The price is rights, says ActionAid, as global food crisis
escalates
23 May:
Women, who grow up to 80% of food in developing countries, are
being overlooked in the global response to rising food prices,
warns international agency ActionAid.
Seven out of every ten people going hungry are women and girls
but the food crisis could mean another 70 million.
As the price of food rises rapidly, urgent action is needed to
boost women’s purchasing power. Social security measures and
food voucher programmes should be expanded immediately and must
target women in particular, argues the development agency.
“Women and girls are the ones who go hungry in poor
households,” said Colm O Cuanachain, Head of International
Campaigns for ActionAid. “Their rights and needs as consumers
and producers must be protected as a matter or urgency.
“The Human Rights Council, working with the Special Rapporteur
on the Right to Food, must prepare an urgent assessment of the
impact of the current crisis on women, added O Cuanachain. “In
addition, they need to find solutions to the food crisis, that
women producers can provide.
“Recommendations should be brought to the June meeting of the
HRC proposing actions that should be taken by member states to
boost the capacity of women as food producers and to increase
the purchasing power of women”.
The Human Rights Council is currently presiding over two
international processes that are linked directly to the food
crisis. The need for an Optional Protocol on Economic Social
and Cultural Rights is ever clearer now as we see how
individuals suffering abuses of the right to food must have
recourse to justice at international level. In tandem, the
Ruggie Process on business and human rights is equally vital, as
we see how the activities of corporations are impacting
negatively on the rights of poor people.
“The food crisis should provide the resolve and urgency needed
to ensure that member states of the Human Rights Council support
the proposed Optional Protocol, and use the debate on the Ruggie
Process next month to extend the mandate on business and human
rights towards developing a framework to protect human rights.
Olivier de Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur of the right to
food said “Food is a human right enshrined in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and governments have a permanent
obligation to ensure all their citizens have food. The right to
food should be treated as a right equally important as the right
not to be subject to arbitrary detention or freedom of
expression.”
In this the 60th anniversary year of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, it’s time for bold steps forward
from the HRC, and in the context of the food crisis this must
mean urgent steps to fulfil the right to food.
“The current food crisis is a wake up call to the Human Rights
Council”, said O Cuanachain. “States must move beyond
non-binding promises, and take real and urgent action to fulfil
the right to food.”
ENDS
ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency working in
over 40 countries, taking sides with poor people to end poverty
and injustice together.
ActionAid has launched a crisis response in over forty
countries, as part of its HungerFREE campaign urging governments
to deliver on their commitment to halve world hunger by 2015.
For further information, see
www.actionaid.org
May 08
