[Eymir Albal is a Ph.D. candidate at İstanbul University. She works as a research assistant at Özyeğin University.] The problem of hunger, which has increased rapidly in recent years, has become much more serious since COVID-19. Since 2014, the gains in reducing this problem have started to decline. Criticism and concerns about the existing food systems have increased, set against the backdrop of...
[Emanuela Chiara Gillard is a Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict and an Associate Fellow, International Law Programme, Chatham House.] Many of the contributions to this symposium have -rightly – focused on practices by belligerents that deliberately cause starvation of civilians. The debate must not overlook a different set of measures adopted by the international community and states unilaterally that also contribute to starvation or...
[Jared Miller is a Ph.D. Candidate at The Fletcher School at Tufts University focusing on governance, peacebuilding, and anti-corruption in Nigeria.] “By the time a famine is declared, it’s too late. . . it means people are already dying of hunger”World Food Programme, 4 May 2021 Introduction In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari appeared on the BBC and declared a ‘technical victory’ over Boko Haram, yet six...
[Chris Newton previously worked in South Sudan with several humanitarian organizations, including most recently the United Nations World Food Programme, and is currently a master’s student at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.] Humanitarian famine early warning and United Nations Security Council Resolution 2417 on armed conflict and hunger share a gap – famine caused by armed conflict in...
[Yousuf Syed Khan serves as the Legal/Reporting Officer with the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, and previously served as the Reporting Officer/Analyst with the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic.] Introduction On 24 May 2018, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2417, recognising explicitly the link between conflict and hunger, and acknowledging and condemning – for...
[Brian Lander and Rebecca Vetharaniam Richards work for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), respectively as Deputy Director of the Emergency Division and Chief of Emergencies & Transitions Programme & Policy. The views stated in the article are those of the authors. (brian.lander@wfp.org; rebecca.richards@wfp.org)] When Security Council resolution 2417 was adopted in May 2018, WFP and other food security actors were taken...
[Global Rights Compliance (GRC) is a niche organisation that specialises in legal services associated with violations of international law. For more on GRC’s work on conflict and hunger, see here. For more on GRC’s accountability work, click here.] Three years ago, the UN Security Council Resolution 2417 (UNSC 2417) recognised for the first time the intrinsic link between hunger and conflict. This landmark resolution condemns the...
[Alex de Waal is the Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation. His expertise on famines, both scholarly and in practice, focuses on Sudan and the Horn of Africa.] Tigray, Ethiopia, is a test case for United Nations Security Council resolution 2417 (2417). The United Nations has failed that test. Today, between 4.5 million and 5.2 million people of Tigray’s total population of 5.7 million...
[Ali Jameel is an Accountability and Redress Officer at Mwatana for Human Rights and Niku Jafarnia is a Legal Fellow at Mwatana for Human Rights. Mwatana for Human Rights, established in 2007, is an independent Yemeni civil society organization that advocates for human rights through the documentation of civilian harm, the provision of legal support to victims and through advocacy...
[Global Rights Compliance (GRC) is a niche organisation that specialises in legal services associated with violations of international law. For more on GRC’s work on conflict and hunger, see here. For more on GRC’s accountability work, click here.] The looming famines in up to three dozen countries have two things in common, “they are primarily driven by conflict, and they are entirely preventable.”World Food Programme Introduction 24...