March, 10 2014, 02:44pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Martin Drago, Friends of the Earth International Food Sovereignty Program Co-coordinator
Tel: +598 99 13 85 59 (Uruguay) or email martin.drago@redes.org.uy
Bold U.N. Right to Food Report 'The Only Recipe for Hunger Eradication'
Friends of the Earth International commended a groundbreaking report presented today the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, which calls for the world's food systems to be radically and democratically redesigned to ensure the human right to adequate food and freedom from hunger. [1]
Mr. Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, presented his final report to the UN Human Rights Council after a six-year term as Special Rapporteur.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Friends of the Earth International commended a groundbreaking report presented today the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, which calls for the world's food systems to be radically and democratically redesigned to ensure the human right to adequate food and freedom from hunger. [1]
Mr. Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, presented his final report to the UN Human Rights Council after a six-year term as Special Rapporteur.
Martin Drago, Friends of the Earth Food Sovereignty Program Co-coordinator, said :
"This report is the only recipe for the eradication of hunger. Its recommendations are bold and simple: our current food systems must be reversed, not just reformed."
"Food democracy and the right to food start with this report and its urgent recommendations, which all governments must now turn into national policies. They must note the report's emphasis on the need to support agroecology at the national and international levels," added Martin Drago.
Mr. De Schutter warned that the current food systems "are efficient only from the point of view of maximizing agribusiness profits" and stated that the key lies in democratic decision-making, saying: "National right to food strategies should be co-designed by relevant stakeholders, in particular the groups most affected by hunger and malnutrition, and they should be supported by independent monitoring.
Martin Drago, Friends of the Earth Food Sovereignty Program Co-coordinator, said : "We applaud the invaluable contribution of Mr De Schutter towards promoting and advancing Food Sovereignty, which is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound methods. His report is a powerful endorsement of the ideas long held by the global Food Sovereignty movement."
"The report's recommendations clearly state that Food Sovereignty is needed to eradicate hunger as well as to democratise our food systems. The report also recognises Food Sovereignty as an essential condition to be fulfilled in order to fully realize the right to food," he added.
NOTES TO EDITORS
[1] A press release launching the report is online at https://www.srfood.org/en/democracy-and-diversity-can-mend-broken-food-s...
The full report is online at https://www.srfood.org/images/stories/pdf/officialreports/20140310_final...
Friends of the Earth International is the world's largest grassroots environmental network, uniting 74 national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent. With over 2 million members and supporters around the world, FOEI campaigns on today's most urgent environmental and social issues.
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UN Human Rights Chief Condemns Israeli Minister's​ 'Unfathomable' Threat to Huwara
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United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday called out Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for saying that Huwara, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, "needs to be wiped out" and "the state of Israel should do it."
Smotrich's comment Wednesday came after Israeli settlers on Sunday rampaged through Huwara, killing a 37-year-old Palestinian man—mass violence that came just hours after a Palestinian gunman murdered a pair of Israeli brothers, who were 19 and 21.
While presenting a report on Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine and "the current intensification of violence" to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Türk blasted Smotrich's remark as "an unfathomable statement of incitement to violence and hostility."
"Over half a century of occupation has led to widening dispossession, deepening deprivation, and recurring and severe violations of their rights, including the right to life."
More broadly, Türk lamented that "the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory is a tragedy. A tragedy, above all, for the Palestinian people. Over half a century of occupation has led to widening dispossession, deepening deprivation, and recurring and severe violations of their rights, including the right to life. Nobody could wish to live this way—or imagine that forcing people into conditions of such desperation can lead to an enduring solution."
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The U.N. leader urged decision-makers in the region and around the world to heed the recommendations of his office's reports "and to step back from the precipice to which increasing extremism and violence have led."
\u201c"The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is a tragedy," @UNHumanRights chief @volker_turk told the @UN Human Rights Council.\n\nFull STATEMENT at #HRC52 \u27a1\ufe0fhttps://t.co/Ay18urzszf\u201d— UN Human Rights Council \ud83d\udccd#HRC52 (@UN Human Rights Council \ud83d\udccd#HRC52) 1677865307
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As Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said earlier this week, "The Israeli settlers burning down Palestinian homes and attacking Palestinians in the street are supported by the Israeli military and the Israeli government."
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Like Miller, Morayef emphasized that "Israeli authorities have long enabled and incited settler attacks against Palestinians, and in some cases soldiers have directly participated."
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One month after a fiery train crash in East Palestine, Ohio sparked an ongoing environmental and public health crisis, an anti-plastic coalition on Friday highlighted how the petrochemical industry poisons communities across the United States and called for "systemic change."
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The U.S. is home to more than 1,000 train derailments per year, and according to one estimate, the country is averaging one chemical disaster every two days.
Low-income communities in the Ohio River Valley and along the Gulf Coast are disproportionately harmed by the petrochemical industry.
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"The petrochemical industry is inherently unsafe. Even standard operations pollute and damage communities, and regulators continue to fail to do the bare minimum to hold polluters accountable."
As BFFP pointed out, the ongoing East Palestine disaster "is not the only petrochemical crisis" hurting residents of the Ohio River Valley.
"Less than 15 miles from the derailment site," a new Shell facility in Beaver County, Pennsylvania "has received numerous violations and exceeded its annual emissions limits since coming online in November of 2022," the coalition pointed out.
As Andie from the Eyes on Shell watchdog group observed: "With the community already on edge, just one week following the release and burn in East Palestine, Shell activated an enormous emergency flare which, without warning, continued flaring for hours. The derailment and emergency flare are terrifying reminders of the risks the petrochemical industry poses to our community every single day."
Earthworks campaigner Anaïs Peterson stressed that "the petrochemical industry is inherently unsafe."
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Amanda Kiger of River Valley Organizing (RVO)—a Columbiana County-based group that has been working to support East Palestine residents since the derailment—said that "nobody should have their entire lives upended because Norfolk Southern and makers of these hazardous chemicals put their profits ahead of the safety of our communities and our country."
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Despite BFFP's demands for a robust, legally binding global plastics treaty that prohibits corporations from manufacturing an endless stream of toxic single-use items, Inside Climate Newsreported this week that the initial proposal from the Biden administration's delegation to the United Nations was described as "low ambition" and "underwhelming" because it "sidesteps calls for cuts in production, praises the benefits of plastics, and focuses on national priorities versus global mandates."
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