16 October 2013

Happy World Food Day?

We all love to eat, but make sure that as you celebrate World Food Day today you spare a thought today for those who don’t have enough to eat.

‘Across the world 842 million people still suffer from chronic malnutrition, including a growing number in the developed world’, said HRLA chairperson Edward Miller, ‘and the latest New Zealand food security study reported that less than 6 in 10 NZ households are food secure.’

‘Access to sufficient adequate food is a human right, and New Zealand has an international obligations to work towards the progressive realisation of that right. We urge the New Zealand government to look towards ways that right could be realised, and have today published a discussion paper that looks at the content of that right and how it might better be achieved.’

‘Human rights violations are present through many of our global supply chains. We may have little scope to directly affect the plight of landless peasants in Brazil, of Indian farmers dying of pesticide exposure, or of Filipino wage labourers paid a pittance to harvest our fruit. Yet we can look towards realising the right to food here in New Zealand.’

Today HRLA have published a discussion paper on the right to food in the New Zealand context. It looks at the scope of our obligations, how other countries have interpreted the right and makes key recommendations.

ENDS

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