Michael Fakhri

"#Starvation is always a political problem and requires a political solution," the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, told the @UN Human Rights Council. "Listen to your people. "Listen to your land. "This is where the solutions are." #HRC61

UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Food @MichaelFakhri: "The #UN is failing to stop the largest case of starvation in modern history, which is #Sudan today. And the UN has not just failed – but the UN died in #Gaza. I will tell you the exact dates in which the UN as we know it died – the UN collapsed when Mahmoud Fattouh ( فتوح ) died at the age of 2 months on February 24, 2024 and when 10- year-old Yazan Al Kafarneh ( الكفارنة ) died on March 4, 2024. These were the first children to have reportedly been killed by malnutrition, dehydration, and hunger during #Israel’s recent starvation campaign in Gaza. When a parent is helplessly holding their starving child in their arms, looking into their child’s eyes who is dying from hunger, it indicates an entire society is under attack and that famine is taking hold. Every time a child dies from hunger, dehydration, and malnutrition, the world slips more into the abyss. You have listened to Israel announce its genocidal intentions and witnessed Israel’s genocidal actions against the Palestinian people in Gaza. You have witnessed Israel conduct the fastest starvation campaign in modern history in Gaza. Even with this current ceasefire, Israel’s starvation, genocide, occupation and nakba in #Palestine has not ended. Most acutely, humanitarian aid and food system reconstruction remains severely restricted in Gaza. Gaza is not only in rubble. The UN itself has collapsed into rubble. I look at you now, the General Assembly, and I see one of the few parts of the UN that we can salvage and do something. How you respond to Gaza will determine how the entire world will be governed for decades to come. This is why I amongst many other mandate holders are calling upon you to pass a Uniting for Peace resolution in which you recommend peacekeepers accompany humanitarian convoys into Gaza. If peacekeepers are not used to stop starvation and genocide, then what else are we doing here?"

The global housing crisis cannot be solved without tackling land inequality - in his report to #UNGA, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing @adequatehousing calls for people-centred approach to land that limits private property & expropriations. ohchr.org/en/press-relea…

Despite our determination to deliver food, water, and medicine to survivors, our efforts to save lives in Gaza are at breaking point.   My statement following another tough weekend for humanitarians in Gaza. unocha.org/news/un-relief…