A/HRC/RES/13/4
Stressing the importance of reversing the continuing decline of official development
assistance devoted to agriculture, both in real terms and as a share of total official
development assistance,
Recalling the pledges made to increase official development assistance devoted to
agriculture, as well as that the realization of the right to food not only entails an increase in
productivity but also a holistic approach that includes a focus on smallholder and traditional
farmers and the most vulnerable groups and national and international policies that are
conducive to the realization of this right,
Recognizing the need to increase investment in agriculture from all relevant sources
for the realization of the right to food,
Recalling its resolutions 5/1 on institution-building of the United Nations Human
Rights Council, and 5/2 on a code of conduct for special procedures mandate holders of the
Human Rights Council, of 18 June 2007,
1.
Reaffirms that hunger constitutes an outrage and a violation of human dignity
and therefore requires the adoption of urgent measures at the national, regional and
international levels for its elimination;
2.
Also reaffirms 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, so as to be able to fully develop and maintain his or her physical and
mental capacities;
3.
Expresses grave concern at the fact that the world food crisis continues to
seriously undermine the realization of the right to food for all, and especially for one sixth
of the world population, mainly in developing and least developed countries, who suffer
from hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity;
4.
Considers it intolerable that, according to an estimation by the United
Nations Children’s Fund, more than one third of the children who die every year before the
age of 5 years do so from hunger-related illness, and that, according to an estimation by the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the number of people who are
undernourished has grown to about 1.02 billion worldwide, and that there is an additional 1
billion people suffering from serious malnutrition, including as a result of the global food
crisis, even though, according to the latter organization, the planet could produce enough
food to feed 12 billion people, that is, twice the world’s current population;
5.
Expresses its concern 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 as 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;
6.
Encourages all States to take action to address gender inequality and
discrimination against women, in particular where it contributes to the malnutrition of
women and girls, including measures to ensure the full and equal realization of the right to
food and ensuring that women have equal access to resources, including income, land and
water and their ownership, as well as full and equal access to education, science and
technology, to enable them to feed themselves and their families;
7.
Stresses the need to guarantee fair and non-discriminatory access to land
rights for smallholders, traditional farmers and their organizations, including in particular
rural women and vulnerable groups;
8.
Encourages the Special Rapporteur on the right to food to ensure the
mainstreaming of a gender perspective in the fulfilment of his mandate, and encourages the
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