The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has expressed concern that overlapping crises have been undermining food security, food systems and nutrition worldwide. It strongly condemned “the use of starvation as a method of warfare”, the unlawful denial of humanitarian access, and attacks on assets indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, in particular agricultural and food infrastructure.
It highlighted the consequences of the Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine for the food security of the Ukrainian population as well as of the rest of the world, given that Russian attacks against Ukrainian port and agricultural infrastructure disrupt exports. The parliamentarians are also concerned about the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the fact that the majority of the population is facing “high levels of acute food insecurity”.
International law on access to food must be applied
In a resolution adopted on the basis of the report by Larysa Bilozir (Ukraine, ALDE), the Parliamentary Assembly called on member states to ensure the full incorporation and effective implementation within national legislation “of the international-humanitarian-law prohibition against the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”, and to strengthen the protection of humanitarian access and food-supply corridors in situations of armed conflict.
In order to improve the resilience of food systems globally, the Parliamentary Assembly has recommended reinforcing public mechanisms for regulating agricultural markets – through the establishment of food reserves – and reducing strategic dependencies and the concentration of supply chains.
Finally, the Parliamentary Assembly has proposed measures to strengthen the national resilience of food systems, through a balanced food market between local supply chains and exports, by supporting small-hold farmers and by promoting systems based on crop diversification, in order to strengthen food sustainability and societies’ capacity to cope with future crises.
