FIAN challenges Comprehensive Framework of Action (CFA) adopted by the High Level Task Force on Global Food Crisis
Heidelberg, Germany, 23/08/2008 - FIAN, the international human rights organisation for the right to food, challenges the Comprehensive Framework of Action (CFA) recently adopted by the High Level Task Force on the Global Food Crisis (HLTF). In a position paper released today, FIAN expresses deep concern about how the CFA was formulated and recommends a thorough revision of the document if it is to have a positive affect on the realization of the right to food for all.
Since April 2008, the reaction of the international community to the food crisis has been coordinated by the HLTF, which was initiated by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and composed of UN organisations dealing with food and agriculture, as well as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In July 2008, the Task Force released the CFA in order to present the joint position of the Task Force’s members on proposed action to overcome the global food crisis.
The FIAN position paper challenges the HLTF for its complete failure to consult the groups most affected by the hunger crisis – namely peasants, indigenous peoples, fisherfolk and pastoralists and crucial stakeholders in the global food crisis such as civil society organizations and even the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Also, the CFA proposes further liberalisation of trade and taxation policies at all levels, which FIAN International points out may lead to further violations of the right to food instead of preventing them.
The formal release of FIAN’s position paper coincides with the High-level Event on the Millenium Development Goals, which will take place at the UN Headquarters in New York on 25 September 2008. At this event world leaders will discuss their recommendations for strengthening the global partnership for development.
Dr. Flavio Valente, Secretary General of FIAN International says that, “Lessons learned through many years of struggle for the human right to food, have led to the conclusion that the majority of actions suggested in the CFA will not contribute to the realisation of the human right to food for all, required by international law. They will rather contribute to cementing existing power structures which are the source of violations of the human right to food worldwide. If the current CFA is used in the upcoming discussions at the country level, the most affected countries are put at risk of again becoming victims of conditionalities, particularly by the Bretton Woods institutions and the WTO – which have a prominent role in the HLTF. As opposed to the diagnosis that the UN presented at the creation of its Task Force on the Global Food Crisis, FIAN identified the present crisis as being deeply rooted in decades of misguided international and national policies – decided and implemented under the auspices of the Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF and World Bank, etc.) and, more recently, the WTO. These policies have undermined the conditions for states to respect, protect and fulfil the human right to adequate food.”
FIAN concludes that the CFA can neither be accepted nor implemented. A proper consultation of the crucial stakeholders has to take place. It has to include the most affected groups and the human rights organisations of civil society and the UN. Only such a participatory process can lead to a useful document.