A/HRC/4/30 page 11 III. CHILDREN AND THEIR HUMAN RIGHT TO FOOD 27. said: On World Food Day, 16 October 2006, the Executive Director of WFP, James Morris Every day some 18,000 children die of hunger and malnutrition. Yet there are no headlines and no public outcry. Instead these poor forgotten children die in silence, far from our sight in many countries of the world. This need not happen: we have every tool we need to solve hunger.18 28. There is no public outcry, because hunger and malnutrition in many parts of the world are still not treated as a human rights issue. Yet if an infant or child does not receive sufficient food and nutrition in their first days and first years, they will be condemned to limited physical and intellectual development, if they manage to survive. Régis Debray has called these children “crucified at birth”. A. The extreme vulnerability of children to hunger and malnutrition 29. About 5.6 million children die every year before they reach the age of 5. In the Sahelian African country of Niger, one quarter of all children die before their fifth birthday. Millions more children suffer from stunted growth and limited intellectual development, as a result of the lack of adequate food and nutrition. About one in every four children around the world is underweight for their age, more than 96 per cent of low birth weight babies are born to underweight mothers in the developing world, reflecting a generational cycle of undernutrition, the consequences of which are passed along to children by mothers who are themselves in poor health and undernourished.19 Although there has been some recent progress in reducing global levels of malnutrition, the Special Rapporteur is gravely concerned that the Millennium Development Goal to halve the number of underweight children by 2015 will not be met.20 30. Undernutrition causes more than half of all deaths of children under 5 years old. About 100 million children are still lacking sufficient vitamin A, essential for immune system functions and their survival, growth and development.21 Millions suffer from iodine deficiency disorders, which prevent normal growth in the brain and nervous system, yet it is easily preventable through the simple iodization of salt.22 Iron-deficiency anaemia seriously affects the 18 Child Rights Information Network, 26 September 2006. 19 UNICEF, Progress for Children. A Report Card on Nutrition, May 2006. 20 Ibid. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid.