Doha, Qatar: A Doha Declaration issued by the International Conference on Food Justice has recommended for respecting and protecting the right of food in Gaza, including by maintaining funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the largest humanitarian organisation in Gaza.
With regard to the Palestinians in Gaza, the Declaration noted that Israel must take all measures within its power to prevent all acts within the scope of the Genocide Convention in line with the order of the International Court of Justice.
The Declaration called for refraining from using starvation as a weapon of war and taking steps to facilitate the entry of sufficient, reliable, sustainable and unhindered aid and basic goods into Gaza in a manner commensurate with the needs of the civilians, facilitate their distribution to any location, and provide water, food and medical supplies to the population, according to the international humanitarian law.
Under the patronage of Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) of Qatar held a two-day event in Doha under the theme “From A Human Right Perspective - Challenges of Reality and Future Stakes” with the participation of over 600 officials and experts. NHRC Secretary-General H E Sultan bin Hassan Al Jamali read out the Declaration during the conclusion ceremony of the conference. The Declaration recommended identifying regional benchmarks for increasing public investment and spending in the agricultural sector in order to progressively realise the right to food, individually and through international assistance and cooperation to the maximum extent available resources allow.
It noted that the developed countries should fully implement their official development assistance commitments to achieve the goal of allocating 0.7 percent of their GDP for official development assistance to developing countries. The Declaration called for strengthening comprehensive social protection systems that cover social, economic, environmental and climate risks and impacts, promoting sustainable and resilient livelihoods, decent work, including in the agri-food sector.
It is needed to ensure that food subsidies support the realisation of the right to food at the national and global levels and provision of comprehensive school meals as one of the basic components of comprehensive social protection systems.
The Declaration recommended for using the right to food as a transformative framework for transitioning to sustainable, people-centred food systems, through comprehensive and integrated approaches such as agroecology and regenerative agriculture as an essential means of simultaneously adapting to climate change and realising the right to food.
It called for developing and strengthen legal frameworks that recognise and protect the right to food, and align national policies with international human rights instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on Human Rights and support the progressive realisation of the guiding principles of the right to adequate food.
The Declaration recommended protection of the right to food by developing strong and effective regulations to reduce over-concentration in agri-food systems, prohibiting speculation in food prices, holding companies accountable for violations of the right to food, and ensuing access to justice and effective redress. The conference also decided to form a committee to follow up on its recommendations and develop a four-year implementation plan. The committee will begin its work in 2024.
It will work with governments, regional actors and relevant stakeholders to develop an action plan for the right to food in line with the recommendations of the conference and coordinate with the follow-up committee to last year’s conference on human rights and climate change on the interlinkages between climate change and the right to food.
