HRC60 Side Event: Strengthening Legal Accountability for Starvation Crimes under International Law
On 16 September 2025, Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), in collaboration with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), convened a panel discussion and interactive Q&A during the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The discussion attracted a diverse audience of member states, UN agencies, international organisations, NGOs, academics, and students, reflecting the breadth of interest in advancing accountability for starvation crimes. It examined starvation not merely as a humanitarian emergency but as a crime under international law, and probed pathways for prevention and accountability. Antonia Mulvey (Executive Director, LAW) moderated the event, framing the conversation in a way that connected legal analysis to the lived realities of affected communities.
The discussion opened with a focus on legal frameworks, including the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Professor Paola Gaeta (Geneva Academy/Geneva Graduate Institute) clarified that international law prohibits starvation, noting how the relevant provisions protect objects indispensable to the survival of civilians and criminalise their destruction or deprivation. She explained that the intent to starve can be inferred where actions create a high probability of starvation and stressed that starvation may amount to multiple categories of atrocity: a war crime, a crime against humanity, or an act of genocide depending on the specific intent.
Building on this foundation, Yousuf Syed Khan (LAW) defined starvation crimes, analysed why they have so rarely been prosecuted, and identified recurring factual patterns. He described how perpetrators systematically target objects indispensable to survival, condition humanitarian aid on political concessions, and impose restrictions that foreseeably result in mass deprivation – including the destruction of bakeries and markets under siege, and the burning of harvests and water points to collectively punish disfavoured communities. Drawing on Syria, South Sudan, Sudan, Ukraine, and Gaza, he showed how starvation tactics are routinely deployed to forcibly displace populations. He emphasised that the ICC’s recent applications for arrest warrants in Gaza mark a critical moment in bridging the gap between documentation and prosecution and represent a key opening for future accountability efforts.
The panel then turned to the intersection between starvation and sexual violence. Payal Shah (PHR) drew on findings from Tigray to describe how women and girls faced widespread and systematic sexual violence, including while searching for food, how detention and assault impeded breastfeeding, and how malnutrition heightened vulnerability to HIV and slowed physical recovery among survivors of rape.
From there, the conversation moved to the current state of humanitarian access. Gemma Connell (OCHA) provided a frontline account from Sudan and Gaza, reporting that El Fasher has been entirely cut off from aid for sixteen months, despite a famine declaration in August 2024. She detailed attacks on aid convoys, bureaucratic impediments, disinformation campaigns, and the targeting of aid workers, the majority of whom are Sudanese nationals. She further warned that global humanitarian funding is now 40 percent lower than at the same time last year. In Gaza, access remains frequently blocked even after route authorisation, underscoring that by the time famine is declared, all local coping mechanisms are already collapsed.
Finally, the panel addressed the long-term and transgenerational consequences of starvation. Dr Ayeshah Émon (University College London) highlighted the enduring impacts on maternal and child health, framing starvation as a tool of political violence whose effects span generations. She stressed how these harms are not limited to immediate death or malnutrition but create cycles of intergenerational impairment.
Dr Francesco Branca (University of Geneva) emphasised the physiological fallout of childhood starvation, including stunting. While re-feeding is possible, he warned that it must be managed carefully to avoid increasing mortality risk. He also noted the long-term sequelae of chronic malnutrition, which includes heightened risk of non-communicable diseases, lower earning potential, and perpetuated economic disadvantage across generations.
This focus on health outcomes led naturally to the reminder from a senior representative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, who took the floor to emphasise that food is a protected right under international human rights law, and where rights exist, accountability for their denial must follow.
The side event closed with a call to move from documentation to decisive accountability. LAW and its partners underscored that starvation crimes are not inevitable byproducts of armed conflict but prosecutable acts. They urged states, prosecutors, and UN mechanisms to translate evidence into cases, and ensure that those who weaponise hunger face justice. The message was clear: every missed opportunity for accountability entrenches impunity, and failing to act means allowing those who starve civilians to do so again, with devastating consequences for families and communities.