UNSC must ensure sanctions don't hinder food aid: India

Speaking at a high-level UNSC debate on food insecurity and conflict on Monday, Ambassador Yojna Patel, India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, said violence and political instability continued to devastate food systems across the world, driving global hunger to alarming levels.

“The council’s role should remain focused on facilitating humanitarian access and ensuring that its own measures, including sanctions, do not impede food assistance,” she said at the session convened by Sierra Leone on the theme of addressing food insecurity for sustainable peace.

Patel underlined that the use of starvation as a weapon of war is expressly prohibited under international law and must be confronted wherever it occurs. Food insecurity, she said, was frequently “a manifestation of governance breakdown and prolonged insecurity”, resulting from damaged infrastructure, disrupted markets and displaced communities.

While violations of humanitarian law fall squarely within the council’s mandate, India argued that building resilient food systems required long-term action by development institutions such as the UN development system and Rome-based food agencies.

“Peace, development and food security are interdependent,” Patel said, stressing that the General Assembly, ECOSOC and specialised UN agencies must retain the lead in substantive response efforts while the security council focuses on safeguarding access and de-confliction arrangements.

The envoy called for predictable, concessional financing to strengthen resilience in fragile contexts, along with climate-smart agriculture, digital supply-chain tools and South-South cooperation to improve local capacity.

Reaffirming that national governments bear the primary duty to ensure food security, India said regional bodies could assist by facilitating cross-border trade, logistics and early-warning systems during crises.

India reiterated its solidarity with the Global South and urged renewed trust in multilateralism to guarantee that “every person, in every nation, has access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food”.