Invitation – Side event
“The Right to Food as a FAO Priority – European Positions and Perspectives”
Wednesday, 25th June 2008, 13.00 – 14.00h
Venue: InnsbruckCongress Centre, Rennweg 3, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria (Room “Strassburg”, Ground Floor)
On the 22nd of May the European Parliament passed a resolution on rising food prices in developing countries and Europe which stresses “the fundamental nature of the right to food” and “urges the Council to ensure coherence of all food related national and international policies with the obligations under the right to food”.
FIAN International shares this view and also the clear perspective of the UN Human Rights Council that any substantial and comprehensive response to the world food crisis requires to include the Right to Food perspective. Europe has to contribute to implement this response, and the FAO Regional Conference in Innsbruck is a good moment to take action.
The evolvement of the Voluntary Guidelines for the Right to Food marks some of the few successful developments in combating hunger and malnutrition since the World Food Summit 1996 within the FAO. In the current process of re-shaping policies and institutional organization of the FAO, it is of utmost importance that the assistance to states in implementing the Right to Food and the Human Rights Approach to food security is seen and defined as a FAO priority.
As European member states are major stakeholders of FAO policy and program operations, their commitment for further developments concerning the right to food within this institutional framework should be outspoken. Some European States have developed very advanced positions regarding their obligations and responsibilities for the right to food while others are hesitant to do so or are even reluctant to meet this challenge.
In this very crucial moment of facing a global food crisis the obligations of states under the right to food of people facing hunger and malnutrition must be put in the centre for future policies and programmes. The side-event invites delegates, state-representatives and civil society groups to discuss positions and perspectives of European states for undertaking the next steps at international level to ensure that the future political and institutional framework of FAO will consider the Right to Food and its implementation as a priority.
Keynote-speakers:
Johannes Kresbach (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, Austria)
Irmi Salzer (La Via Campesina Austria)
Martin Wolpold-Bosien (FIAN International)
Moderation: Gertrude Klaffenböck (FIAN Austria)
Further information: Gertrude Klaffenböck(+43 (0)65 040 555 11)
With financial assistance of the European Commission (EC)