Right to Food on Geneva Meeting

The Fifth Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council opened its debates on Monday analyzing a dramatic report on the world's food situation.

The UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, produced statistics that he described as shameful, especially when he mentioned the 854 million people who are starving in the world today.

Our planet is today richer than ever, it produces more food, but it also shelters millions of human beings who suffer from hunger, malnutrition and starvation, which is a human rights violation, he pointed out.

The Swiss experts recalled that six million children die of starvation every year before they turn five years of age, a heartbreaking and outrageous reality for humankind.

Ziegler described as encouraging the experiences in Bolivia, Venezuela and South Africa, whose governments are meeting great challenges to fight the problem of hunger in the poorest sectors of the population.

In the case of Bolivia, where 42 percent of the people suffer from malnutrition, he lauded the efforts being made by President Evo Morales and his administration to end that bitter social chapter forever.

"The Bolivian government plans to redistribute the underused land, allocate a percentage of hydrocarbon revenues to food issues, and receives aid from abroad," he explained.

Cuba contributed 23 hospitals to fight children's malnutrition in Bolivia, he stressed.

In Venezuela, farmers' access to the land has increased and the Mercal Mission, kicked off in 2003, aims to create subsidized food reserves to help communities to become self-sufficient.

Ziegler also said that school dining halls in South Africa, Cuba, Brazil and India dignify the battle to improve children's food in developing countries.