Provision of Food Surpluses to Food-Deficient Peoples Through the United Nations System

A/RES/1496(XV)View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, published in 1961.

What subjects does this mandate have?

3 subjects

What’s in this document?

8 operative paragraphs

Endorses the Freedom from Hunger Campaign launched by the Food an<l Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and urges all States Members of the United Nations and members of the specialized agencies to support this campaign in every appropriate way;

,1 ppeals to States Members of the United Nations and members of the specialized agencies to take suitable measures to relieve the suff0ring of food-deficient people in other nations and assist them in their economic development and in their efforts towards a better life;

Expresses the belief that international assistance in the establishment of national food reserves in fooddeficient countries is one effective transitional means of assisting accelerated economic development in the less developed countries ;

1 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Commodity Policy Studies, No. 10, Functions of a ~Vorld Food Reserve~'icope and Limitations (Rome, 1956), appendix lll.

~ [bid., para. 300. Fifteenth Session

Invites the Food ancl Agriculture Organization, after consulting Governments of member States, the Secretary-General and appropriate specialized agencies, to establish without delay procedures-in particular for consultation and the dissemination of information-- bv which, with the assistance of the United Nations system, the largest practicable quantities of surplus food may be made available on mutually agreeable terms as a transitional measure against hunger, such procedures to be compatible with desirable agricultural development as a contribution to economic development in the less clevelopecl countries and without prejudice to bilateral arrangements for this purpose arn\ compatible with the principles of the Food an<l Agrirnltnre Organization;

Further invites the Food and Agriculture Organization, in consultation with Governments of member States, the Secretary-General. appropriate specialized agencies and other international bodies ( such as the International \Vheat Council, the \Vheat Utilization Committee, etc. I, to undertake a study of the feasibility and acceptahility of additional arrangements, including multilateral arrangements under the auspices of the Foocl and Agriculture Organization, having as their objective the mobilization of available surplus foodstuffs and their distribution in areas of greatest need, particularly in the ernomically less ,clevelopecl countries;

Requests the Director-General of the Foml and Agriculture Organization to report on action taken to the Economic and Social Council at its thirty-second

Requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization and after such other consultation~ as he may deem necessary, to report to the Economic and Social Council at its thirty-second session on the role which the United Nations and the appropriate specialized agencies could play in order to facilitate the best possihle use uf food surpluses for the economic development of the less developed countries;

R Recommends that the Secretary-General, in preparing, in consultation with the Director-Genera\ of the Fuud and Agriculture Organization, the provisional programme for the joint session of the Commis,ion on International Commodity Tracie and the Committee on Commodity Problems of the Food al'd Agriculture Organization which will examine a report on the prospects of the production of, and demand for, primary commodities. inc Jude the question of the production ·of, and demand for, food in relation to the problem of hunger;

Stresses that any action taken or contemplated under the present resolution proceed in accordance with tlw principles of snrplw, clisposal and guiding lines of the F()(_id ancl Agriculture Organization, and, specifically, with adequate safeguards and appropriate measures against the <lumping of agricultural surpluses on the international markets and against adverse effects upon the economic and financial position of those countries \\'hich depend for their foreign exchange earnings primarily on the export of food rommoditie~, and in the rerngnition that the avoidance of damage to normal trading in fuoclstnff, will best he assnrl'cl bv multilateral trading- practict',.

27 October 1960.

SeSSIOn;

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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