THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE NUTRITION IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT

VATICAN CITY, MAY 30, 2001 (VIS) - Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Holy See permanent observer to the Rome-based United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, addressed the inaugural assembly of the 27th session of FAO's Intergovernmental Committee on Food Security, which is meeting from May 28 to June 1. The Rome meeting is in preparation for the "World Food Summit - Five Years Later" in November.

The archbishop focused his talk on the need to recognize that the right to adequate nutrition is a basic human right. He expressed the Holy See's enduring interest in the serious problems of hunger, malnutrition and food security, adding that this interest is based on "our evaluations of an ethical order, which is proper to the nature and mission of the Holy See." "Above all," he said, "we believe that the right to nutrition is fully an economic and social right."

Underscoring that hunger and malnutrition are contradictions in a world which is living through "unprecedented progress and development," Archbishop Marchetto said that it is up to national leaders - or intergovernmental institutions and international agencies when States fail in their duty - to act on these problems and to guarantee food security to both individuals and peoples.

The Holy See observer also underscored that improper nutrition - or a lack of food - is both a cause and effect of poverty. "In an efficacious action against poverty, the question of food security must be considered along with the more vast objectives of protection of the environment and therefore of the various ecosystems."

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