in food insecurity can be traced to a larger number of conflicts, which have been exacerbated by climate-related shocks and severely hamper our efforts to end hunger by 2030.
• The FAO Right to Food Guidelines recommend that food aid policies and their implementation follow a human rights-based approach by taking into account immediate and long-term national efforts to ensure food security and the needs of especially vulnerable groups, and avoiding the disruption of local capacity, food safety, dietary needs and cultures of recipient populations.
• Through these guidelines, FAO has provided direct national development support over the years to a number of post-conflict countries, such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Sierra Leone. In Nepal, for instance, extensive work has been carried out to embed the right to food in the new Constitution and in the elaboration and development of both a law on the right to food as well as a rights-based national food security policy.
• FAO is also working in partnership with the European Union in supporting 33 countries to strengthen policies that address root causes of hunger and malnutrition and better contribute to the realization of the right to food. Among those countries, 15 are or have been affected by conflicts.
• One such country is Colombia, where FAO assists the Government of Colombia with new institutions that address issues such as rural development that are key for the realization of the right to adequate food, which is now fully embedded in the Peace Agreement.  

 

Mr/Madam Chairperson,

 

• Let me conclude by underscoring that it is only by working in partnerships that we will be able to drive down the growing number of hungry around the world.  
• FAO, through the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes, institutional building, capacity development, and other means, continues to stand ready to assist Member States towards the elimination of huger and to ensure food security and nutrition for all.

 

Thank you.