Human rights/Right to food – GA Third Cttee debate – Summary record (excerpts)

Third Committee

Summary record of the 26th meeting

Held at Headquarters, New York, on Monday, 27 October 2008, at 10 a.m. 

 Chairman:  Mr. Majoor ………………………………………………………  (Netherlands) 

 later:   Mr. Peralta (Vice-Chairman) ………………………. (Paraguay)

 later:   Mr. Majoor (Chairman) …………………….. (Netherlands)

Contents

Agenda item 64: Promotion and protection of human rights (continued)

(b)   Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms ( continued)

(c)   Human rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives ( continued)

  The meeting was called to order at 10.05 a.m.

/…

12.   Mr. De Schutter (Special Rapporteur on the right to food), introducing his report on the right to food (A/63/278), gave a brief account of the situation in which he had been working since assuming his mandate on 1 May 2008. Aware of the terrible consequences of the world food crisis for the poorest populations, he was continually urging international agencies and national authorities to be guided in their actions by the human right of all to adequate food.

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41.   Mr. Zeidan (Observer for Palestine) said that 1.5 million civilians were currently confined in the open-air prison that was the occupied Gaza Strip, where they were refused the most basic rights. Food-related statistics raised significant concerns, as more than 80 per cent of the population was dependent on food aid. The wall that Israel was building in the West Bank cut off Palestinians’ access to their land and forced them to buy costly agricultural products sold by the Israelis. Militant Israeli settlers continued to destroy olive tree plantations with complete impunity. How was the right to food aid different from the right to food? He would also like to know when the Office of the Special Rapporteur would again send a representative to the Occupied Palestinian Territory and what measures the Special Rapporteurs planned to take in order to force Israel to fulfil its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention and other human rights norms, in particular its obligation to ensure the safety and well-being of the civilian population.

/…

43.   Mr. De Schutter (Special Rapporteur on the right to food), responding to the question posed by the representative of Switzerland, …

/…

The meeting rose at 12.20 p.m.

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Corrections will be issued after the end of the session, in a separate corrigendum for each Committee.