PICO Joins Organizations Who Call on El Salvador to Recognize Human Rights to Food and Water

COFOA/PICO joined 132 international organizations that sent a letter to El Salvador’s legislature expressing support for a proposal to enshrine the human rights to food and water in the country’s Constitution. The letter was delivered at a press conference as part of an ongoing campaign by Salvadoran environmental, religious, and community organizations like COFOA to pressure their legislature for constitutional reform that would require the State to “create a policy of food and nutritional security for all residents” and “make use of and preserve water resources and ensure they are accessible to all residents.”

Impoverished households often spend up to 75% of their income on food, often due to market speculation that puts even the most basic staples out of reach of many poor families. The majority of families in El Salvador can’t count on consistent access to basic needs like food and water. The United Nations Development Program classifies El Salvador as the third most unequal in Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of access to water.

El Salvador’s population overwhelmingly supports laws to guarantee the right to water and food. The reform is supported by El Salvador’s president Salvador Sánchez Cerén and legislators from the governing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), as well as the smaller parties Grand National Alliance (GANA) and Democratic Change (CD). The country’s Archbishop and the Human Rights Ombudsman also back the reform. But other parties linked to the country’s big business sector and transnational corporations are currently blocking the ratification.