The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will celebrate World Food Day On 16 October 2007, with the theme The Right to Food, FAO said in Rome on Monday (May 7).

The Right to Food is the right of every person to have regular access to sufficient, nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable food for an active, healthy life. It is the right to feed oneself in dignity, rather than the right to be fed, said FAO.

With more than 850 million people still deprived of enough food, the Right to Food is not just economically, morally and politically imperative -- it is also a legal obligation, according to FAO.

Since 1996, following the World Food Summit, FAO has been working with governments and communities worldwide to gain recognition for this basic human right.

World Food Day activities involving over 150 countries to promote the Right to Food theme, include the 27th World Food Day ceremony at FAO headquarters on 16 October, a Run-for-Food race on21 October in Rome, a special ceremony at the UN in New York on 18October, a Tele Conference in Washington D.C. and national-level activities including a gala in Spain and musical and sports events in various countries.

By recognizing the Right to Food, governments have an obligation to respect, protect and fulfill this right. In order to achieve the World Food Summit objective and Millennium Development Goal number one of reducing hunger by half by 2015, efforts are needed to give a voice to the hungry and to strengthen governments' capacity to meet their obligations, FAO said.

"The right to food is not a utopia. It can be realized for all. Some countries are on the way to doing this, but everyone should contribute to make this happen," says Barbara Ekwall, coordinator of the Right to Food Unit of FAO.

Editor: Wing