10 December 2020, Rome - Today, 690 million people in the world are going hungry, and many more are exposed to severe food insecurity. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, 27 million people were facing famine.

Human Rights Day is marked today against this backdrop of heightened risk of food crisis. It focuses on putting people at the center of recovery efforts against COVID-19.

Food is a human right that should be recognized by any legal system. This means, in practice, that every person is entitled to this fundamental human right. In the last months, many governments and non-state actors have expressed strong support to ensure food is accessible to everyone, and not a privilege.

Food security widely depends on plant health. Plants make up over 80 percent of the food we eat and in many countries are the main livelihood source for many smallholder farmers. Not only that, over 98 percent of the oxygen we breathe is produced by plants.

Nevertheless, plant health is increasingly at risk, to a large extent because of pests and diseases. Every year up to 40 percent of global food crops, worth at least 220 billion USD in trade of agricultural products, are lost due to plant pests. This leaves the most vulnerable with not enough food to eat.

“Any plant, even if it is in a remote place and used for self-consumption, can be a potential target of pests in their way to spread and persist”, said Juan Carlos García y Cebolla, Right to Food Team Leader of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Investing in plant protection contributes to face the challenges that exacerbate food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition, and so preventing the risk of famine. This has to be done without leaving no one behind. Policy-makers and researchers should take into consideration the needs of small farmers, too. This means finding out the risks these groups face and understanding what kind of technology and techniques work for them, García y Cebolla added.

As human rights are universal and interdependent, progress or backwards steps on a set of human rights, makes it easier of more difficult to enjoy the others. “Protecting plants means protecting food, and therefore all human rights, including the human right to an adequate standard of living and to work” pointed out Avetik Nersisyan, the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Secretariat Officer-in-Charge of daily matters.

Your day, our day, everyone's day, the day we celebrate #HumanRightsDay!

Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December to commemorate the day when the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the starting point for the recognition of human rights standards and principles.

The 2030 Agenda with its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) urges the world to eliminate hunger and malnutrition through SDG 2 and its targets. The 17 SDGs are grounded in human rights and stress the importance of the progressive realization of the human right to adequate food for all.

IPPC and FAO Right to Food: consolidating efforts to fight against hunger

Last June, the IPPC Secretariat and the FAO Right to Food Team embarked for first time in collaboration. The alliance is an opportunity to promote a human rights-based approach for the achievement of food security and the establishment of sustainable food systems, with special regards to safe international trade of food and plant products.

The partnership is also framed within the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH), which was declared by the United General Assembly in 2020 to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment and boost economic development.

At the occasion of Human Rights Day, FAO and the IPPC Secretariat have produced a podcast with interviews to experts, social media cards and a video. These resources are available to everyone to help increase knowledge about the linkages between plant health and the right to adequate food.