Food is a basic human right: Caritas Europa urges to end hunger by 2025

On the occasion of World Human Rights Day (10 December), Caritas Europa calls on Europe to follow a recent position of the European Parliament where food is considered as a basic human right.

Caritas Europa reiterates the importance of considering Food as a basic Human Right, available and affordable to every family and community throughout the world. Hence, Caritas Europa calls Europe to implement a coherent and holistic approach in development to ensure adequate food for everyone.

To Caritas, dying of hunger in a world of plenty is a scandal. While over 800 million people are currently denied the right to adequate food – and a third of all food production is lost or wasted – only profound reforms and a shift towards sustainable food systems will enable us to end hunger by 2025 and feed 9.6 billion by 2050.

Caritas Europa welcomes a new report by the European Parliament where food is defined as a basic Human Right. By approving the report (on 25 November 2014), the European Parliament “calls on the need to go beyond food security and considers food as a basic Human Right, in order to be able to set a clear 'Zero Hunger' goal and to end the scandal of hunger by 2025.” (art. 44).

By contributing to Caritas Internationalis’ campaign, Caritas Europa and its 49 member organizations in 46 European countries, firmly call on the need to consider food as a basic human right. Caritas Europa believes that only by adopting a genuinely coherent, accountable, and across-the-board right to food and Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) to ensuring global food security, can the EU assume the global leadership and legitimacy urgently required to end hunger by 2025.

Reminding of the importance of the Human Rights Day to millions of people around the world, Caritas Europa uses this opportunity to encourage EU policy makers to take a courageous and admirable step by incorporating this position into the imminent Council Conclusions on the post 2015 Framework.

Caritas Europa is a network of 49 Caritas organizations working on the ground in 46 European countries, as well as in developing countries across the globe. They address the challenges being faced by those who are vulnerable on a daily basis. Caritas organizations are present and active in every country in Europe, with well-developed national and local structures directed at assisting the poor.

Caritas’ social volunteers and employees contribute actively to human rights in their daily work; by delivering food to the poor, offering shelters, or by assisting migrants and refugees.

• Food produced in the world is enough to feed everyone and yet over 800 million people go hungry. This is a global scandal.
• Caritas envisages a future without hunger. The key to achieving this is through assuring and implementing the right to adequate and nutritious food which is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• As one confederation (164 organizations globally) Caritas will work together to end hunger by 2025.
• The first Millennium Development Goal is to eliminate hunger and poverty. The Caritas confederation wants to put its collective power and good will, and join with many other organizations to contribute to the post-2015 Development Process and bring an end to the suffering of millions of hungry people around the world.
• The campaign ‘One Human Family – Food for all’ is about food because it is essential to living a dignified life. The campaign is launched on 10^th December, Human Rights Day, because the campaign is based around the ‘Right to Food’.

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