The images of the starving are harrowing. People in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia are gradually dying of hunger. Aid organisations from all over the world are trying to distribute food, but are encountering all kinds of difficulties.
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The extremist Islamist organisation al-Shabaab is hardly allowing any aid into Somalia and, according to Save the Children, it is difficult to find and reach undernourished people in the outer regions of Kenya and Ethiopia.
The right to food
“In a world overflowing with riches, it is a scandal that 1 billion people suffer from hunger” - Jean Ziegler, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.
• 1948 - Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises the right to food as a human right under international law
• 1966 - International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) recognises the right to food and freedom from hunger
• 1996 – World Food Summit produces the Rome Declaration on reduction of hunger by 2015
• 2001 - African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights recognises the right to food under the African Charter
• 2002 – African Commission finds Nigeria guilty of allowing pollution of food sources by Shell oil company
• 2004 – Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) establishes voluntary guidelines for states on the right to food
Jan Pronk was the Dutch development cooperation minister (1973-1977 and 1989-1998) and UN envoy to Sudan (2004-2006).
Declaration of human rights
Nevertheless, all these people have a right to food - it’s included in the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights. Former Dutch development minister and former UN envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk:
“The right to food is, of course, the right to make your own choice with regard to the food basket. It's of course also the right to have an essential minimum quantity of food for your own daily existence. It is also the right to produce your own food if you want to, as a small farmer. So there are different aspects to it.”
But things are different in practice. Small farmers in Africa often have their land taken from them, as Asian companies buy it up to grow food and bio-fuel for use in their own countries. The people in Dadaab refugee camp hardly have enough to eat, let alone a choice in what they eat.
Marinke Ros from Save the Children: “It is ridiculous that there has to be a right to food. It should be a matter of fact. A right can only be exercised when it is recognised by all parties involved.”
International policy making
The right to food is protected by international law. In theory, when their rights are violated people can take the matter to court. Mr Pronk:
“If a specific human right is not being guaranteed in practice, if it is being violated in practice, persons can try to go to court, of course, but it would result in a major, long process. It would not have any consequence for the persons themselves. Of course, it is much more a norm which would serve as a guiding principle for international policy making.”
Ms Ros: “The whole legal side of the story is very complicated, whereas aid organisations are mainly occupied with the practical side. How do you make sure there is enough food in the places where people need it?”
Tribunal
Nevertheless there’s a positive side to the possibility of exercising your rights. The African Commission for Human Rights thinks governments or organisations should appear before a tribunal when these rights are violated. The commission claims for instance that Shell should be prosecuted for hampering access to food in the Niger Delta. In addition, African countries are currently obliged to include certain rights in their national legislation.
Is this good news? Mr Pronk is not convinced: “I am not optimistic about these kind of cases in the short term. But court cases could be important to prevent bad policy in the future.”
It depends on the situation what action people should take, thinks Ms Ros. “You could propose organising a demonstration to demand our right to food. But that could be very dangerous. People in refugee camps like Dadaab, or people fleeing local rulers who are making their lives difficult, can do very little. It is up to the international community to take action.”
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Each human being has a right to basic necessities and if the Al-Shabaab is refusing the needy to be assisted then they should be dealt with.Because so many people die out of hunger.it is a crime against humanity.I however think that giving aid is not the key to ending poverty.we need long term solutions as I read in one of my favorite local websites. http://www.tusijisunde.com/2011/therein-lies-the-fuel-solution/
The flesh eating zombies running this planet demand that we pay to exist. Things will eventually, one way or another, come back around!
Theoretically, the "right" discourse includes the identification of who are legally and morally responsible for the violation of that right. Legal and moral "obligation", so to say. When it comes to basic human rights such as the right to food (and water, sanitation, housing, health etc.), it is nation states and international organisations (including transnational corporations) that are obliged to protect peoples' rights and prevent themselves from violating peoples' rights. So, people whose rights are being violated do not necessarily go to court by themselves, instead anybody in this international community can take to the court those who are violating the rights.
Lastly, it is easy to blame the UN of their inability, but the UN is not a monolithic organisation. We need to identify which organisations within the UN should do what, but anyway they need financial and political support from member states. We should be reminded that there are some member states (including USA) that still deny the right to food as a basic human right and their own legal obligations...
The article and its thesis is ridden with problems. First of all, it is just not feasible that anyone who wants to produce its own food should be able to get a plot of land. That is inefficient.
Second, it assumes the blame is always on "others": the Asian importers, the Western oil companies...
Some countries are on verge of overpopulation without modernization of their agricultural practices. And most obstacles for that are internal, not external, including practicing an agriculture like it was 1500aD. Moreover, many internal armed groups have used and keep using food scarcity as a political and military strategic tool to achieve their own goals.
So, before talking about Shell hampering food access in Nigeria, they should take care of their own problems.
First, you should rethink your false assumption that modernised and industrialised agriculture is the solution.
Second, you should acknowledge that those resource poor have been taken their resources not because of their failure but because of external interventions. Internal conflicts such as in Somalia are not exception. You should go back to the root cause of these chaotic situations.
"Marinke Ros from Save the Children: “It is ridiculous that there has to be a right to food. It should be a matter of fact. A right can only be exercised when it is recognised by all parties involved.”....Response: If a party such as the "extremist Islamic organisation Al-Shabaab" will not recognised the basic right of food to the people of Somalia, then those (the U.N.) should remove Al-Shabaab by force. If the U.N. stands-by and does nothing to protect those people, they are no better than Al-Shabaab. What good is a U.N. and it's declaration of human rights if those rights are not enforced. Those people in Somalia do have a right to food and the U.N. has a responsibility to protect them. The U.N. is no better than Al-Shabaab. If they do nothing to end the suffering, they are just as guilty.
And the same goes for water!
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