Global Rights Compliance was proud to co-sponsor with the Governments of Canada, Ireland, Netherlands and the United States, together with WFP, FAO, the Global Network Against Food Crises, Action Against Hunger, CARE, World Vision, Concern Worldwide, Save the Children, the only side event during the Protection of Civilians week at the UN focusing on the growing impacts of conflict on food systems and food security.
The event offered perspectives from different conflict-affected areas and provided insights into potential measures that Member States, and other relevant stakeholders can take to prevent and mitigate the impact of conflict on food security. The event further acknowledged conflict and hunger’s disproportionate impact on women, children, persons with disabilities and other marginalised groups, and demonstrated why these groups must be put at the centre of our collective efforts to prevent and respond to conflict-induced hunger.
The event was moderated by award-winning foreign correspondent, Jane Ferguson[1] and featured the following panelists:
- Ms. Yasmin, an 18-year-old Yemeni woman who was formerly a child campaigner for Save the Children
- Mr. Hajir Maalim, Regional Director for the Horn of Africa for Action Against Hunger
- Ms. Catriona Murdoch, Partner for Global Rights Compliance
- Ms. Reka Sztopa, Regional Director for Francophone Africa for Concern Worldwide
During the event Jane Ferguson asked GRC Partner, Catriona Murdoch to elaborate on the impact of conflict on the right to food and access to indispensable items and the challenges faced by those who have bravely spoken during the event.
I [Jane] have some experience of witnessing that impact and the indignities and suffering these tactics causes. There is once again a renewed momentum around conflict and hunger, what action can we take to harness this collectively and utilise UNSC resolution 2417?
Catriona Murdoch – Partner Global Rights Compliance
For many of the sponsors of this event and colleagues involved in its organisation – the perennial question since 2018 when UNSC 2417 was unanimously passed– has been how to utilise and implement that resolution. A question which Global Rights Compliance has actively sought to address over the last 4 years.
There have been strong calls made last week and earlier in the month before the UNSC by states around the world – calls to do things differently – heed the red flags in countless countries where starvation is being used as a method of warfare against civilian populations – and a clear call to pursue accountability when the law of war is flagrantly disregarded. Now is the right moment to seize this issue collectively.
A call perhaps for lawfare to meet warfare.
GRC have consistently urged for a variety of steps to respond both preventatively and where necessary punitively.
The ultimate aim of our work with our partners is to render starvation morally toxic. There is much that can be done individually and collectively to achieve this. I will raise three concrete steps that we can do today to harness the current momentum.
1. Call it Out – Increase literacy on deliberate starvation
Significantly, through the leadership and determination of the Netherlands, the landmark resolution UNSC 2417 shifted the debate on conflict and hunger where it needed to go, into the arena of peace and security, where the UNSC now has a mandate to act.
Yet there remains an urgent need to increase literacy around the notion of starvation violations – across a range of sectors – from police, immigration departments, war crimes units, forensic analysts, OSINT experts, journalists, courts and tribunals, investigators and within humanitarian agencies. Capacity building is key to achieve this.
It is critical to identify this violation and call it out loudly when we see or suspect it.
2. Investigations
UNSC 2417 calls specifically for investigations and so did last week’s POC report (para 87). GRC has trained investigators, and a wide range of other practitioners, and continues to encourage those with an investigative mandate to ensure that starvation is considered in any investigative planning. There has been a measurable increase in reporting on this issue and we note the increased coverage of the issue in last week’s annual POC report.
But more is needed – each new commission of inquiry or fact-finding mission must assess the relevance of this crime in their investigations, as they would with SGBV. It is time for a gender lens to be reinforced by a starvation lens – for as we have heard from our speakers today – it is women who suffer the most.
Independent investigations are essential – and will immeasurably strengthen the reporting and range of responses available to the council and its members. GRC strongly support the recent calls made by the US and the Netherlands to increase the reporting to two White Papers per year. There is nothing within the resolution to prevent this and moreover, it would maintain momentum and awareness preventatively rather than reactively has we have seen. Critically though the content of this reporting mandated by the resolution must also be strengthened – independent investigations is the answer here. This approach can alleviate the pressure on humanitarian actors and agencies to supply this information which can sit at odds with their mandates.
We have conducted numerous investigations over the past 4 years – from Tigray to Yemen, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and now of course Ukraine. A pattern emerges in all – shame. Shame from the array of undignified and shameful acts that range from: poverty and the inability to feed ones family or pay for transportation to feeding centres, maternal deficiencies, to negative coping mechanisms like child marriages or looting. The utter anguish of choosing which child to feed and which to let starve cannot be underestimated.
This point was raised by Alex de Waal for the first time before an international court in the current ICC Darfur case (Prosecutor v. Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman (“Ali Kushayb”).
It is critical we recognise this is a violation worthy of attention and to highlight, when appropriate, this conduct as a deliberate act, not a personal failing. Labelling it separately from other crimes is key.
3. Accountability
Given the prevalence of starvation in current conflicts, it needs to become part and parcel of international criminal law investigations and prosecutions.
An international criminal prosecution for the crime of starvation, whilst long overdue, is not the panacea. We must look at the full suite of tools (legal or advocacy-based) available, including domestic prosecutions, universal jurisdiction claims, claims before relevant UN Treaty Bodies, international human rights law (IHRL) litigation, investigative bodies and transitional justice tools.
Focal Point on UNSC 2417
Above all, GRC remains of the view that in order to implement UNSC 2417, and some of the asks being raised today – a designated 2417 focal point is urgently needed. A mandate not folded into the SR for Food or the Special Adviser on Access – but a stand-alone focal point to lead and coordinate reporting on conflict and starvation and harness sustainably and seriously the need to be seized of this matter.
GRC have consistently championed the need for this since 2019, a move that was also recommended by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fahkri, during the UNSC Arria-Formula meeting on Conflict and Hunger on 21 April 2022 and Albania in last week’s open-debate. Without such a mandate holder, this momentum will pass, as it did 2 years ago, and once more conflict and hunger and the violent legacy it leaves, will be forgotten.
A designated focal point is essential for clear and effective leadership on this issue. It would ensure a meaningful, safe, and centralised coordination on data-gathering and reporting across diverse stakeholders, including the various entities working on food security and humanitarian aid, the Group of Friends (GOF) for Action on Conflict and Hunger, the High-Level Task Force on Famine (HLTF) and member states active on, and supportive of, this agenda.
Our tacit tolerance of weaponised starvation must now end. The evidence is in our faces; the law is in our hands; only the public clamour and political leadership is lacking. Starvation crimes should be put in their rightful place at the head of the list of acts of inhumanity so reprehensible that they are prohibited without question.
To see the full recording of the virtual event, please click here.
[1] Jane is a Polk, Emmy and DuPont award-winning foreign correspondent for PBS NewsHour, contributor to The New Yorker, and 2020 McGraw Professor of journalism at Princeton University, with over thirteen years of experience living in the Middle East and reporting from the Arab world, Africa and South Asia. Her work focuses on US foreign policy and defense, conflict, diplomacy, and human rights. With an emphasis on in-depth, magazine length broadcasting, Jane’s reporting is characterized by exclusive, ground-breaking access, thoughtful storytelling and character-driven reporting. She is now based in New York City. https://www.journalistjaneferguson.com/.