World Food Day: FIAN Celebrates 25 Years of Fighting to End World Hunger

With a severe food crisis ravaging the Horn of Africa and nearly one billion people suffering from grave undernourishment around the world, the human right to food still remains one of the most widely violated rights.

“Our objective is to achieve concrete solutions in the form of real policy changes to secure people’s access to the resources they need in order to feed themselves both now and in the future,” said FIAN’s Secretary-General Flavio Valente.

FIAN, together with its national sections and individual members in over 50 countries, has been raising awareness on the right to food among social movements, non-governmental organisations and governmental bodies by documenting cases of violations.

“For the duration of my term as UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food, my collaboration with FIAN International has been a key factor in the accomplishment of my work,” said Jean Ziegler, Vice President of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee. “For 25 years this organization has been tirelessly documenting cases of violations of the right to food around the world and supporting local organizations in their fight for justice.”

Despite the growth of a worldwide Right to Food movement and the existence of international frameworks to protect this right, the majority of violations remain unpunished, according to the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2011, an annual report released today by FIAN and partner organizations.

The report identifies a lack of accountability as the “missing link” between people’s struggle for their rights and the increased recognition of the right to food in political agendas that has occurred over the past 25 years.

One of the many cases documented by FIAN is that of continued murders and forced evictions of peasants perpetrated by the military, police and private security guards in the Bajo Aguán region of Honduras.

The peasant movements of Bajo Aguán have struggled for their right to food by demanding access to land and agrarian reform against ongoing land grabbing by huge palm oil producers. Between January 2010 and October 2011, 40 peasants’ murders were registered as a result of the agrarian conflict in the region.  The crimes committed have not been investigated and remain in impunity.

FIAN has launched an international urgent action calling on the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights in Honduras to put an end to the repression and violence against the peasant movement.

In the week preceding World Food Day, FIAN activists worldwide will mark the 25th anniversary with events, such as rallies and film screenings, to highlight the underlying root causes that lead to the persistence of hunger and malnutrition.