Mr. President, Excellencies,
Eight years after the adoption of Resolution 2417, conflict remains a leading driver of acute food insecurity. We see this firsthand across the ICRC’s operations.
Our teams see how hunger in armed conflict is often the cumulative consequence of actions — and inactions — over time.
Insecurity prevents farmers from reaching their fields. Markets are disrupted. Fuel shortages affect irrigation and transport. Water and electricity systems deteriorate, affecting production and storage.
Disruptions to digital connectivity also deepen food insecurity, impacting supply chains and payment systems. And too often we see humanitarian access constrained or even deliberately obstructed.
As food becomes harder to obtain and livelihoods disappear, people are forced to take greater risks and may resort to harmful coping mechanisms simply to feed themselves and their families.
Hunger thus becomes both a consequence of conflict and a driver of further harm.
Addressing the Council on the occasion of today’s open debate, the ICRC has two messages and two asks.
Message 1: Hunger is not an inevitable consequence of war.
Existing legal and policy frameworks address hunger in armed conflict, including Resolution 2417.
This landmark resolution, unanimously adopted by the Council, provides a clear framework for action — action that can prevent hunger from becoming an additional and compounding layer of crisis in conflict.
Timely humanitarian action can also help protect food systems under pressure.
Sustaining agriculture and livelihoods during crisis can help prevent further collapse, reducing dependence on emergency assistance and supporting recovery.
Message 2: Respect for international humanitarian law is essential to prevention.
Food systems depend on interconnected infrastructure and services: water, energy, transport, and markets.
Damage and disruption can reverberate across these systems, affecting food availability and access far beyond the immediate area of hostilities.
Respect for IHL obligations mitigates these disruptions, including the obligation of parties to armed conflict to respect and protect civilians and civilian objects, and to comply with rules prohibiting the attack, destruction, removal of or rendering useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.
This may notably include foodstuffs, sources of drinking-water and agricultural areas.
Parties must also comply with the strict prohibition on the use of starvation as a method of warfare. And they must also allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need.
Mr. President,
We should not measure Resolution 2417 by the effectiveness of humanitarian response to food crises once they emerge, but by our collective capacity to prevent food insecurity from spiraling in armed conflict.
The ICRC’s two asks today are thus:
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States and this Council must act, and act early. Early warning must lead to early political, diplomatic and operational engagement. People affected by conflict should not have to wait until their coping mechanisms are exhausted and famine is imminent.
- Put respect for IHL at the center of prevention. Protecting civilians, livelihoods, essential services and humanitarian action throughout conflict helps preserve people's ability to survive before emergency assistance becomes their last remaining option. Humanitarian assistance cannot compensate for violations or failures to protect the civilian population.
In conclusion, Mr. President,
The ICRC carries out its operational work and confidential dialogue with parties to armed conflicts to protect civilians, preserve humanitarian space and help people withstand the consequences of armed conflict.
We call on all States to respect and ensure respect for IHL, and to uphold humanity in war.
Thank you.
