Final Declaration of the Civil Society Forum parallel to the World Summit on Food Security

We, 642 persons coming from 93 countries and representing 450 organisations of peasant and

family farmers, small scale fisher folk, pastoralists, indigenous peoples, youth, women, the

urban people, agricultural workers, local and international NGOs, and other social actors,

gathered in Rome from the 13 -17 of November, 2009 united in our determination to work for

and demand food sovereignty in a moment in which the growing numbers of the hungry has

surpassed the one billion mark. Food sovereignty is the real solution to the tragedy of hunger

in our world.

Food sovereignty entails transforming the current food system to ensure that those who

produce food have equitable access to, and control over,land water, seeds, fisheries and

agricultural biodiversity. All people have a right and responsibility to participate in deciding how

food is produced and distributed. Governments must respect, protect and fulfil the right to

food as the right to adequate, available, accessible, culturally acceptable and nutritious food.

Governments have obligations to provide emergency aid. But this must not undermine food

sovereignty and human rights. Emergency aid should be procured as locally as possible and

must not be used to pressure countries into accepting Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO).

Food must never be used as a political weapon.

We call attention to the violations of rights of people, both urban and rural, living in areas

under armed conflict or occupation and in emergency situations. The international community

must urgently address violations of human rights like those related to forced displacement,

confiscation and alien exploitation of property, land, and other productive resources,

demographic manipulation and population transfers.

Who Decides?

We declare our support for the renewed Committee on World Food Security: We take particular

note of the commitment of those Heads of State present at the FAO Summit have shown to

this important body in their Declaration. We emphasize the fundamental importance of the

renewed CFS as the foremost inclusive international policy body for food and agriculture within

the UN system, and as an essential body where the knowledge and perspectives of those

whose daily labours have fed humanity for generations are not only heard, but also acted

upon. We assert the centrality of the Right to Food as a principle to guide all elements of the

Committee on World Food Security’s work.

We express concern that the CFS is not receiving the funding appropriate to the ambition of its

work programme. We urge FAO member states to back their political commitment with

financial resources. We also note that much work remains to be done within the CFS to

ensure that there is coherence between the different organs of the global food and agricultural

institutional architecture.In this regard, we are extremely concerned by the proposed World

Bank Global Agriculture and Food Security programme whose governance mechanism appears