Nearly twenty years later the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (1966) developed the concept more fully specifying "the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger."
But what does this imply? How can it be realised? Setting targets does help to achieve results.
The goal of cutting by half the number of hungry people was adopted at the World Food Summit in 1996 and stated again in the Millennium Development Goals.
Yet we all know that progress is painfully slow. What is lacking is political will.
Many nations have made verbal commitments to fight hunger but few have done enough and on the scale required.
Nations must turn verbal commitments into practical programs that address the actual causes of hunger.
NGOs and civil society need to raise the political will and the financial resources to end hunger in our World.
Our participation in the Hunger Awareness Campaign in the coming year affords us the opportunity to enter into this process in a focused way.
We are encouraged by the number of countries in the past year that have boldly put the fight against hunger at the forefront of national priorities. e g. Brazil, Sierra Leone.
Many other countries have also signalled their determination to address hunger on a national scale including Colombia, Kenya, Mozambique, Peru, and Indonesia.
Hunger can be eradicated if we have the determination and will. We do not have a lot of time!
We must find the way to reduce poverty and to guarantee for all humankind their most basic human right-to be free of hunger - ARISE TO THE CHALLENGE.
This was written by Sister Irene Bailey, the Peace and Justice Coordinator for the International Secretariat for Justice and Peace of the Little Sisters of the Assumption, a congregation associated with the work of the Augustinian NGO (Non-Government Organisation) at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York. ID0987
