The UN Human Rights Council Thursday called on the international community to take all necessary measures to ensure the realisation of food rights, said to be the basic human right.
The council, at a special session here, adopted a resolution on the global food crisis, urging all member states to review "any policy or measure which could have a negative impact on the realization of the right to food."
"States have a primary obligation to make their best efforts to meet the vital food needs of their own population, especially of vulnerable groups and households," the resolution said, calling for increased local farming and efforts to reduce child and maternal malnutrition.
The UN council also called upon member states to take part in the High-level Conference on World Food Security, scheduled for May 28-30 in Rome, to discuss the global food crisis from the perspective of human rights.
Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, was asked by the council to present proposals for the next special session on how to protect food rights and deal with the global crisis from a human rights standpoint.
The global food crisis stems from a "perverse convergence" of several factors, but "boils down to a lack of access to adequate food," said Louise Arbour, UN high commissioner for human rights. "Such access is a right protected by international law."
"The nature of the crisis transcends national boundaries. It involves collective responsibilities. It requires concerted measures from states to rectify those inequalities that have contributed to trigger the emergency and that now threaten to perpetuate it," she said.
Source:Xinhua
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