Right to food / Right to safe drinking water and sanitation
Food is a basic human need and one of the most important determinants of health; accessibility, availability, adequacy and sustainability of food are key elements for the fulfilment of the right to food for every human being. Proper nutrition is important for growth, development and good health at every stage of human life from conception, childhood, adolescence, to adulthood and older age. Special needs related to nutritional requirements for pregnant/lactating women are of paramount importance both for the mother and the newborn.
Figures regarding malnutrition are astonishing and deserve action at all levels otherwise the Goal to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 will remain a empty promise. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine have deeply impacted nutrition worldwide, through for example disrupting food chains, hindering agriculture processes, slowing down economies with consequences on household food security. These events will have long lasting disastrous consequences on the growth and development of children, especially among most vulnerable populations.
As food, water is a basic human need. Water is life and is indispensable for integral human development. It is strictly linked to other rights such as the right to health and the right to life. In his encyclical “Laudato Si”, Pope Francis reminded us: “…. access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights. Our world has a grave social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity.”
Yet billions of people are denied this fundamental right, and the COVID-19 pandemic has on one side shown the importance of access to water and on the other has made this access even more difficult in some part of the world. While continuing its programs at grass root level to fight malnutrition and facilitate access to water and sanitation, APG23 advocates for the right to food and water and sanitation as a priority also at UN level.
