Guaranteeing the Right to Eat is an Obligation upon States
Speaking on behalf of the 47 member
governments of the Human Rights Council, UN Special Rapporteur on
the Right to Food Olivier de Schutter told the concluding day of
the FAO summit that establishing "an international environment
which is conducive to the full realization of the right to
adequate food at the national level," is an {obligation} upon
States, under international law. Simply providing international
assistance for an emergency is not sufficient; the global food
policy system itself must be rethought. Although he never mentioned
the words "free trade", "cartels", or "WTO", these were the actual
targets of de Shutter's warning.
Implementation of the right to adequate food {requires}
adoption of measures by States to ensure "the availability of
food in a quantity and quality sufficient to satisfy the dietary
needs of individuals," particularly the urban poor and landless
laborers, he stated. Laws are needed to guarantee this right, so
that under conditions such as those faced today, "when the prices
of food undergo a sudden increase, the other branches of
government will not be allowed to remain passive."
"A New Deal for Agriculture," with massive reinvestment in
agriculture, is required. Prices will not guarantee sufficent
private sector investment in agriculture; official development
assistance must be mobilized to build infrastructure, provide
access to credit, assure the availability of good-quality seed,
lower post-harvest losses, etc., he stated.
He singled out three of the worst crimes of the WTO's cartel
system -- the patenting of seeds, which limits the availability
of quality seed; the "concentration of market power in
agribusiness" [i.e. cartels]; and the impact of speculation on
food prices -- as features of the global food supply system which
must be addressed by the international community. In diplomatic
understatement, he noted that States trying to unilaterally
address speculation, in particular, haven't been very effective.
De Shutter promised that he, and the UN's Human Rights
Council (made up of representatives of governments, not
supranational bureacrats), will be monitoring and intervening in
the coming period, to ensure that such fundamental steps are
taken, to prevent further violations "of this most important of
human rights."
|