COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-eighth session
Item 10 of the provisional agenda
The right to food
Report by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Mr.
Jean Ziegler,
submitted in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 2001/25
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[Extracts on Myanmar. Full report on http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/832c9dd3b2f32e68c1256b970054dc89?Opendocument
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3. Myanmar
106. The Special Rapporteur must also report that he had received allegations in relation to Myanmar. These allegations documented gross violations of the right to food by the Government. They concerned the use of food as a political weapon and method of warfare against insurgents and civilian populations. It was alleged that mass forced displacement and forced relocation of people have threatened food security. For example, according to information received from non-governmental organizations, since March 1996 the military had allegedly relocated by force from over 1,400 villages covering an area of over 7,000 square miles more than 300,000 people, who were ordered at gunpoint to move into strategic relocation sites. Reported malnutrition rates are extremely high in both war-affected areas of eastern Myanmar and peaceful areas, in particular the Karen, Karenni and Shan States, as well as the Delta region. Other alleged violations of humanitarian law included the deliberate destruction by government armed forces of staple crops and confiscation of food from civilians [See A/56/210 http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/569b727953a8c72bc1256ace0050d7d4?Opendocument para. 53 --[Original footnote 100: See ibid., para. 53.]128. The right to food must be protected also in times of war. This means that the right to food, as protected under international humanitarian law, must be respected. The use of starvation as a weapon of war, forced displacement of civilian populations and the destruction of their means of subsistence are prohibited. Special principles and rules also apply to the provision of humanitarian assistance, including food, in situations of armed conflict. It is fundamental that the principles of the neutrality, impartiality and strictly humanitarian motives of humanitarian assistance be respected if the credibility of humanitarian aid is to be preserved. As the recent conflict in Afghanistan has shown, the rules and principles of international humanitarian law must be respected in order to avoid violations of the right to food. Perpetrators of violations of the right to food such as those alleged in Afghanistan, the occupied Palestinian territories and Myanmar must be brought to account.
[Emphasis and elements in square brackets added]