A/HRC/45/CRP.3 that guarantees the right to food, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“African Commission”) has stated that the “Right to food is implicitly protected under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights through the right to life, the right to health, and the right to economic, social and cultural development”.34 The African Commission concluded that, “The right to food is inseparably linked to the dignity of human beings and is therefore essential for the enjoyment and fulfilment of such other rights as health, education, work and political participation . . . the minimum core of the right to food requires that the government should not destroy or contaminate food sources”.35 40. Addressing the obligation of a State Party to the African Charter and its primary responsibility to respect the right to food, the African Commission has ordered a State Party to cease attacks on its people, to investigate and prosecute those responsible for attacks, and to provide adequate compensation to victims and ensure that those affected have their right to food through livelihood restored.36 Under the African Commission’s guidelines on the implementation of economic, social, and cultural rights, States are under an obligation to guarantee the right of everyone to be free from hunger and to mitigate and alleviate hunger even in times of natural or other disasters; refrain from and protect against destruction and/or contamination of food sources; and refrain from using access to food as a political tool to reward supporters, punish opponents, or recruit militias.37 41. South Sudan as a State Party to the African Charter is under an obligation to ensure that the right to food is respected and protected. The African Commission has further emphasised that States cannot invoke a civil war to justify their inability to guarantee rights protected under the Charter. In an earlier decision on Sudan, the African Commission stated that, “even if Sudan is going through a civil war, civilians in areas of strife are especially vulnerable and the state must take all possible measures to ensure that they are treated in accordance with international humanitarian law”.38 In a decision on Chad, the African Commission also noted that “the African Charter, unlike other human rights instruments, does not allow for state parties to derogate from their treaty obligations during emergency situations, indicating that even a civil war in Chad cannot be used as an excuse by the state violating or permitting violations of rights in the African Charter”. 39 42. While South Sudan has not become a party to the Protocol nor to the Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (“Malabo Protocol”), a decision to join these African Union treaties could start to address the impunity and lack of accountability for gross violations of human rights and international crimes in the country including the crime of starvation as a war crime. The Court, whose Protocol has not yet entered into force, will have international criminal jurisdiction over crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Specifically, in the context of non-international armed conflict – applicable to the situation in South Sudan – the Protocol includes the war crime of “intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies” (emphasis added).40 34 155/96: Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC) and Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) / Nigeria, at para. 64-65. 35 Ibid., at para. 65. 36 Ibid., at para. 66. 37 Principles and Guidelines on the Implementation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, AFRICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS, 2011, p. 48, para. 86, available at https://archives.au.int/bitstream/handle/123456789/2063/Nairobi%20Reporting%20Guidelines%20on%20ECOSOC_E.pdf. 38 Amnesty International & Others v Sudan (2000) AHRLR 297 (ACHPR 1999), para 50. 39 Commission Nationale des Droits de l’Homme et des Libertés v Chad (2000) AHRLR 66 (ACHPR 1995), para 21. 40 Article 28D(e)(xvi). 12