More than a quarter of humanity struggles to get enough food, even though the world produces enough for everyone, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Monday, blaming injustice and the denial of human rights for hunger in a world of plenty.
Addressing the UN-hosted Committee on World Food Security in Rome, the High Commissioner said that while the right to food has found its way into treaties and laws, "for too many people, it has yet to find its way onto their dinner plates".
Global food supply now exceeds 3,000 calories per person per day - a historic high - yet hunger reduction has not kept pace.
"Too much of that abundance is swallowed up by injustice and the denial of human rights," Mr. Türk said.
Waste, inequality and war
Every day, households alone throw away more than one billion meals, he said.
Just one per cent of the world's farms operate more than 70 per cent of global farmland, while women farmers and Indigenous Peoples often lack government support and access to land.
Conflict is also driving acute hunger in 12 of the 13 current hunger hotspots, the High Commissioner said, with restrictions on humanitarian aid and attacks on aid workers "cutting off the last lifelines".
He called for a human rights economy built on social protection, fair taxation and agricultural policies that reduce poverty, as well as equitable access to land, water and seeds, and meaningful climate action.
"We must do our utmost to ensure the rules of war are upheld and hunger is never used as a method of warfare," he said.
Famine 'with impunity'
Addressing the Committee for the first time as the independent expert on the right food, UN Special Rapporteur Sofía Monsalve Suárez said the issue that concerned her most was the rapid increase in famine and the use of starvation as a weapon of war.
While chronic hunger declined in 2025, acute hunger has been rising steadily since 2016, she said.
Today, 1.4 million people in six countries face catastrophic conditions - nine times more than in 2016 - and 266 million people face acute hunger every day, in countries including Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Yemen, as well as in Gaza.
"The return of famine and the deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war is an unprecedented moral challenge for our generation. These crimes continue with impunity," she said.
Ms. Suárez called for a stronger framework for accountability and prevention, and better coordination between the Security Council , the Committee, the human rights system and food security monitors to improve early warning.
