A/HRC/16/40 the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights stressing the interdependence of indigenous peoples’ rights to land, to food and to life.56 47. Physical accessibility – part of the core content of the right to food – by persons with disabilities is insufficiently addressed by Governments. As underlined in comments on the Committee’s preliminary study,57 the perspective of accessibility changes according to the specific disability; the relevant measures for the realization of the right to food of people with disabilities ought to be appropriately implemented. In addition, elderly people with disabilities are often subjected to multiple forms of discrimination with regard to physical and economic accessibility and the particularities related to a changed nutrition regime. 48. Other groups vulnerable in the realization of their right to food may include elderly people, especially women, people living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic diseases, people deprived of their liberty and those living in conflict areas. IV. Anti-discriminatory policies and strategies A. Increased congruence of development efforts and trade with human rights law 49. The fact that nearly a billion people remain hungry even after the recent food and financial crises have largely passed indicates a deeper structural problem that gravely threatens the ability to achieve internationally agreed goals on hunger reduction. It is also evident that economic growth, while essential, will not be in itself sufficient to eliminate hunger within an acceptable period of time.58 50. The Special Rapporteur on the right to food59 and the joint statement made by the Chairpersons of the United Nations human rights treaty bodies (20-22 September 2010) provide the key to reading the above observation. In its current report, the Advisory Committee strongly supports the view that, in order to eradicate hunger and achieve other Millennium Development Goals, patterns of discrimination, which push certain groups into a circle of vulnerability, must be eliminated. Development efforts, including those of international organizations and United Nations agencies, must take a human rights approach and, in particular, use a right to food framework. Hence, national plans of action for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals must be guided by human rights, including the right to food and the principle of non-discrimination. Moreover, national strategies must go beyond the Goals and reflect the legal obligations that States have under international human rights treaties to realize all human rights for all. 51. Today’s web-like world cannot afford to act as if trade was insulated from development and both were dissociated from human rights. The world is governed by international law and congruence among branches of law must be sought – including trade, financial and human rights law – if the ultimate purpose is a world of equal opportunity. Proposals on regulating speculation in international food markets60 or trade negotiations 56 57 58 59 60 14 See Christophe Golay and Ioana Cismas, Legal Opinion on the Right to Property from a Human Rights Perspective (Montreal, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Rights and Democracy, 2010). Comments of El Salvador (6 July 2010) and Light for the World (9 July 2010). FAO, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2010, p. 4. Olivier De Schutter, “Democratizing the Millennium Development Goals”, September 2010, available from www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/odeschutter1/English. Olivier De Schutter, “Food commodities speculation and food price crises”, Briefing note 2,