Statement by
H.E. Mr. Majid Takht Ravanchi
Ambassador and Permanent Representative
of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
Before the United Nations Security Council
On “Conflict and Food Security”
New York, 11 March 2021
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Madam President,
According to “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020” report, currently, almost 690 million people, representing 8.9 percent of the world population, “are hungry”. It is “up by 10 million people in one year and by nearly 60 million in five years”.
The number of people affected by “severe food insecurity” shows a similar upward trend. Likewise, “the COVID-19 pandemic may add between 83 and 132 million people to the total number of undernourished in the world”.
These alarming facts indicate that we are back to 2015 hunger levels and are far from achieving zero hunger by 2030. This trend also underlines the necessity and urgency of addressing food insecurity.
To that end, the general rule must be to ensure the realization of the right to food for everyone everywhere and at all times, in peace and war alike. As the 1974 Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition stated, “to be free from hunger and malnutrition” is an “inalienable right”.
The full realization of this right requires a comprehensive approach and decisive action at national and international levels, particularly by focusing on addressing all underlying causes of food insecurity, as well as coherent international cooperation and assistance.
Accordingly, States, that have the primary responsibility for their own socioeconomic development, must take all necessary measures to “respect, protect and fulfil the right to food” at national level. To succeed, efforts to ensure national food security must be supported by an enabling international environment.
This essential role of international cooperation is recognized in numerous international instruments, including in Articles 1(3), 55 and 56 of the United Nations Charter. Therefore, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council as well as the relevant bodies and specialized agencies of the United Nations system must redouble their efforts to that end.
Equally, the conflict-driven acute food insecurity should be considered by the Security Council, through urging all parties to conflicts for strict compliance with international humanitarian law, which inter alia protects the access of civilians to food during armed conflicts and occupation and prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. It is to be emphasized that when applying sanctions under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Security Council should not, under any circumstances, impose sanctions, directly or indirectly, on humanitarian trade particularly food and medicine.
In this context, nothing is more urgent than the immediate removal of the inhumane blockade imposed against the people of Yemen, causing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in contemporary history. Likewise, the unlawful blockade on Gaza that is seriously hampering the right to food of the oppressed Palestinian people must be removed forthwith.
One of the main factors hampering the full realization of the right to food, in peace times and conflict situations, is the application of sanctions. As a tool for the collective punishment of an entire nation, sanctions violate all human rights of targeted nations including their right to food, causing food insecurity.
By any measures, unilateral coercive measures including sanctions are inhumane, immoral and unlawful, and due to their broad, devastating and long-term implications, are as brutal as terrorism and as criminal as such core international crimes as war crimes and crimes against humanity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, sanctions are insult to injury of the targeted nations.
In this context, the U.S. sanctions on Iran have seriously restricted our access to humanitarian goods, including food, medicine and medical equipment and inhibited our ability to fight COVID-19 more effectively. Indeed, in these trying times, nothing is more humanistic than confronting policies like weaponizing humanitarian items particularly medicine and food.
As the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States declared “No State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State”. Accordingly, all States must refrain from taking measures, which, inter alia, undermine the enjoyment of the right to food in other countries.
In 2002, in “Declaration of the World Food Summit: Five Years Later”, the world leaders reiterated that “food should not be used as an instrument for political and economic pressure” and reaffirmed the “necessity of refraining from unilateral measures … that endanger food security”. The immediate removal of sanctions must therefore be considered as a main element in efforts to address food insecurity.
No less important is the promotion of international cooperation and assistance to address food insecurity. In Article 11(2) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, States have recognized “the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger” and have undertaken to “take, individually and through international cooperation”, the measures needed for the full realization of, inter alia, the right to food.
Last but not least, as stated in the Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition, “society today already possesses sufficient resources, organizational ability and technology and hence the competence” to eradicate hunger. Accordingly, the full realization of the “inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition” and ensuring the key elements of food security, namely, the availability, accessibility, adequacy and sustainability, hinges upon the full and effective compliance of all States with their respective obligations, particularly strict observance of the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
I thank you, Madam President.