Accountability for Starvation

Can the crime of mass starvation be prosecuted?

Global Rights Compliance in partnership with The World Peace Foundation combined their expertise on conflict, food insecurity, and international law to advance the prevention, prohibition, and accountability for mass starvation.

Research addressed historical and on-going cases of mass starvation, key concepts for understanding starvation crimes, and examination of response mechanisms. Legal analysis sought to delineate the elements of starvation crimes and to disentangle what is permissible and impermissible in warfare.

The Project worked towards operationalising UN Security Council Resolution S/RES/2417 (‘UNSC 2417’), through a concerted focus on the legal and factual, demands raised by mass starvation, especially with regard to the direct impact of armed conflict on food security, ensuring that UNSC 2417 delivers more than rhetoric. 

This project (2018 – 2022) was a collaboration between WPF and Global Rights Compliance.

Outputs:

Book (2022)

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Research Roundtable (2021)

Published by Opinio Juris, “Pandemic of Hunger Symposium” (2021) includes essays by program-affiliated researchers.

• Reflections on UNSC 2417 – A Preventative Tool, an Accountability Response, or Both?, Global Rights Compliance Group, May 17, 2021
• Implementing UN Security Council Resolution 2417, Global Rights Compliance Group (GRC), May 17, 2021
• Starvation by Warfare–The Campaign of Air Strikes Against Yemen’s Farms, Ali Jameel and Niku Jafarnia, Mwatana for Human Rights, May 18, 2021
• The Ethio-Eritrean Hunger Plan for Tigray and the Failure of Resolution 2417, Alex de Waal, World Peace Foundation, May 18, 2021
• Famine in a NIAC’s Shadow–Other Situations of Violence and a Challenge for UNSCR 2417, Chris Newton, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, May 20, 2021
• Population Transfers and the Civilian Toll of Starvation as a Method of Warfare in Syria and South Sudan, Yousuf Syed Khan, United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, May 20, 2021
• The Humanitarian Crisis in North-East Nigeria–A Time to Act, Jared Miller, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, May 21, 2021

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Journal Article (2019)

Policy Briefs (2019)

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Research Papers (2018- 2019)

• “A Role for Social Nutrition in Strengthening Accountability for Mass Starvation?” by Susanne Jaspars (WPF Occasional Paper #18), June 24, 2019.
• “Movement Towards Accountability for Starvation,” Project Briefing Paper, February 2019.  This briefing paper summarizes two key advances: the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution S/RES/2417 (‘UNSC 2417’) and a move to amend the Rome Statute so that the prohibition of starvation applies in both International Armed Conflicts (IAC) and in Non-international Armed Conflicts (NIAC).
• “Accountability for Starvation Project Overview,” Global Rights Compliance and the World Peace Foundation, Project Overview, October 2018. This paper provides a short overview of the project’s activities and goals. 
• “Can We Prosecute Starvation?” by Global Rights Compliance and the World Peace Foundation, Briefing Paper, May 1, 2018. 

More information is available on the project website: StarvationAccountablity.org.