Article by PBI-Canada

On March 2, Peace Brigades International spoke at the Human Rights Council in response to the presentation made by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food.

UN Special Rapporteur Michael Fakhri noted that the world had been falling behind on fully realizing the right to food even before the current pandemic, which had laid bare the inequities of the food system and accelerated this trend.

Adam Lunn of PBI-United Kingdom stated: “PBI welcomes the presentation of the Rapporteur’s report, in particular the recommendations aimed at guaranteeing and protecting access to and tenure of land, as well as ensuring a moratorium on evictions in this context of exceptionality marked by the pandemic.”

He added: “In Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras, mostly rural countries and, with a marked inequality in land tenure, the percentage of people suffering from malnutrition and hunger is soaring and constantly increasing.”

And Lunn highlighted: “The governments of these countries have continued to favor the expansion of the agribusiness, logging, and the promotion of extractive projects. Far from solving the famine, this has led to an increase in militarization, evictions, attacks, and criminalization of people who defend land and territory in these countries.”

The full presentation can be read here.

The video of Lunn’s presentation can be found here (at the 1 hour 52 minutes mark).

Lunn’s presentation is also noted (in Spanish) on the PBI-Guatemala website.