Summary

The Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver, conducted an official visit to Zimbabwe from 18 to 28 November 2019, at the invitation of the Government. The mission’s objective was to assess all aspects of the right to food in Zimbabwe.

The Special Rapporteur found that despite the constitutional protection of the right to food and a sophisticated set of human rights-based national laws and policies, man-made starvation is slowly making its way in the country, with more than 60 per cent of the population now considered to be food-insecure owing to extreme poverty, high inflation and poor agricultural productivity, among other causes.

The Special Rapporteur called upon the Government to live up to its zero-hunger commitment without any discrimination. She also urged the Government, all political parties and the international community to come together to put an end to this spiralling crisis, by taking steps at the national level to respect the Government’s human rights obligations, and internationally, by putting an end to all economic sanctions.