The Right to Food in Situations of Armed Conflict

Abstract

During situations of armed conflict, more people die directly from starvation and malnutrition than from bullets and bombs. Victims are almost inevitably young children, who are extremely susceptible to malnutrition and suffer most as food security is destroyed. Sometimes starvation is used as a political weapon, when crops are destroyed or poisoned and relief supplies are blocked. Sometimes populations are displaced from their homes with the explicit aim of depriving people of resources with which to feed themselves. Very often, vulnerable groups – women, children, prisoners of war, detainees – who have no means to feed themselves are left to starve.