[stop-imf] IMF et. al. should respect human rights - UN rapporteur on right to food

[robert weissman]

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Lanka Business Online
Be Humane
24 October 2005 18:59 hours

The UN tells IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organisation to respect
human rights, instead of only focussing on money.

Such international bodies as the World Bank, the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) "should recognize that
they have binding responsibilities towards human rights, including the
right to food," said the UN Commission on Human Rights Special
Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler.

"With power must come responsibility," said the report. The reprimand
comes after persistent food shortages in poorer parts of the world,
mainly in Africa, despite increased global trade and riches.

=93Finally, it is unacceptable that the world, which is richer than ever
before, can let 5 million infant children die every year from
malnutrition and related diseases and that 852 million people do not get
enough to eat every day," said Ziegler.

The Right to Food report raises concerns that projects financed by
international organisations like the World Bank can impact the
availability of food for vulnerable populations.

These development programmes sometimes cause people to move from their
land and cuts off access to traditional lands and livelihoods.

The report notes that economic models of development currently promoted
and imposed by the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO, threaten the right
to food of small farmers across the world.

The UN special rapporteur also recommends that food aid be left out of
on going world trade talks.

Food security should not be "left up to the vagaries of the market
system that cannot address hunger in times of emergency," and emergency
food aid should be excluded from market principles and provided free of
charge, says the report.

Meanwhile the report calls on all governments to take urgent action to
halt increases in global under-nourishment and to respond rapidly to the
food crises.

"While national governments have the primary obligation to ensure the
right to food of their populations, they also have an obligation to seek
international assistance and cooperation when they have insufficient
resources, and other States have an obligation, depending on the
availability of their resources, to facilitate the realization of the
right to food through development cooperation and emergency aid," says
Ziegler.