By Prensa Latina,
Paris : The new UN Food Rights Special Reporter Oliver de Schutter criticized the International Monetary Fund and the western countries because they have turned their back on development of the rest of the world.
Belgium International Law teacher and researcher of Louvain’s Catholic University, De Schutter has substituted the Swiss Jean Ziegler, who fulfilled a long term of office in this UN sphere.
The expert told French Le Monde evening newspaper the current food crisis was “unforgivable, a result of 20 years of mistakes and omission” of agricultural support that developing countries should have received.
He said that especially financial institutions like the IMF, seriously “underestimated the need to invest in agriculture” and made the so called Third World vulnerable to price volatility.
De Schutter called irresponsible the selfish objectives set by the United States and the European Union for biofuel production, an issue that Ziegler recently considered a “crime against humanity.”
He announced that he would call to a session on the issue in the heart of the UN Human Rights Council.
The riots due to hunger are a call to order, and we have to think that the age of cheap food has already been left behind, he said.
He called to freeze all investments on biofuels, and highlighted that he would promote equality of economic and social rights with the civil and political rights at the UN Human Rights Council.
“We cannot talk about human rights if we forget the right to food,” he said.