New York - On World Food Day, an internationally recognized day of awareness about hunger, the Center for Economic and Social Rights, a human rights organization based in New York City, warns that that the September 11 attacks and the subsequent US response will risk exacerbating hunger within the United States.
An already alarming increase in hunger among the poor in the United States, particularly children, threatens to spread in light of the failure of the U.S. government to focus on the need for social support after the events of Sept. 11th. The government’s economic stimulus plan targets large corporations to the exclusion of individual families facing increasing need. Thus, American families face an increasingly insecure economic future with little or no safety net provided by the government. Unlike their European or Canadian counterparts -– and despite international human rights standards to the contrary -- under current U.S. law and policy Americans cannot depend on their government to provide even the most fundamental needs during times of economic crises. Food is a prime example of a fundamental human right at significant risk.
In 1999, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture at least 10% of Americans faced food insecurity, 12 million of whom children, and 3.1 million of whom faced actual hunger. In 2000, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors there was a 17% increase in requests for emergency food relief indicating that food insecurity and hunger have been steadily increasing. Despite existing food insecurity and hunger, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture 4 out of 10 Americans eligible for food stamps are not receiving them. Many eligible Americans are not aware of their legal ability to collect food stamps, a significant number, however, have been illegally diverted from the program as part of sweeping welfare reform. For example, after welfare reform took hold in New York City, Mayor Guliani stated that “_USDA has been insisting that the city is obligated to follow outdated regulations that requires cities to 'encourage' individuals to apply for food stamps on the first day they visit a public assistance office. This is inconsistent with federal welfare reform, and it sends exactly the wrong message._” Subsequently, in 1999 pursuant to a federal investigation and complaint a federal court found in Reynolds vs. Giuliani that New York city had illegally diverted hungry New Yorkers from the federal food stamp program. These diversion policies where implemented by state and local governments all over the country, and may come back to haunt the nation in light of new economic realities. Thus, the September 11th attacks occurred in the context of an already significant problem of food insecurity, growing hostility and a purposeful undermining of social service programs such as Food Stamps, as well as a weakening economy. The accelerated economic down-turn triggered by the attacks poses even greater threats to basic economic rights – such as the right to food -- for increasing number of Americans.
One of the tragic casualties of the September 11th attacks has been the privately run emergency food bank system. Emergency food banks have become the last chance at avoiding hunger for many Americans. Since food banks supply are not guaranteed by government or any other source, however, they have been severely depleted due to the diversion of funds to disaster relief efforts. Government action thus far in the face of this growing economic human rights crises has been wholly inadequate. According to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, “The right to food means that every man, woman and child, alone and in community with others, must have physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.” Yet, Catherine Albisa, the U.S. program coordinator for CESR states that in the United States “_Government failure to act to protect the right to food in light of a national emergency which has diverted funds from what has become the last hope for food for many -- the food bank system, an extremely weakened social support system due to trends such as welfare reform, and a downturn in an already unstable economy with rising unemployment threatens to dramatically increase the scale of food insecurity and hunger. We risk countless victims waking up in the coming months facing hunger without anywhere to turn for help in feeding their families._”
On World Food Day, the Center for Economic and Social Rights calls on the United States to take the appropriate steps to ensure all American’s fundamental human right to food. The Center for Economic and Social Rights also calls on the United States to ratify to key human rights treaties protecting the right to food: the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, currently ratified by 142 countries-including every other major industrialized nation, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by 191 countries including all United Nations members except the United States and Somalia.
Center for Economic & Social Rights
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