A/HRC/4/30 page 4 Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur has the honour to submit his first report to the Human Rights Council pursuant to Council decision 2/102. 2. The Special Rapporteur is outraged to report that global hunger is still on the rise. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s latest report on The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006, there has been virtually no progress made on reducing hunger, despite the commitments made by Governments in 1996 and again at the Millennium Summit in 2000. While in 1996, the number of people suffering from undernourishment was estimated to be about 800 million people, FAO’s latest estimate suggests that there are now 854 million people who do not get enough to eat every day. More than 6 million children die from hunger-related illness every year before their fifth birthday. 3. Our world is richer than ever, yet more people than ever are suffering from malnutrition, hunger and starvation. The world produces more food than ever, it could feed twice the entire global population, yet millions go to bed hungry at night. Young children who do not get enough food each day or sufficient micronutrients, are condemned to lead a life of stunted physical growth and limited intellectual development. 4. In a world overflowing with riches, hunger is not inevitable. It is a violation of human rights. The right to food is a human right that protects the right of all human beings to live in dignity, free from hunger. It is protected under international human rights and humanitarian law. As defined by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its general comment No. 12 (1999), “the right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, has physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement” (para. 6). Inspired by the general comment, the Special Rapporteur defines the right to food as: the right to have regular, permanent and 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 of fear. Activities of the Special Rapporteur 5. The Special Rapporteur on the right to food has been honoured to continue in his capacity and to serve the Human Rights Council. He is ready and open to all suggestions from Members of the Council as to how he can best serve the Council and his mandate on the right to food. 6. In his work over the last year, the Special Rapporteur has continued to promote the right to food amongst Governments, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations around the world. During 2006, the Special Rapporteur made requests to conduct official missions to a number of different countries. In addition to the long-standing requests submitted to the Governments of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Malawi and Myanmar,