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Committee on World Food Security: Türk calls hunger an avoidable tragedy in a world of plenty

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At the Committee on World Food Security in Rome on 19 October 2026, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said more than a quarter of humanity struggles to get enough food even though the world produces enough for everyone, UN News reported. He blamed injustice and the denial of human rights for hunger in a world of plenty.

Committee on World Food Security: Emergency food supplies are distributed in Lahj, Yemen, a major displacement hotspot
Emergency food supplies are distributed in Lahj, Yemen, a major displacement hotspot Photo: WFP/Sara Cuevas Gallardo via UN News (editorial use with credit).

What Türk told the Committee on World Food Security

The right to food is written into treaties and laws, but “for too many people, it has yet to find its way onto their dinner plates”, Türk said. 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,” he said. Households alone throw away more than one billion meals every day, he noted, and 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.

Key Facts

  • Venue: Committee on World Food Security, Rome, 19 Oct 2026
  • Food supply: more than 3,000 calories per person per day
  • Meals wasted by households: over 1 billion a day
  • Catastrophic hunger: 1.4 million people in six countries
  • Acute hunger: 266 million people

“Too much of that abundance is swallowed up by injustice and the denial of human rights.”

— Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Acute hunger driven by conflict

Conflict is driving acute hunger in 12 of the 13 current hunger hotspots, Türk said, with restrictions on 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 farm policies that reduce poverty, along with fair 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.

Starvation as a weapon of war worries new rapporteur

Addressing the committee for the first time as UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Sofía Monsalve Suárez said what concerned her most was the rapid rise in famine and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. Chronic hunger declined in 2025, but 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 face acute hunger every day, in places including Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen and 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, calling for stronger accountability and better early warning between the Security Council, the committee, the human rights system and food security monitors.

Why It Matters: The figures show hunger is now mostly a problem of conflict, access and fairness rather than food supply. That shifts pressure onto governments and warring parties.

Also on TrendDesh: Afghanistan hunger hits record: 15.9 million face acute food insecurity, 19.2 million by winter · International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2026: UN says 2.8 billion people lack adequate housing

Source: UN News, 19 Oct 2026 · Committee on World Food Security (CFS)

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