ROME, 10 October: More than 150 countries around the world will mark World Food Day this year, organizing special events, conferences, contests, sports activities and a global candlelight vigil on “The Right to Food”.
FAO celebrates World Food Day each year on 16 October, the day the Organization was founded in 1945 in Quebec City, Canada. This years World Food Day theme is “The Right to Food.”
The theme highlights a basic human right that is often ignored as severe food insecurity continues to afflict more than 850 million people.
The right to food, according to international law, is the right of every person to have regular access to sufficient, nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable food for an active, healthy life. It is the right to feed oneself in dignity, rather than the right to be fed.
Since the 1996 World Food Summit, FAO has worked with governments and communities worldwide to gain recognition for this basic human right.
Events around the world
World Food Day activities will include the main ceremony at FAO headquarters. Speakers will be the Presidents of Germany, Horst Köhler, and Tanzania, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, as well as FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf.
A number of civil society organizations will hold a round-table discussion on “The Right Way to Fight Hunger” at FAO Headquarters on 16 October. A Run-for-Food race will take place in Rome on 21 October as well as in Guinea and Nigeria, among others.
A global candlelight vigil will begin the evening of 22 October in Samoa and move across the worlds time zones through various cities including Yokohama, Japan, Yrevan, Armenia, Lusaka, Zambia, Bratislava, Slovakia, Quito, Ecuador and Rome, Italy where the Municipality will organize a vigil at the Colosseum.
A special World Food Day event will be held at UN Headquarters in New York on 18 October. A monologue by actress Gabriele Loneck will reflect on the speeches and writings of Eleanor Roosevelt on Human Rights and the Right to Food.
In Geneva, Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, will attend an event on humanitarian assistance and the Right to Food (17 October).
Various debates and symposia will be held in Austria, Finland, Ireland and Sweden as well as over 100 activities scheduled in Italy and a week-long programme in Hungary.
Spain will kick off a month of events to observe World Food Day and will host a fund-raising television gala. The Spanish soccer league will dedicate two weeks of games with the participation of FAO Goodwill Ambassador and Real Madrid captain, Raúl.
In Egypt, a 10-day Arab Music Festival dedicated to FAO and its fight against hunger, a fund-raising gala dinner, seminars and major exhibits will take place in Cairo.
Mali will organize a week long awareness and fund-raising campaign, including a mega concert featuring African FAO Goodwill Ambassadors in Bamako on 26 October.
Colombia will mark World Food Day with a concert by singer Fanny Lu, while in El Salvador, First Lady Ana Ligia Mixco de Saca will deliver a speech at the Summit of First Ladies in El Salvador on the Right to Food.
Thailand will celebrate World Food Day this year with a regional symposium attended by Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn while Japan will organize a TeleFood concert in Yokohama.
Kilde: www.fao.org
