Resolution adopted by the General Assembly  [on the report of the Third Committee (A/56/583/Add.2)]  56/155.   The right to food        The General Assembly,     Recalling all Commission on Human Rights resolutions in this regard, in particular  resolution 2000/10 of 17 April 2000,1 and taking note of Commission resolution  2001/25 of 20 April 2001,2    Recalling also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,3 which provides that  everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for her/his health and well-being,  including food,    Recalling further the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic,  Social and Cultural Rights,4 in which the fundamental right of every person to be free  from hunger is recognized,    Recalling the Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and  Malnutrition,5    Bearing in mind the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the Plan of  Action of the World Food Summit,6    Reaffirming that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and  interrelated,    Recognizing that the problems of hunger and food insecurity have global  dimensions and that they are likely to persist and even to increase dramatically in some  regions unless urgent, determined and concerted action is taken, given the anticipated  increase in the world’s population and the stress on natural resources,  _______________  1 See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2000, Supplement No. 3 and corrigendum  (E/2000/23 and Corr.1), chap. II, sect. A.  2 Ibid., 2001, Supplement No. 3 (E/2001/23), chap. II, sect. A.  3 Resolution 217 A (III).  4 See resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex.  5 Report of the World Food Conference, Rome, 5–16 November 1974 (United Nations publication, Sales  No. E.75.II.A.3), chap. I.  6 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Report of the World Food Summit,   13–17 November 1996 (WFS 96/REP), part one, appendix.   A/RES/56/155    2    Reaffirming that a peaceful, stable and enabling political, social and economic  environment, at both the national and the international level, is the essential foundation  which will enable States to give adequate priority to food security and poverty  eradication,    Reiterating, as did the Rome Declaration, that food should not be used as an  instrument of political or economic pressure, and reaffirming in this regard the  importance of international cooperation and solidarity, as well as the necessity of  refraining from unilateral measures that are not in accordance with international law and  the Charter of the United Nations and that endanger food security,    Convinced that each State must adopt a strategy consistent with its resources and  capacities to achieve its individual goals in implementing the recommendations contained  in the Rome Declaration and Plan of Action of the World Food Summit and, at the same  time, cooperate regionally and internationally in order to organize collective solutions to  global issues of food security in a world of increasingly interlinked institutions, societies  and economies where coordinated efforts and shared responsibilities are essential,    Stressing the importance of reversing the continuing decline of official  development assistance devoted to agriculture, both in real terms and as a share of total  official development assistance,    1.  Reaffirms that hunger constitutes an outrage and a violation of human  dignity and therefore requires the adoption of urgent measures at the national, regional  and international levels for its elimination;    2.  Also reaffirms the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious  food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to  be free from hunger so as to be able fully to develop and maintain their physical and  mental capacities;    3.  Considers it intolerable that 826 million people, most of them women and  children, throughout the world and particularly in developing countries, do not have  enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs, which infringes upon their  fundamental human rights and at the same time can generate additional pressures on the  environment in ecologically fragile areas;    4.  Encourages all States to take steps with a view to achieving progressively  the full realization of the right to food, including steps to promote the conditions for  everyone to be free from hunger and, as soon as possible, to enjoy fully the right to  food, and to elaborate and adopt national plans to combat hunger;    5.  Stresses the need to make efforts to mobilize and optimize the allocation and  utilization of technical and financial resources from all sources, including external debt  relief for developing countries, and to reinforce national actions to implement  sustainable food security policies;    6.  Urges States to give adequate priority in their development strategies and  expenditures to the realization of the right to food;    7.  Takes note of the report of the United Nations Children’s Fund on early  childhood entitled The State of the World’s Children, 2001,7 and in this context recalls that  the nurturing of young children merits the highest priority;    8.  Takes note with appreciation of the preliminary report of the Special  Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the right to food,8 submitted in  _______________  7 United Nations publication, Sales No. E.01.XX.1.  8 See A/56/210.   A/RES/56/155    3  accordance with Commission resolution 2001/25, and commends the Special  Rapporteur for his valuable work in the promotion of the right to food;     9.  Supports the realization of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur as  established by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolutions 2000/10 and 2001/25;    10.  Emphasizes the request of the Commission on Human Rights to the Special  Rapporteur to contribute effectively to the medium-term review of the implementation  of the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the Plan of Action of the World  Food Summit6 by submitting to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human  Rights his recommendations on all aspects of the right to food;    11.  Encourages the Special Rapporteur to mainstream a gender perspective in  the activities relating to his mandate;    12.  Requests the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner to provide all  the necessary human and financial resources for the effective fulfilment of the mandate  of the Special Rapporteur;    13.  Welcomes the work already done by the Committee on Economic, Social and  Cultural Rights in promoting the right to adequate food, in particular its General  Comment No. 12 (1999) on the right to adequate food (article 11 of the International  Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), in which the Committee affirmed,  inter alia, that the right to adequate food is indivisibly linked to the inherent dignity of  the human person and is indispensable for the fulfilment of other human rights  enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights, and is also inseparable from social  justice, requiring the adoption of appropriate economic, environmental and social  policies, at both the national and international levels, oriented to the eradication of  poverty and the fulfilment of all human rights for all;9    14.  Also welcomes the convening by the High Commissioner at Bonn, from 12  to 14 March 2001, of the Third Expert Consultation on the Right to Food, with a focus  on implementation mechanisms at the country level, hosted by the Government of  Germany, and takes note with interest of the report of this meeting;10     15.  Supports the recommendation that the High Commissioner organize a fourth  expert consultation on the right to food, with a focus on the realization of this right as part  of strategies and policies for the eradication of poverty, inviting experts from all regions;    16.  Requests the Special Rapporteur to submit a comprehensive report to the  Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-eighth session and an interim report to the General  Assembly at its fifty-seventh session on the implementation of the present resolution;    17.  Invites Governments, relevant United Nations agencies, funds and  programmes, treaty bodies and non-governmental organizations to cooperate fully with the  Special Rapporteur in the fulfilment of his mandate, inter alia, through the submission of  comments and suggestions on ways and means of realizing the right to food;    18.  Decides to continue the consideration of this matter at its fifty-seventh  session under the agenda item entitled “Human rights questions”.    88th plenary meeting  19 December 2001  _______________  9 Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2000, Supplement No. 2 and corrigendum  (E/2000/22 and Corr.1), annex V, para. 4.  10 E/CN.4/2001/148.