Each one of the one billion hungry persons is denied basic human rights by Special Rapporteur on the right to food 11:58pm 30th Nov, 2011   November 2011    Upcoming trade talks must focus on right to adequate food, UN expert stresses.    “The world is in the midst of a food crisis which requires a rapid policy response. But the World Trade Organization agenda has failed to adapt, and developing countries are rightly concerned that their hands will be tied by trade rules.” This is the warning from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, as he issued recommendations to put the human right to adequate food at the top of the WTO agenda, before a key summit.    “Food security is the elephant in the room which the WTO must address. Trade did not feed the hungry when food was cheap and abundant, and is even less able to do so now that prices are sky-high. Global food imports shall be worth 1.3 trillion USD in 2011, and the food import bills of the least developed countries have soared by over a third over the last year. The G20 has acknowledged that excessive reliance on food imports has left people in developing countries increasingly vulnerable to price shocks and food shortages,” Mr. De Schutter said, adding: “The WTO must now do the same”.    The future of the Doha Round and the global trading system will be under discussion at the December 15-17 WTO ministerial conference in Geneva. “We must avoid face-saving, short-term solutions aimed at hauling Doha over the line,” the independent expert said. “Instead, we should grasp the opportunity to ask what kind of trade rules will allow us to combat food insecurity and realize the human right to food.”    Higher tariffs, temporary import restrictions, state purchase from small-holders, active marketing boards, safety net insurance schemes, and targeted farm subsidies are increasingly acknowledged as vital measures to rehabilitate local food production capacity in developing countries.    But WTO rules leave little space for developing countries to put these measures in place. “Even if certain policies are not disallowed, they are certainly discouraged by the complexity of the rules and the threat of legal action,” Mr. De Schutter said. “Current efforts to build humanitarian food reserves in Africa must tip-toe around the WTO rulebook. This is the world turned upside down. WTO rules should revolve around the human right to adequate food, not the other way around.”    “It is a problem of principle: the WTO continues to pursue the outdated goal of increasing trade for its own sake rather than encouraging more trade only insofar as it increases human wellbeing. It therefore treats food security policies as an unwelcome deviation from this path. Instead we need an environment that encourages bold policies to improve food security.”    “If the Doha Round is to move forward, it must lift any possible constraints on policies aimed at securing the right to food: such measures should include food stock-holding that aims to reduce price volatility and ensure access to adequate food at the local level.” The Special Rapporteur called for an expert panel to be convened to reconcile food security and trade concerns; for a protocol to be established to monitor the impacts of trade on food prices; and for a general waiver to exempt food security-related measures from the WTO disciplines without penalty.    Nov 2011    “Each one of the one billion hungry persons is denied basic human rights,” says Olivier De Schutter.    “Continuing famine in the Horn of Africa, low harvest warnings in Western Africa and flood-related crop losses in South-East Asia make it more urgent than ever that we tackle food price volatility and growing hunger.    The purported ‘action plan’ agreed by G20 agriculture ministers in June is too weak. Time is running out for world leaders, who must go beyond rhetoric and deliver real change. The hungry cannot wait.    Unless decisive action is taken now, vulnerable populations will grow hungrier, food markets will be increasingly unstable, and the world will remain completely unprepared for the challenge of feeding an ever growing population.”    The Special Rapporteur identified several areas where leaders must take a bolder stance, to ensure respect for human rights.    “The G20 must put an end to public biofuel mandates and fiscal subsidies, which are a major factor in rising food prices and an important driver of the rush towards farmland in developing countries,” Mr. De Schutter said.    “Leaders are yet to prove that they heard the joint recommendations of international organizations five months ago, which urged G20 governments to stop subsidising biofuels.* It is not enough to name-check the issue – the G20 must put the human right to food before the vested interests of some of its industries,” he added.    The Action Plan also risks falling short on financial regulation, the independent expert warned. “Food commodity markets must not be a refuge when other financial markets have dried up. Speculation on these markets is rife, and instead of allowing producers and buyers to hedge against risk, it has increased risk and led to price changes unconnected to the underlying fundamentals.”    “Price bubbles are triggered not only when a handful of individuals take excessive positions, but also, and perhaps especially, when large numbers of speculators adopt the same herding behaviour by following the same signals.”    Mr. De Schutter also called for a stronger stance on food reserves. “The G20 promotes stronger food reserves for emergencies such as the Horn of Africa crisis. But restricted pilot projects are clearly insufficient."    “We must be more ambitious, and use food stocks as a tool for stabilizing the market. If we buy from small-scale farmers when supply is plentiful, and release these stocks when markets are tight, we can prevent the volatile price swings and supply shocks which create humanitarian crises in the first place.” Visit the related web page
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