The right to food
A/RES/71/191
4.
Expresses its concern at the fact that the effects created by the world
food crisis still continue to have serious consequences for the poorest and most
vulnerable people, particularly in developing countries, which have been further
aggravated by the impacts of the world financial and economic crisis, and at the
particular effects of the crisis on many net food-importing countries, especially least
developed countries;
5.
Expresses its deep concern that, according to the report of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations entitled The State of Food Insecurity
in the World 2015, the number of hungry people in the world remains unacceptably
high and the vast majority of hungry people live in developing countries;
6.
Also expresses its deep concern that, while women contribute more than
50 per cent of the food produced worldwide, they also account for 70 per cent of the
world’s hungry, that women and girls are disproportionately affected by hunger,
food insecurity and poverty, in part as a result of gender inequality and
discrimination, that in many countries girls are twice as likely a s boys to die from
malnutrition and preventable childhood diseases, and that it is estimated that almost
twice as many women as men suffer from malnutrition;
7.
Encourages all States to mainstream a gender perspective in food
security programmes and to take action to address de jure and de facto gender
inequality and discrimination against women, in particular when they contribute to
the malnutrition of women and girls, including measures to ensure the full and equal
realization of the right to food and that women have equal access to resources,
including income, land and water and their ownership and agricultural inputs, as
well as full and equal access to health care, education, science and technology, to
enable them to feed themselves and their families, and in this regard stresses the
need to empower women and strengthen their role in decision -making;
8.
Encourages the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the
right to food to continue to mainstream a gender perspective in the fulfilment of her
mandate, and encourages the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations and all other United Nations bodies and mechanisms addressing the right to
food and food insecurity to continue to integrate a gender perspective into their
relevant policies, programmes and activities;
9.
Reaffirms the need to ensure that programmes delivering safe and
nutritious food are inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities;
10. Stresses that the primary responsibility of States is to promote and protect
the right to food and that the international community should provide, through a
coordinated response and upon request, international cooperation in support of
national and regional efforts by providing the assistance necessary to increase food
production and access to food, including through agricultural development
assistance, the transfer of technology, food crop rehabilitation assistance and food
aid, ensuring food security, with special attention to the specific needs of women and
girls, and promoting innovation, support for the development of adapted
technologies, research on rural advisory services and support for access to financing
services, and ensure support for the establishment of secure land tenure systems;
11. Calls upon all States and, if appropriate, relevant international
organizations to take measures and support programmes that are aimed at combating
undernutrition in mothers, in particular during pregnancy, and in children, and the
irreversible effects of chronic undernutrition in early childhood, in particular from
birth to the age of 2 years;
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