The international community's obligations under the human right to food

The universality of human rights, including the right to food, requires a universality of obligation if human rights are to be realized. Poor states have the greatest number of children in poverty and deprivation, but they also have the least capacity to meet the needs of these hungry children. To what extent does the international community of states have a defined legal or moral responsibility to fulfill the child’s human right to food? In international law, the primary responsibility to protect human rights lies with the state. However, as Mark Gibney asserts, the primary responsibility has come to be interpreted, incorrectly, as a sole responsibility (2008). The rights listed in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), unlike the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), are not territorial. External states must recognize their extraterritorial obligations, by virtue of both hard ¹ and soft ² international law, to the hungry child.