Geneva: The UN Human Rights Council today called for worldwide action to guarantee access to food amid soaring prices.

The 47-member council approved a resolution submitted by Cuba which urged states to review "any policy or measure which could have a negative impact on the realisation of the right to food".

Earlier, the top UN human rights official told a special council session that unfair trade practices and "skewed policies" on subsidies had contributed to the current global food crisis.

Louise Arbour, UN high commissioner for human rights, said the emergency had "exacerbated existing imbalances in the relationships among states", and concerted measures were needed.

The council also heard from the new UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, who called for a halt to new investment and subsidies for biofuel production.

The human rights session came after a high-level meeting in the Swiss capital Bern last month when UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced the setting up of a food crisis task force.

Arbour said the crisis stemmed from a "perverse convergence" of factors, including distortions in supply and demand, unfair trade practices, as well as "skewed policies involving incentives or subsidies."

It is impossible for individual states to solve the situation alone, she said. Global food prices have nearly doubled in three years, according to the World Bank.

Source : PTI