PHA-Exch> FIAN statement on food crisis, pls endorse as individuals

[Claudio Schuftan]

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Joint submission – One language (English)
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Contact details of (main) NGO:
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NGO Name: Foodfirst Information and Action Network (FIAN International)

Name of main contact person: Flavio Valente

Phone number: +4962216530050 / mobile: +491721394447
E-mail: *valente at fian.org*
*PLEASE ENDORSE BY SENDING AN EMAIL TO THIS ADDRESS TODAY    CLAUDIO
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  Language(s): ENGLISH ONLY

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

Seventh special session
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Joint written statement submitted by Foodfirst Information and Action
Network (FIAN International), a non-governmental organization on the Roster;
Centre Europe - Tiers Monde (CETIM), a non-governmental organization in
general consultative status; and ActionAid, Habitat International Coalition
(HIC), International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH),
non-governmental organizations in special consultative status,

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Title:
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"The world does not need more of the same medicine"*

Text:
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The organisations submitting the present statement welcome the decision of
the UN Human Rights Council, upon request of the new UN Special Rapporteur
on the Right to Food, to hold a 7th special session on the negative impact
of the world food crisis on the realization of the right to food.

We hope that this event will increase the recognition of, and accountability
for massive violations of the right to adequate food worldwide, which are
among the main factors leading to the present crisis. The special session
also will emphasize the relevance of international and national policy
coherence, and full observation of international human rights law and
principles in the ongoing international debate, in particular, the High
Level Conference on Food Security, Bioenergy and Climate Change to be held
in June in Rome.

Social movements and civil society organizations repeatedly have alerted
states and intergovernmental organizations to the consequences of
international policies leading to the reduction of governmental capacity to
regulate their domestic food security policies. The trend has negatively
affected the realization of the right to adequate food and other human
rights, as well as national food and nutritional security.

Differently from the diagnosis that the UN presented at the creation of its
Task Force on the Global Food Crisis, we recognize the present crisis as
deeply rooted in decades of misguided international policies - decided and
implemented under the auspices of the Bretton Woods Institutions and, more
recently, the WTO - that have failed to create and maintain an enabling
environment for states to respect, protect and fulfil the human right to
adequate food. On the contrary, the practice has effectively ignored the
need to facilitate the rural poor's access to productive resources. Instead,
the policies, as developed, have led to reduced investments in key sectors
such as basic services and diversified traditional and peasant agriculture,
and have deregulated international agricultural trade.

The need for international action is urgent to fulfil the right to adequate
food of the most-vulnerable populations directly affected by the crisis.
However, this should not be limited to food assistance and establishment of
safety nets and rights-based minimum-income programmes. This urgent action
should include policy measures that guarantee immediate protection against
factors that clearly are aggravating the crisis, such as (1) speculation on
the commodities "futures" market, (2) increased demand for the production of
agrofuels, especially based on the proposed quotas established by the EU and
the US, and (3) mega development projects that lead to massive eviction of
traditional populations and peasants without adequate reparation measures.

The world does not need more of the same medicine. We alert international
public opinion to the further negative impact of some of the medium- and
long-term proposals that the UN has advanced, such as the promotion of
capital-intensive agriculture in Africa, the so called "new green
revolution" and the acceleration of the trade deregulation process, with the
conclusion of the Doha Round. Implementing these recommendations would mean
implementing more of the same destructive policies, which are a significant
part of the structural causes of the present food crisis, and of the
accelerated climate change. The International Assessment of Agricultural
Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), carried out by
400 scientists, and adopted by 60 countries in April 2008, has confirmed our
worries and called for an end to the promotion and expansion of the
agroindustrial agricultural model.

This crisis demonstrates that the all-pervasive global market will not
guarantee food security or the right to food. Social movements and civil
society organizations have been calling for a food production system based
on the principles of food sovereignty and human rights, with special
attention to the rights to adequate food and effective participation, as
well as access to productive resources, such as land, water and seeds, among
others. Several governments from Latin America and the Caribbean have
associated themselves with this call in the Managua Declaration of the
Presidential Summit on Food Sovereignty, held in Managua, on 7 May 2008.

As an immediate answer to the emergency situation, we urge governments and
intergovernmental organizations to:

Take immediate measures to support national governments in guaranteeing that
the victims of acute hunger are assisted and supported in their quest to
survive, and to recover the capacity to produce or acquire the food or means
necessary to feed themselves in dignity. This must be made the first
priority at all levels, with the allocation of adequate funds;

Ensure that any coordinating mechanisms created to deal with the present
food emergency have the participation of representatives of the Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights, of the UN Special Rapporteur on the
Right to Food, as well as a strong representation of social movements and
civil society organizations;

Ensure that international food intervention reserves should be guaranteed on
the basis of expected needs, independent of price;

Agree on the principle "do no harm" for any international policy that
affects the food security situation of communities or countries: all
hunger-generating policies must be stopped;

Urge the Human Rights Council to take all necessary measures to investigate
the responsibility of state and non-state actors in specific situations that
have aggravated the food crisis, such as speculation and food hoarding,
adopting the necessary measures required to reverse any irregularity;

Recognize the extraterritorial obligations of states to respect, protect and
fulfil human rights, in accordance with the over-riding principle of
international cooperation enshrined in the human rights Covenants and other
international legal instruments;

Apply the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and
Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law
and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law (A/RES/60/14) to
dispossessed traditional, peasant, indigenous and land-based people.

In the longer term and in preparation for the upcoming international events,
we urge governments and intergovernmental organizations to:

Ensure that the promotion and protection of the human right to adequate food
be at the centre of all international efforts to overcome the world food
crisis, recognising that violations of human rights at the root of it have
to be addressed and redressed;

Agree at the Human Rights Council as well at the FAO High Level Conference
on national and international strategies which explicitly recognize and
implement the right to food as a binding obligation of most UN member
states;

Fully implement the Guidelines on the Right to Adequate Food, approved by
the FAO Council, in 2004, and the "Basic principles and guidelines on
development-based evictions and displacement" (A/HRC/4/18), issued by the UN
Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing;

Request the Human Rights Council to mandate the Special Rapporteur on the
Right to Food to clarify the definition of obligations in relation to the
right to be free from hunger, on the basis of the General Comment No. 12,
which the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted in
1999;

Request the Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing to investigate how
massive forcible evictions in rural areas have contributed to the crisis and
how agrofuels and other similar trends in agricultural policies impact on
the current situation;

Request the Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders to investigate
the impact on and the role played in the current emergency situation by the
criminalization of defenders of economic, social and cultural rights, and in
particular the right to food;

Request the Special Representative on Business and Human Rights to examine
how business enterprises and in particular agro-industries affect the right
to adequate food;

Take the necessary steps to adopt the Optional Protocol to the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which will enable victims
of violations of the rights enshrined in the Covenant to seek for
international scrutiny on their case;

Urge the Human Rights Council to investigate the issue of peasant rights, as
already mentioned by the former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, by
mandating its Advisory Committee: (1) to conduct a study to better define
the needs for specific entitlements of peasants as one of the most
vulnerable group to violations of human rights and to the right to adequate
food; (2) to identify potential gaps in the protection of these rights and
entitlements; and to present proposals to address these gaps;

Define the promotion and protection of the human right to adequate food as
one of the Strategic Objectives of the FAO, in the context of the ongoing
reform process;

Ensure coherence of all food-related national and international policies
with the obligations under international human rights law, urgently imposing
regulations on the present expansion of the market-led agricultural
liberalization process, with special attention to the promotion of the human
right to feed oneself, including the access to productive resources, within
the framework of Food Sovereignty;

Guarantee full participation of social movements and civil society
representatives in the June 2008 Rome Conference, allowing for oral
interventions throughout the event as has been the practice in FAO in recent
years;

Guarantee that the discussion of alternatives for climate change are carried
out in a fully participatory process at all levels, and that the chosen
alternatives take into account the precautionary principle and the needs of
the poorest and most marginalised.
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