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54th Session |
54th Session
Mr. Chairman,Last year I addressed the Commission on behalf of the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, to inform it of the outcome of the 1996 World Food Summit, and in particular its decisions relating to the right to adequate food.
The Commission then adopted resolution 1997/8 in which it endorsed the request made in the World Food Summit Plan of Action to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in consultation with relevant treaty bodies, and in collaboration with relevant specialized agencies and programmes of the United nations system and appropriate intergovernmental mechanisms, as well as non-governmental organizations, to define better the rights related to food in article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and to propose ways to implement and realize those rights as a means of achieving the commitments and objectives of the World Food Summit, taking into account the possibility of formulating voluntary guidelines for food security for all.
The Director-General of FAO and the High Commissioner concluded a Memorandum of Understanding in May of last year, for cooperation on the subject of the rights related to food and implementation of the World Food Summit Plan of Action in that regard. The cooperation has in our opinion been most fruitful and we would like to thank the staff of the Office of the High Commissioner for its success.
FAO participated actively in the preparations for the Consultations of the High Commissioner on the right to adequate food and attended them at a high level. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the report of the High Commissioner to the Commission on the Consultations, contained in document E/CN.4/1998/21, which constitutes a major first step in the implementation of the High Commissioner’s mandate.
Mr. Chairman, the full implementation and realization of the right to adequate food implies action at both the international and the national levels. At the international level the mandate of the High Commissioner has been clearly formulated by the World Food Summit and by your Commission. FAO continues to stand ready to provide its support to the High Commissioner in the fulfillment of her mandate. As a technical organization, FAO has focused particularly on practical ways of helping countries to improve food security and to implement the Plan of Action adopted by the World Food Summit.
With this end in view, FAO has been playing a lead role in the development of Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information Mapping Systems (FIVIMS) with active inter-agency support. The final version of the guidelines on FIVIMS will be presented to the Committee on World Food Security at its next meeting in June for its approval. We hope that the guidelines will help countries to set their own benchmarks for measuring food insecurity and to monitor their progress in achieving food security.
The first reports by States on the actions taken to implement the Summit Plan of Action will be before the CFS in June. Meanwhile, FAO has continued to expand its Special Programme on Food Security in low income food deficit countries.
We believe FAO and the Office of the High Commissioner also have a role to play in improving the institutional and legal structure for national implementation, for instance by providing assistance to Governments that so request on the legal, institutional and procedural aspects of the right to adequate food and food security at all levels.
Last November, the FAO Conference adopted a resolution on the right to food, in which it welcomed the forthcoming Consultations, urged the High Commissioner to give priority to her on-going work on the right to adequate food and invited her to inform the FAO Committee on World Food Security at its next session on her progress. The Conference urged Member Nations of FAO, at the next session of the General Assembly in 1998, and on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to reaffirm the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger.
Indeed, Mr. Chairman, FAO is planning to hold a commemorative ceremony on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The theme of the ceremony will be the right to adequate food, and it will provide an excellent opportunity to publicize the results of the work undertaken so far in this regard, and focus media attention on the subject through high level participation in the event.
Let me finish by stating our wish that the Commission continue to lend its support for this extremely important process led by the High Commissioner, in cooperation with other international organizations and UN bodies, to explore the definition and implementation of the rights related to food at the international and national levels. To meet the ambitious target set by the World Food Summit to reduce the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than the year 2015, calls for a united effort by all organizations of the UN system as well as by NGOs and other elements of civil society. FAO values its continuing cooperation with the High Commissioner as an essential element of that united effort.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.