WCC News: WCC joins Caritas to advance food rights at UNHRC 61

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and Caritas Internationalis convened a side event on 4 March in Geneva, Switzerland, at the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council, bringing faith-based advocacy on the right to food into one of the world's most consequential human rights forums. Bowls are filled with food in an emergency feeding program for malnourished children at the Loreto Primary School in Rumbek, South Sudan. The school, run by the Institute for the Blessed Virgin Mary--the Loreto Sisters--of Ireland, has opened its compound to hundreds of nearby villagers facing hunger because of ongoing conflict and climate change. Photo: Paul Jeffrey/Life on Earth Pictures 5 March 2026 Titled "Upholding the Right to Food: Faith Actors Advancing Accountability and Action," the event drew on a joint statement issued in October 2025 at the Committee on World Food Security in Rome, Italy - the first time the Catholic Church through Caritas Internationalis, Protestant and Orthodox churches through the WCC, and evangelical churches through World Vision International had united around a shared position on food security, nutrition, and the right to food. Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food, drew a pointed contrast between the world's spending priorities and its humanitarian obligations. "We are gravely concerned by resource allocation that prioritizes military spending over humanitarian aid and social protections. In 2024, about one in eight people faced conflict, global military spending exceeded $2.7 trillion—up 9.4% from 2023—while funding for humanitarian food assistance remains chronically inadequate." Suna also called for debt cancellation, anchoring his appeal in the 2025 Year of Jubilee as a moral and political imperative. The event's moral foundation was drawn directly from the joint statement: "As people of faith, how we treat the hungry reflects our relationship with the divine and our commitment to justice." Musamba Mubanga-Mtonga, senior advocacy officer for Food Security and Climate Change at Caritas Internationalis, who moderated the event, said: "Hunger is not inevitable - it is the result of structural injustice. Ending it requires more than charity; it demands justice, accountability, and sustained engagement to transform the systems that deny the right to food." Farhan Siddique, a consultant supporting the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on the Right to Food at OHCHR, Geneva, Switzerland, affirmed the UN's commitment to faith-based engagement. "The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food has been and remains open and committed to engaging with faith-based organisations grounded in human rights principles, with a shared objective of advancing the realization of the right to food for all." Suna noted that faith communities rank among the world's largest landowners after governments, and pointed to the WCC's Living Planet Monitor as documentation of faith communities' contributions to food justice in practice. WCC, partners call hunger a moral crisis, not fate (Video Feature, 26 January 2026) WCC calls for faith-led action on right to food at FAO panel in Rome (Press Release, 06 November 2025) Faith groups launch hunger statement at UN food security meeting in Rome (Feature story, 27 October 2025) See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland