A/HRC/19/73 of factors that are often related to poor food quality, insufficient food intake, and severe and repeated infectious diseases, or a combination of the above. 11 8. A classification of malnutrition would include protein-energy malnutrition (deficiency in calories and proteins), as well as micronutrient malnutrition (deficiency in vitamins or minerals).12 Malnutrition can take mild, moderate or severe forms; it can be chronic or acute. 9. A key indicator of chronic malnutrition is stunting, which is defined as height for age below minus two standard deviations from the median height for age of the standard reference population.13 In other words, children affected are too short for their age group compared to the WHO Child Growth Standards. In 2010, approximately 171 million children globally were stunted, resulting from not enough food, a diet poor in vitamins and minerals, inadequate child care and disease. In south-central Asia 36 per cent of children were affected by stunting as of 2010;14 in Africa stunting has stagnated since 1990 at about 40 per cent.15 10. In addition to the statistics, the consequences of chronic malnutrition on the future of children must be understood: adverse cognitive development, reduced learning ability, poor school performance, school dropout and decreased productivity as an adult. 16 “Once established, stunting and its effects typically become permanent. Stunted children may never regain the height lost and most will never gain the corresponding weight. And when the window of early childhood is closed, the associated cognitive damage is often irreversible”.17 In other words, stunted children may be unable to reach their full potential in adulthood, a fate for which they are not responsible and which they cannot escape. A range of human rights are infringed upon during the life cycle of an individual who suffered stunting in childhood: the right to an adequate standard of living including the rights to food, health, water and sanitation, often the right to adequate housing, the right to education, the right to work, non-discrimination and ultimately the right to life. Indeed, the high number of stunted children today cast a shadow over the progress on other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), such as child health and education. It is legitimate to observe that: “new schools and hospitals are crucial, but how much of a difference can they make if the infants arriving for their lessons and check-ups have already been consigned to debilitating physical and mental limitations by early life nutritional deficiencies?”18 Yet again the importance of a human rights framework for the MDGs which would stress the interdependence of human rights and move the debate from the arena of voluntarily commitment to that of States‟ obligations under human rights law is underscored. In addition, chronic malnutrition puts into question the future of economic development of 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 M. de Onis and M. Blössner, WHO Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition (Geneva, WHO, 1997), p. 3. Vitamin A deficiency, iron deficiency anaemia and iodine deficiency disorders are the most common forms of micronutrient malnutrition. See UNICEF, Tracking Progress on Maternal and Child Nutrition. A Survival and Development Priority (New York, November 2009), p. 4. WHO, “10 facts on nutrition”, March 2011. Available from www.who.int/features/factfiles/nutrition/en/index.html and De Onis et al., “Prevalence and trends of stunting”. De Onis et al., “Prevalence and trends of stunting”. UNICEF, The Progress of Nations 2000 (New York, 2000), p. 14; B.T. Crookston et al., “Children who recover from early stunting and children who are not stunted demonstrate similar levels of cognition”, Journal of Nutrition, vol, 140, No, 11, 2010, pp. 1996–2001. Ibid; see also UNICEF, Progress for Children. Achieving the MDGs with Equity, No. 9 (New York, September 2010), p. 16. N. Jacobs, “Development goals: celebrating on an empty stomach”, EUObserver, 8 July 2011. 5