His Excellency Dr. Guy Scott (MP) Vice President of the Republic of Zambia Independence Avenue P.o. Box 50773 Lusaka Zambia Fax: +260211254163 /+260 211 250824 / +26011254460 E-Mail:
[email protected] Re: Your Comments On Zambians Demand For The Right To Adequate Food Heidelberg, July 11, 2014 His Excellency, FIAN International is an international human rights organization working for the worldwide implementation of the human right to adequate food. FIAN has consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC). FIAN also has observer status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. The International Secretariat of FIAN is based in Heidelberg, Germany and Geneva, Switzerland. In my role as Secretary General of FIAN, I am writing to you to express the deep concern of the Organization with regard to your comments on Zambians demand for the right to food. The comments were made on 3rd June 2014 in Livingstone when you addressed a Patriotic Front (PF) party meeting at the Civic Centre, and you said that “government is strongly opposed to enacting ideological fantasies from the draft constitution such as the right to food because they are unrealistic and inapplicable".1 The right to adequate food is a human right recognized under international law, which protects the right of all human beings to feed themselves in dignity, either by producing their food or by purchasing it. As authoritatively defined in article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights2 1 Zambian Watchdog, Demands for right to food unrealistic - Scott, https://www.zambianwatchdog.com/demands-for-right-to-food-unrealistic-scott/, accessed on 23 June 2014 2 United Nations Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CESCR.aspx, accessed on 23 June 2014 and in the General Comment No.