A/HRC/42/CRP.5 38. While the right to an adequate standard of living and the highest attainable standard of health are to be progressively realised, Myanmar, as a party to the ICESCR and CRC, must take immediate action, irrespective of its resources to, inter alia, eliminate discrimination, comply with the components of rights that are not subject to progressive realization because they do not require significant resources, and refrain from retrogressive measures that would reduce the enjoyment of the Covenant’s rights, unless there are strong justifications for doing so.12 39. States’ obligations in relation to the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food and housing, and the right to the highest attainable standard of health, do not cease in times of emergency or humanitarian crisis. In such situations, violations of the right to food can occur, for example, through the prevention of access to humanitarian food aid and the failure to regulate individuals or groups restricting others’ access to food. 13 The Special Rapporteur on the right to food defined the right to food as “the right to have regular, permanent and free [unobstructed/unrestricted] access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer belongs, and which ensures a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and dignified life free from anxiety”.14 The right to food and health are also closely linked to non-derogable rights, such as the right to life: “without food there is no life, and with the wrong food, life is shorter and more prone to ill-health”.15 This requires, for example, States to take measures to increase life expectancy, especially in adopting measures to eliminate malnutrition.16 2. Rules of State responsibility 40. Based on the Mission’s past and present findings, the Mission has considered Myanmar’s obligations under the rules of State responsibility, under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which Myanmar is a party. Relatedly, the Mission welcomes the efforts of States, in particular The Gambia and Bangladesh, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to encourage and pursue a case against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) under the Genocide Convention. Elected officials in The Netherlands and Canada have also called on their governments to pursue such a case. 41. Many of the people to whom the Mission spoke emphasized the need for perpetrators of the most serious crimes of international law to be held criminally accountable. The Mission discussed this in its 2018 report. Many of those people also stressed that the safe and dignified treatment of the Rohingya people required legislative and institutional reforms that run deeper than sanctioning individuals. The rules of State 12 13 14 15 16 OHCHR, Frequently Asked Questions on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Fact Sheet No. 33, 2008, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ESCR/FAQ%20on%20ESCR-en.pdf, p. 15-17. The Committee on the Rights of the Child also interprets the CRC as placing an obligation on States, irrespective of resources, “not to take any retrogressive steps that could hamper the enjoyment of children’s right to health”. United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, General comment No. 15 (2013) on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health (art. 24), CRC/C/GC/15, 17 April 2013, para. 72. United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 12: The right to adequate food (Art. 11), E/C.12/1999/5, 12 May 1999, para. 19; Committee on the Rights of the Child, General comment No. 15 (2013) on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health (art. 24), CRC/C/GC/15, 17 April 2013, para. 40. E/CN.4/2001/53, 7 February 2001, p. 2. A. Eide, “Adequate Standard of Living”, in International Human Rights Law, 2nd ed., D. Moeckli, S. Shah and S. Sivakumaran (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014), p. 199; Committee on the Rights of the Child, General comment No. 15 (2013) on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health (art. 24), CRC/C/GC/15, 17 April 2013, paras. 16-18. United Nations Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 6: Right to life (Art. 6), 30 April 1982, HRI/GEN/1/Rev.1, para. 5. 11