Chapter 1 | Page 2 these fundamental human conditions more than six decades after the adoption of the UDHR and nearly five decades after the adoption of the ICESCR? Are the necessary conditions for realisation of these rights created at an adequate level? According to estimates by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about 805 million people worldwide experience chronic malnourishment; of these, 791 million are in developing countries.5 It was estimated that chronic under-nutrition in children caused stunting and other serious impairments to nearly 165 million children in 2014.6 In early 2015, UNICEF reported that, approximately 28 million of the 650 million primaryschool-age children in the world never enter school, nearly 58 million primary school-age children and 63 million adolescents of lower secondary school age were out of school, and 130 million children were not learning the basics of reading and numeracy despite reaching 4th grade.7 According to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), more than 863 million people were living in slums in 2012 and serious problems of homelessness and inadequate housing existed worldwide.8 Grim as they are, these examples of human suffering and deprivation are only part of the story. Because they represent only some of the economic, social and cultural rights recognised in the international human rights regime, the complete picture is likely to be much more complex. Moreover, fulfilment of these basic human needs is precisely the very human conditions that the international human rights regime, particularly the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESC rights), calls to the attention and action of States parties. 5 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The State of Food Insecurity in the World: Strengthening the enabling environment for food security and nutrition (FAO, Rome, 2014), <http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4030e.pdf>. 6 United Nations, Interim report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, UN Doc A/69/275 (7 August 2014), [36]. 7 UNICEF, The Investment Case for Education and Equity (UNICEF, New York, 2015), <http://www.unicef.org/education/files/www.unicef.org_publications_files_Investment_ Case_for_Education_Summary.pdf>. 8 United Nations, Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, 69th sess, UN Doc A/69/274 (7 August 2014), [16-18].