Recognizing fundamental rights vital for human development by United Nations Special Rapporteurs 5:13pm 6th Jul, 2011   July 2011    UN EXPERTS WARN OF LARGE-SCALE STARVATION IN SOMALIA AND HORN OF AFRICA UNLESS THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY STEPS IN.    GENEVA – The United Nations Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, Shamsul Bari, has urged the international community to step up efforts and take immediate concerted measures to address the most severe food crisis in the world today in Somalia.    His call was supported by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, who declared that 10 million people in northern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and South Sudan are at immediate risk of starvation because of the worst regional drought in 60 years.    “I am appalled by the plight of the Somali people who are experiencing the most acute humanitarian tragedy in the world today as a result of the most severe drought in 10 years,” Mr. Bari said. “Drastically increasing food prices and continuing conflict and insecurity have caused a huge displacement of the population, with thousands of Somalis fleeing to Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti every day.”    Mr. Bari, who last week visited Mogadishu and Nairobi, including the Dadaab Refugee Camps in the Garissa District, said the situation was markedly worse than in March 2011, when he had expressed concerns over the slow response of the humanitarian community to the situation.    “Only 50 per cent of the humanitarian community appeal for US $ 530 million has been funded to cover humanitarian needs of some 2.85 million people or one-third of the Somali population,” Mr. Bari said.    "This crisis looks like a natural calamity, but it is in part manufactured," Mr. De Schutter added. "Climate change will result in such events being more frequent. We need emergency food reserves in strategic positions. We need a reform of the Food Aid Convention that imposes on States an obligation to provide support when and where crises emerge. And we need better preparedness for drought, for which Governments must be held to account."    “It was with shock and great sadness that I heard stories from the new arrivals at the Dadaab refugee camps about the drought and the war,” Mr. Bari said. “They told me how they had to walk hundreds of kilometers under the hot sun, carrying young children, to reach humanitarian assistance and to join the Dadaab Refugee camps.”    Mr. Bari said it was heartening that there was strong social solidarity in Somali society so that those who had been displaced did receive hospitality and support from villages they passed through in the course of their perilous journey to the Kenyan border.    In the first half of 2011, the number of people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance increased by almost 850,000 to some 2.85 million people or one third of the population. At least one in three Somali children is malnourished in parts of Southern Somalia. Three in five children arriving in refugee camps in Ethiopia from Southern Somalia are malnourished. In the refugee camps in Kenya, more deaths were recorded amongst Somali children in the therapeutic feeding centres in the first quarter of 2011 than the whole of 2010. Southern areas under Al Shabaab control are hosting up to 80 per cent of the malnourished children. “Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the fighting,” Mr. Bari said.    In May alone, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 1,590 people, with almost half of them children, had been admitted to the three main hospitals in Mogadishu. The percentage of children affected increased from 3.5 percent to 46 per cent from April to May. The WHO attributes this increase to the intensified fighting around the Baakara market, one of the most populated areas in Mogadishu. WHO also reports that the main cause of death among children below the age of five are burns, chest injuries and internal hemorrhages caused by blast injuries, shrapnel and bullets.    “This is an extremely worrying trend and an indicator on how dire the ongoing human rights and humanitarian tragedy is,” Mr. Bari said.    “We solemnly appeal to the International community, including the UN, to take concerted and urgent measures to increase access to food, nutrition, clean water and health protection for these very vulnerable people,” the two UN human rights experts concluded. Today, drought affects 3.2 million people in Kenya, 2.6 million in Somalia, 3.2 million in Ethiopia and 117,000 in Djibouti.    "With a rate of child malnutrition above 30 per cent in many regions of these countries, the failure of the international community to act would result in major violations of the right to food," Mr. De Schutter said. "International law imposes on States in a position to help that they do so immediately, where lives are at stake."    “EDUCATION IS A HUMAN RIGHT AND MUST BE PROTECTED FROM ECONOMIC TURBULENCE” SAYS UN EXPERT.    The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education today said world leaders must acknowledge that education is a fundamental human right which must be protected from economic difficulties.    Speaking on the occasion of the annual meeting of the High-level Segment of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) which is currently taking place in Geneva, Kishore Singh reminded states that their rhetoric on education must be backed up by adequate funding. According to latest figures, 67 million children worldwide remain out of school. Singh added that among those lucky enough to get into classrooms, many receive bad quality education.    “Education is a human right and must be protected from turbulence,” Singh said. “National budgets must recognize the need for increased and sustained investment in education. Decreasing domestic and international support to this crucial sector in periods of economic crisis can affect the destiny of an entire generation.”    Singh said it was disappointing that in a number of countries, military spending continues to outpace expenditure on primary education. “Given the central role of education in the promotion of development, it is equally disappointing to see that international aid levels continue to fall short of the amount required to close the financial gap in low-income countries,” he added.    “Recognizing education as a fundamental right is vital to ensure adequate progress towards the achievement of the Education for All goals to which over 160 countries committed themselves in 2000. Ensuring universal access to primary education of good quality is not a mere policy choice but a human rights obligation.”    SOUTH AFRICA CAN MOVE BEYOND THE ‘TWO ECONOMIES’ TO DELIVER ONE INCLUSIVE FOOD SYSTEM, SAYS UN FOOD EXPERT.    “South Africa is a champion of institutionalizing social, economic and cultural rights such as the human right to food, but it has yet to prove it can deliver results for 12 million poor food insecure people, 70 per cent of which live in rural areas,” said Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, on the last day of his official mission to South Africa.    “South Africa became a model by integrating the right to food in its Constitution and by establishing the South African Human Rights Commission. Its Constitutional Court developed a uniquely progressive jurisprudence in the area of economic social and cultural rights. But it is now time to build a food economy that benefits the majority of the population.”    The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food was speaking at the end of a mission he conducted in South Africa from 7 to 15 July 2011 at the invitation of the Government. “Using the right to food as the foundation, land, agricultural and agri-food policies as well as social programmes should be made more consistent and mutually supportive: we must create an inclusive food system for South Africa,” he said, summarizing his key message to the authorities. “By inclusiveness, I mean much more than the de-racialization of the food economy,” said Mr. De Schutter, who summarized the four directions of his proposals.    “First, strategies will only be as good as the results they deliver", said De Schutter. Reviewing many well-intentioned policies that increasingly put food security at the top of the government’s agenda, he noted: “The set of policies is encouraging, but the results still are below expectations.” Mr. De Schutter encouraged the Government to take a new historic step by adopting a framework law for the realization of the right to food. ”In other countries I visit, this is the one single initiative that ensures coherence across policies and consistency across time.”    Moreover, the cost of non-compliance with policies and programmes should be increased. “The Government is now preparing a Food Security Bill, currently at the policy level. An independent monitoring system, with indicators of success and clear allocation of responsibilities would enable the current administration to deliver on its promises. And a structured dialogue with trade unions, farmer’s organisations, landless movements and other civil society organizations could ensure better accountability across the system, and thus improve results.”    “Secondly, to be consistent in land reform programmes beneficiaries just cannot be left alone once they receive land. If one small-scale beneficiary wants to move from subsistence farming to selling some surpluses, he or she needs access to credit, training, and markets. Public resources must be reoriented to that end,” said the Special Rapporteur, who expressed concern that agricultural programmes benefited mostly a small number of established entrepreneurs. “If South Africa is to meet its target of creating 500,000 jobs in the agri-food sector, there is no alternative than to enable a large proportion of the 1.5 million subsistence households to graduate into small-scale farmers.”    Thirdly, the Special Rapporteur called for proactive engagement of the State in designing pro-poor food markets. “South Africa needs to create food systems that work for the poor and not only sell to the poor”. The legacy of apartheid is not only a strongly dualized farming system, but also the exclusion of poor blacks from the value chains.    “Local food systems that promote fresh and nutritious food can be set up by a new set of policies. For instance, public procurement schemes can be made to work for rural development by allowing for preferential treatment in favour of small-scale farmers.    Similarly, the Extended Public Works Programme could support the initial labour-intensive one-off investments in sustainable agriculture – agroecology – such as rainwater harvesting techniques and land contouring systems which prevent soil erosion,” said the UN food expert, “we must engage in systems-wide learning to identify such synergies.”    Mr. De Schutter also commended the micro-mills programme, which should create marketing opportunities for small-scale farmers organized in cooperatives, reduce concentration in the milling industry and at the same time generate off-farm jobs in rural areas.    The fourth axis of Mr. De Schutter’s proposals concern the improvement of the situation of the 800-900,000 farm workers, whose average incomes are a third of the national average, while the situation of millions of labour tenants and farm dwellers remains insecure.    “The lack of capacity of the State, and its resulting inability to confront remaining discrepancies of the apartheid period, is nowhere as visible as in labour inspections, with only 1,000 labour inspectors for the whole territory, for all sectors, which are routinely prevented from entering large farms by landowners. Based upon his international experience, the Special Rapporteur recommended that trade union representatives could, following appropriate training, be certified to conduct inspections on farms, and report to the Department of Labour any refusal by the farmer to have his/her farm inspected from compliance with labour legislation.    Mr. De Schutter finally commended the South African authorities for the impressive social protection programmes they built after the fall of apartheid, yet he regretted the absence of a basic income grant. Currently, able-bodied adults who have not reached retirement age are not protected from extreme poverty. “Yet such basic protection is especially important in fast transforming economy such as South Africa,” the Special Rapporteur added.    * Visit the link below to access the latest news from the UN Office in Geneva. Visit the related web page
	Next (more recent) news item
	Next (older) news item