4 June 2008: Speaking at the FAO High-Level Conference on
World Food Security, which convened in Rome, Italy, from 3-5 June 2008, Louise
Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the food crisis is a
forceful signal “about individual human rights and the need for collective
action.” Reporting on a special session of the Human Rights Council on the food
emergency, she called for a human rights framework to analyze the causes of the
crises and “to clarify the power imbalances inside and between countries that
trigger or exacerbate the food crisis, including unfair trade practices or
skewed policies involving incentives and subsidies.”
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3 June 2008: Speaking at the FAO High-Level Conference on
World Food Security, which convened in Rome, Italy, from 3-5 June 2008, Emile
Frison, Chair of the Alliance of Centres supported by the Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and Director General of Bioversity
International, said that, among other factors, lack of investment in
agricultural research has contributed to the global food price crises. He
highlighted the importance of such investment, citing a World Bank report on
investment into agricultural development that found “an average internal rate
of return of 43 percent.”
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3 June 2008: Noting that food choices and nutrition are
highly sensitive to food prices, World Health Organization (WHO)
Director-General Margaret Chan sent a message to the FAO High-Level Conference
on World Food Security, which convened in Rome, Italy from 3-5 June 2008,
highlighting that “the food crisis is a direct threat to much hard-won progress
in health development.”
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30 May 2008: This UN Food and Agriculture Organization study
examines the impact of biofuel production on the human rights to adequate food
and to be free from hunger. It was authored by Asbjørn Eide, senior fellow of the
Norwegian Center for Human Rights at the University of Oslo, and seeks to
contribute to the present discussion on soaring food prices, climate change and
biofuels.
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16 May 2008: The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights of the UN Economic and Social Council adopted a statement on the world
food crisis, during its fortieth session on 16 May 2008. The statement
(E/C.12/2008/1) calls on all States to address the immediate causes of the food
crisis and urges them to address its structural causes at the national and
international levels, including by: “implementing strategies to combat global
climate change that do not negatively affect the right to adequate food and
freedom from hunger, but rather promote sustainable agriculture, as required by
article 2 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.”
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3 June 2008: UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon urged “bold and urgent steps” to tackle the global food crisis in his
statement to the FAO High-Level Conference on World Food Security, which
convened in Rome, Italy, from 3-5 June 2008. Noting that food production will
have to rise by 50% by the year 2030 to meet rising demand, he said “it is
important that our longer term focus is on improving world food security - and
remains so for some years.”
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3 June 2008: In his opening statement to the High-Level
Conference on World Food Security in Rome, Italy, FAO Director-General Jacques
Diouf called on Heads of State to make urgently needed investments in
agriculture to address the global food crisis and ensure long term food security.
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3
June 2008: Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme
(WFP), speaking at the FAO High-Level Conference on World Food Security, which
convened from 3-5 June 2008, warned that the global food crisis is threatening
to “plunge another 130 million people into life threatening hunger.” She said
the world has the means to defeat hunger, but high fuel and food prices
threaten to “short circuit” this potential by undoing many of the achievements
made towards global food security. She endorsed the UN Task Force’s plan of
action and outlined the WFP’s contributions towards its implementation, including
working with governments to assess needs and vulnerabilities at the household
level and scaling up safety net programmes.
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5
June 2008: Olivier de Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food,
reminded participants at the High-Level Conference on World Food Security,
which convened from 3-5 June 2008 in Rome, Italy, that the right to food
imposes obligations on countries vis-à-vis populations outside of their
territory. Noting the need to protect the most vulnerable segments of
populations, he called for an institutional framework to: identify emerging
threats at the earliest possible stage; improve coordination among ministries
and levels of government; and ensure participation, particularly of the most
food insecure segments of population.
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3
June 2008: Lennart Båge, President of the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD), told the High-Level Conference on World Food Security, at
its 3-5 June 2008 meeting in Rome, Italy, that “complacency” with food
surpluses has led to underinvestment in agriculture, for which the world is now
“literally paying the price.” Drawing attention to the under-utilized capacity
of smallholder farmers, he called for investments in rural agriculture,
including: improved access to essential inputs, such as seeds and fertilizer;
microfinance institutions; rural infrastructure; market linkages and access to
market information; and food processing.
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