Global South countries take the lead on ending Israel’s genocide and illegal occupation of [alestine: securing the right to food must be prioritized
Twelve States that are part of “The Hague Group” have committed themselves to taking action to end genocide, occupation, and impunity by Israel in Palestine. The right to food must be at the heart of these efforts, as the self-determination and dignity of Palestinians are inseparable from their food sovereignty.
An emergency conference held in Bogotá, Colombia, on July 15 and 16, 2025, marks an important step in multilateral efforts to make Israel and its supporters comply with international law, including human rights law and humanitarian law. A total of 30 states participated in the conference convened by “The Hague Group,” an initiative launched by eight countries from the Global South in January 2025 and supported by Progressive International. The aim of the conference was to agree on concrete measures to end the ongoing genocide, impunity, and the illegal occupation of Palestine.
State commitments
The Conference resulted in a Joint Statement signed by twelve countries (Bolivia, Cuba, Colombia, Malaysia, Namibia, South Africa, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Iraq, Libya, Oman, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), which committed to immediately adopt concrete measures to end impunity for Israel’s actions in Palestine and break any ties of complicity with the genocide and occupation. Crucially, these commitments are based on the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
Specifically, these states have committed to preventing the transfer of arms to Israel; preventing the use of their ports and ships bearing their flags for such transfers; reviewing all public contracts to ensure that none of their public institutions support Israel’s occupation of Palestine; ensuring accountability for crimes under international law; and supporting universal jurisdiction mandates to ensure justice for victims. In addition, the declaration calls on the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to “commission an immediate investigation into the health and nutritional needs of the population of Gaza, and to devise a plan to meet those needs on a continuing and sustained basis.” Furthermore, it sets the date of September 20, 2025, coinciding with the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, for ECOSOC to report on the investigation and for other states to join the commitments.
Although not explicitly mentioned in the Joint Statement, the systematic violation of Palestinians’ human right to food and nutrition is a fundamental part of the Israeli genocide and occupation. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification IPC, 100% of the population of Gaza is highly food insecure and, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), one in ten children screened in its medical facilities is malnourished. These shocking figures are the result of Israel’s deliberate and systematic blockade of food and humanitarian aid, as well as the systematic destruction of agricultural land and the prohibition of access to the sea for fishers. In fact, as of April 2025, more than 80 per cent of Gaza’s agricultural land had been damaged and less than 5 per cent was available for cultivation. No cropland is accessible in Rafah and the northern governorates. Furthermore, Israel’s relentless campaign of bombing and destruction has devastated the entire territory and its ecosystems, wreaking havoc for present and future generations.
Food sovereignty is key for self-determination
“The famine in Gaza cannot be addressed as long as States continue to pretend that it is yet another humanitarian crisis,” said Ana María Suárez Franco, secretary general of FIAN International. “All states and international institutions must recognize that Israel is carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation, used as a weapon of genocide.” International humanitarian law (IHL) prohibits the use of food and water as weapons of war, specifically in Article 14 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which protects goods essential to the survival of the civilian population. This has also been reaffirmed by the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS).
The militarization of food and humanitarian aid through the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHL), backed by Israel and the United States, which has led to the killings of nearly 900 Palestinians seeking aid to feed their families, is only the most blatant expression of the use of food as a weapon of genocide and occupation. Suárez Franco added: “Ensuring the immediate and unconditional provision of food and humanitarian aid in adequate quantity and quality to the population of Gaza, provided by multilateral aid agencies acting in accordance with the principles established by international humanitarian law (including UNRWA), is urgent but not sufficient to realize the right to food. As previously emphasized by FIAN and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UWAC), the struggle for food sovereignty in Palestine cannot be separated from the broader struggle for Palestinian self-determination and sovereignty over land and natural resources.”
Therefore, FIAN International calls on the signatories of the Joint Statement and all other states to give due consideration to the right to food when implementing their commitments and human rights obligations. Concretely, FIAN recommends the following:
- Include agribusiness and food corporations in the review of public contracts (commitment no. 4).
- Ensure accountability of all actors, including non-state actors, involved in violations of the human right to food of present and future generations, particularly through the use of food as a weapon of warfare and genocide, the blocking of food and humanitarian aid, the denial of access to fisheries, the destruction of agricultural lands, and the destruction of ecosystems through irreversible damage to the environment (commitment no. 5).
- Include breaches of states’ extraterritorial human rights obligations when supporting universal jurisdiction mandates to ensure access to justice by the Palestinian people (commitment no. 6).
FIAN International also urges states and ECOSOC to take into account that nutrition is a constituent part of the human right to food and is intrinsically linked to people’s ability to feed themselves, in particular through access to and control over land, fisheries, forests, seeds, and other natural resources. These aspects must therefore be included in research on the health and nutritional needs of the population of Gaza, as well as in the development of a plan to meet those needs in a continuous and sustained manner. Involving the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in the ECOSOC investigation would be a way to ensure that the right to food is duly considered. In particular, the rehabilitation of ecosystems, land, and other natural resources, as well as peasant seed systems, must be central to measures aimed at realizing food sovereignty and the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.
Finally, FIAN International calls on all states to join the Hague Group and fully comply with their obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law, with a view to urgently ending the genocide and illegal occupation of Palestine.
For more information please contact Ana María Suárez Franco: Suarez-Franco@fian.org
