UNITED NATIONS
A
Distr.
GENERAL
General Assembly
A/HRC/7/5/Add.2
30 January 2008
Original: ENGLISH
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Seventh session Agenda item 3
PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF ALL HUMAN
RIGHTS, CIVIL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL
AND CULTURAL RIGHTS, INCLUDING THE
RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler
Addendum
MISSION TO BOLIVIA*
Summary
The Special Rapporteur on the right to food has the honour to submit to the Human Rights Council the present report on his
official mission to Bolivia from 29 April to 6 May 2007.
Despite the fact that Bolivia is a country rich in mineral resources - natural gas, oil, and metals including silver, gold, iron, zinc
and tin - the vast majority of its people have not benefited from this natural wealth and remain poor and malnourished. Chronic
malnutrition affects more than one in four Bolivian children. Over 65 per cent of Bolivians live below the national poverty line. Around
35 per cent, mostly indigenous peoples, live in extreme poverty, so poor that they cannot afford the canasta basica or the minimum
amount of calories needed every day to sustain a healthy life.
Inequalities deepened under the economic model pursued by recent administrations and Bolivia now has one of the highest
levels of inequality in the world. A small urban elite, mostly of Spanish and mixed descent, has traditionally dominated economic and
political power, but this is now changing, following deep social crisis. Since 2000, social protests have reached critical levels in the
“water wars” in Cochabamba and El Alto, and the “gas war” against plans to export Bolivia’s natural gas reserves. After protests
were forcibly repressed, at least 59 people were killed during the gas war in September and October 2003, leading to the collapse of
the administration of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.
Elections in December 2005 marked the beginning of a new era as Bolivians elected Evo Morales Ayma, the first indigenous
President in Latin America. Evo Morales won 54 per cent of the vote, an unprecedented absolute majority in Bolivian elections.
President Morales has publicly committed to make the fight against malnutrition, food insecurity, and poverty the key element of his
agenda. Since coming to power, he has already succeeded in renegotiating contracts with foreign investors in gas and oil, generating a
massive injection of extra revenue into the Government budget. His administration is also adopting a “Zero Malnutrition Programme”
as well as programmes focused on investing in small-scale agriculture, food sovereignty, land reform, social infrastructure and
protecting the rights of indigenous peoples. The drafting of a new constitution by the Constituent Assembly has also served to
entrench this new approach by recognizing the fundamental right to food and the right to water for all Bolivians.
The Special Rapporteur is concerned that the situation of malnutrition and food insecurity in Bolivia remains grave, so he
welcomes the new approach of the administration of President Morales. He believes that this offers the possibility of fundamental
change for the large majority of Bolivians, especially indigenous peoples, who have for so long been excluded from such simple
freedoms as the freedom from hunger and poverty.
The report ends with a series of recommendations by the Special Rapporteur regarding the realization of the right to food.
Annex