The right to food - adequate to fulfil all dietary requirements - and to be able to feed oneself in dignity is a fundamental universal human right, enshrined in international law and applicable to all people in the world, regardless of race, nationality, gender, caste, age, sexuality, religion or any other differentiating feature. Sadly the latest figures for incidence of hunger and malnutrition worldwide show that this right is far from being a reality for a significant st proportion of the world's population. This is unacceptable in a 21 century world where enough food is being produced yet is not accessible to those who need it, while others get far more than their fair share or while large food stocks sit idle in centralised silos. It is the primary responsibility of individual states but also a duty of the international community to realise the right to food for all people worldwide; but currently, despite progress over the latter part of the last century, the world's population is still being failed.

A major reason why right-to-food violations continue to occur is the lack of accountability for such violations as compared to other human rights violations. Unless it reaches the extreme end of the scale: famine and death from starvation on a large scale, hunger is often a hidden issue. The 925 million people estimated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 2010 to be 'undernourished' are being denied their human right to food and yet are often ignored by their national governments and the international community.