"The government`s failure can be perceived from the country`s very high dependence on food imports," Komnas HAM official M Ridha Saleh said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said the government has failed to manage national food production and distribution in accordance with its obligation to fulfill the people`s basic right to food.

"The government`s failure can be perceived from the country`s very high dependence on food imports," Komnas HAM official M Ridha Saleh said at a press conference here Friday.

In the January-June period in 2011, Indonesia spent 5.36 billion US dollars to import a total of 11.33 million tons of various staple and other foods including rice, maize, soybean, wheat, wheat flour, cow`s meat, refined sugar, oil palm kernel, cloves, cacao, milk, eggs.

"This extraordinarily high import figure is the surface indicator of the government`s failure in managing national food production and distribution," he said.

From a human rights perspective, food was one of man`s basic human rights the state had to fulfill. The right to food was closely related to other basic human rights such as the rights to good health, employment, the environment and resources.

The International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that was ratified by Indonesia through Law No 11/2005 clearly included the right to food.

But in reality, Ridha said, the fulfilment of the people`s right to food was still hamstrung by many serious problems in Indonesia. The various problems that had remained unsolved included high dependence on food imports, low domestic food production, the high prices of foods, the public`s low purchasing power, fertilizer shortages, conflicts over conversion of cultivation lands.

To Komnas HAM the government`s failure to fulfill the people`s basic right to food also meant failure to lower the poverty rate and to recognize the people`s basic right to a decent life.

Ridha pointed out Indonesia already had Law No 7/1996 on food but the law did not include a clause on the government`s obligation to fulfill the people`s basic right to food.

"Of all things, it is this law that poses an obstacle in meeting the people`s basis right to food," he said.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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