Commentary. Food and Nutrition 2005: The Human Rights Perspective

Abstract

Governments have failed to tackle malnutrition successfully. Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) are supposed to behave differently. Few NGOs, however, have been able to affect the human rights violations behind the malnutrition suffered by millions of losers under globalization and NGOs should be working to reverse this process. Nevertheless, there is now recognition of the political roots of violations of the right to adequate food and nutrition. These are now rightly understood in terms of powerlessness. Putting our energies on top-down interventions does not promote people's rights, and apathy towards these issues turns our work stagnant. Poverty, ill health, and malnutrition represent a denial of human rights on a massive scale. Should this fact not make a difference in the way we work?

Keywords:

• Nutrition
• human rights
• poverty
• globalization
• non-government organizations

Acknowledgments

See www.humaninfo.org/aviva under No. 69.