A/HRC/2/8 page 7 necessary for subsistence production (see A/56/210 and E/CN.4/2003/54), there is also a minimum obligation to refrain from restricting access to water or the destruction of water infrastructure. The right to food also obliged Governments to ensure that any individual or group affected by the war and without access to productive resources will have access to humanitarian assistance. 10. As outlined in the report of the Special Rapporteur to the Commission on Human Rights in 2002 (E/CN.4/2002/58) in a chapter on the right to food in armed conflict, there are a range of provisions contained in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and in the Additional Protocols of 1977 that are particularly relevant to the protection of the right to food. International humanitarian law aims primarily to protect persons not taking or no longer taking part in hostilities, such as civilian populations, and one of its basic principles is that parties to an armed conflict must at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives, and direct attacks only against military objectives. One of its core rules is that indiscriminate attacks are strictly prohibited. Accordingly, one of its most important provisions is article 54, paragraph 2, of the Additional Protocol I which establishes that: “It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works…” 11. Parties to the conflict are therefore prohibited from attacking not only civilians, but also the infrastructure for food, water and agricultural production that is necessary to their survival. Failing to respect this obligation would constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law and a war crime.4 The destruction of drinking water installations would be particularly problematic, but the systematic destruction of roads, bridges, ports and food factories, even if perceived on one side as military objectives, would also be prohibited and may also constitute a war crime if it causes excessive loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects, or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment.5 12. International humanitarian law also limits the right of the parties to a conflict to choose methods or means of warfare, including by prohibiting parties to employ weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering. It follows that using cluster munitions in populated civilian areas, given the injuries and suffering that it will cause and given the effects that do not discriminate between military and civilian objectives, is likely to result in many violations of international humanitarian law. The dispersal of unexploded bomblets from cluster bombs also raises other serious concerns, not only as to their immediate affects on civilian life, but also in relation to the after-effects in terms of damage to agricultural fields, as well as life and civilian infrastructure. 13. International humanitarian law also contains many rules that protect the right to food for populations caught in armed conflict. These rules cover both the rights of affected civilians to receive aid and the rights of humanitarian agencies to deliver it. According to articles 70 and 71 of Additional Protocol I, the parties to an armed conflict shall allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of all relief consignments, equipment and personnel. They must encourage and facilitate effective international coordination of the relief actions and ensure the safety of medical and humanitarian personnel. States must facilitate and protect these operations, and must