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UN rights expert: Those who produce foods are among world hungriest
24.10.2018 20:17 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
As of this week, while presenting her annual report to the UN General Assembly Third Committee, Hilal Elver, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, has said presently the agricultural workers have the hardest time accessing food for themselves, and are often excluded from national labour and social protection frameworks, UN Radio reports.
«Agricultural workers, including women, children and migrants and plantation workers, are still more facing low wages, part-time work, informality, and a lack of social and economic protections,» she said.
As to her, the agricultural workers make up approximately one third of the world workforce (over a milliard people) and often work within industrialized food systems which focus on the foods’ output boosting and maximizing profitability at the expense of workers.
As to Elver, over 170,000 agricultural workers are killed doing their jobs every year due to the dangerous working conditions; the risk of a fatal accident is twice as high within the foods’ output segment than in other ones.
As to Elver, those working on farms or plantations, face «regular exposure pesticides and to long hours spent in extreme temperatures without adequate access to water», and migrant workers are particularly vulnerable as they face «more severe economic exploitation and social exclusion than other agricultural workers» and «lack the fundamental protections otherwise extended to citizens».
The human rights expert urged governments to take action «to ensure that the people who produce our food do not go hungry, and that their fundamental rights are fully respected».
«It is time for the States to step up, and take swift and urgent action to hold accountable those who commit human rights violations against agricultural workers and to prevent further violations,» the expert concluded.
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