- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- See Doc. 7943, report of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, rapporteur : Mr Alexander. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 7 November 1997.
- Thesaurus
1. The Assembly refers to its
Recommendation 1351 (1997) and to the World Food Summit organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and held in Rome, from 13 to 17 November 1996.
2. It supports the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action adopted by the heads of state and government, and in particular the declaration adopted on 15 November 1996 by the parliamentarians who met in Rome on the occasion of the summit.
3. The Assembly fully supports the efforts of international organisations and institutions working for the sustainable development of agriculture, such as the FAO and its Committee on World Food Security, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organisation and their committees on agriculture, and the European Union, particularly in the reform of the common agricultural policy and in the revision of the Lomé Convention, and encourages them to increase their assistance to developing countries suffering from insufficient food production.
4. The Assembly consequently encourages national parliaments to promote the implementation of the World Food Summit's Plan of Action in accordance with the commitment made by the parliamentarians in the declaration adopted in Rome on 15 November 1996.
5. Furthermore, the Assembly invites the Food and Agriculture Organisation :
5.1 to draw up an international convention on the free movement and delivery of food and medicines intended for civil populations, in particular in emergency situations, allowing food and medical aid, under certain conditions, to be exempt from international trade rules agreements;
5.2 to set up a world food bank to co-ordinate the collection, management and distribution of food aid and funds provided for this purpose by international organisations and institutions and by states, and to co-ordinate requests for emergency aid.
6. The Assembly invites the United Nations :
6.1 to set up a corps of "green helmets", troops made available by national armed forces for countries in need of relief, to facilitate and monitor the delivery and distribution of emergency food and medical aid to civilian populations;
6.2 to promote a reduction in, and greater control of, arms sales to developing countries, and promote the financing by states of civilian development projects which give priority to self-sufficiency in food supply and the cultivation of food crops;
6.3 to promote a co-operation and development programme in the form of a sponsorship and partnership system between industrialised countries and developing countries, as outlined in paragraph 9.iii of
Recommendation 1351 (1997).
7. The Assembly encourages the World Trade Organisation, and in particular its committee on agriculture :
7.1 to continue the follow-up work related to the Final Act of Marrakesh, of April 1994, and in particular to the decision on measures concerning the possible negative effects of the reform programme on least developed countries and net food-importing developing countries, so as to guarantee adequate supplies of basic foodstuffs to these countries;
7.2 to continue the implementation of the agreement on agriculture, so as to progressively reduce tariff restrictions on trade in food products from or to developing countries, in particular the least developed countries, and to introduce mechanisms for the provision of food aid.
8. The Assembly invites the European Union :
8.1 to give top priority to co-operation programmes for the reform of agricultural structures and policies in developing countries, with the aim of making these countries self-sufficient in food supply;
8.2 to provide and organise, in co-operation with its member states, the collection, storage, transport and, where appropriate, distribution facilities required for the rapid delivery of food aid to the populations of countries suffering from emergency situations;
8.3 to implement a genuine common food-aid policy, co-ordinated with its member states, for the benefit of developing countries, and in particular the least developed countries
