FOOD SECURITY UNDER IHL OR NOT?

Armed conflict is one of the primary obstacles to realization of the right to adequate food in
many parts of the world today. War disrupts all stages of human nutrition — the production,
procurement, preparation, allocation, consumption and biological utilization of food —
thereby leaving malnutrition, disease and death in its wake. Given that international
humanitarian law is the body of rules specifically applicable in situations of armed conflict,
and that many of its provisions are moreover foodrelated, it must be seen as a complement to
human rights norms dealing with the right to adequate food..
starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is absolutely prohibited. Related to this,
international humanitarian law sets out a non-exhaustive list of "objects indispensable to the
survival of the civilian population" which benefit from heightened protection: foodstuffs,
agricultural areas, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation
works. It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or otherwise render useless these objects
except for very exceptional circumstances.
Geneva Convention IV (1949) and AP-1— also applicable to the conflict in Ukraine and
ratified by 196 states—requires occupying powers, such as Russia in several Ukrainian
regions, to ensure that the occupied population is supplied with food and other essentials,
including by bringing resources in and, where supplies remain inadequate, granting
humanitarian access. Geneva Conventions III and IV require detaining authorities to ensure
food rations of sufficient quantity, quality, and variety to keep detainees in good health and to
prevent weight loss or nutritional deficiencies. With the requisite intent, starvation of civilians
as a method of warfare qualifies as a war crime (Rome Statute, article 8(2)(b)(xxv)).
even when food is not targeted, belligerents are required to take all feasible precautions to
limit attacks’ incidental damage to civilian food and food systems as well as incidental
civilian injury or death.
The attacks on food and food-specific infrastructure very likely violate the prohibition on
targeting civilian objects and almost certainly violate the framework of heightened protection
accorded to objects indispensable to civilian survival. The legality of attacks on general
export infrastructure is harder to ascertain
Deliberately targeting infrastructure that facilitates the export of food to the rest of the world
could be life-threatening to millions of people who need access to affordable food, a senior
United Nations official told the Security Council today, as speakers condemned the Russian
Federation’s air strikes against ports and grain-storage facilities in Odesa.
attacks against Ukrainian Black Sea port facilities risk having far-reaching impacts on global
food security, particularly in developing countries.
these actions will continue to deteriorate global food insecurity.