U.S. Embassy Israel


Embassy Home	U.S. Citizen Services	Visas to the U.S.	Contact Us	Resources

Untitled Document

America Center Homepage

Collection

Documents

Legal Innovation in
the US (LINUS)

Negotiating a two
state solution

American Center

CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES LATEST STATEMENTS, BRIEFINGS, AND HEARINGS

Rising Food Prices and Global Food Needs: The U.S. Response
Congressional Research Service (via OpenCRS), May 18, 2008

Rising food prices are having impacts across the world, but especially among poor people in low-income developing countries. Since 2000, a year of low food prices, wheat prices in international markets have more than tripled, corn prices have doubled, and rice prices rose to unprecedented levels in March 2008. Such increases in food prices have raised concerns about the ability of poor people to meet their food and nutrition needs and in a number of countries have lead to civil unrest. More than 33 countries, most of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa are particularly affected by food prices increases. The World Bank has estimated that more than 100 million people are being pushed into poverty as a result of food-price escalation.
A number of interrelated factors have been identified as causes of the rising food prices. Droughts in Australia and Eastern Europe and poor weather in Canada, Western Europe and Ukraine in 2007 have reduced available supplies. Reduced stocks have prompted many countries to restrict exports. Rising oil and energy prices have affected all levels of the food production and marketing chain from fertilizer costs to harvesting, transporting and processing food. Higher incomes in emerging markets like China and India have resulted in strong demand for food commodities, meat and processed foods and higher prices in world markets. Increased demand for biofuels has reduced the availability of agricultural products for food or feed use. Export restrictions in many countries have exacerbated the short supply situation.
One immediate consequence of the rise in global food prices is the emergence of a shortfall in funding for international food aid. The World Food Program has launched an urgent appeal for $755 million to address a funding gap brought on by high food and fuel prices. WFP indicates that without additional funding it would have to curtail feeding programs that meet the needs of more than 70 million people in 80 countries. The United States has responded to the WFP appeal for food aid and its own food aid funding shortfall by announcing a release of $200 million from the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust (BEHT), a reserve of commodities and cash that can be used to meet unanticipated emergency food aid needs. Congress is considering an FY2008 emergency supplemental appropriation for emergency food aid requested by the Administration. The President announced on May 1, 2009 a request for Congress to appropriate an additional $770 million in FY2009 to deal with the international food situation.
http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL34478_20080508.pdf (22 pages)

President Bush Attends World Economic Forum
Sharm el Sheikh International Congress Center, Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, May 18, 2008
"Taking your place as a center of progress and achievement requires investing in your people. Some analysts believe the Middle East and North Africa will need to create up to 100 million new jobs over the next 10 to 15 years just to keep up with population growth. The key to realizing this goal is an educated workforce.
This starts early on, with primary schools that teach basic skills, such as reading and math, rather than indoctrinating children with ideologies of hatred. An educated workforce also requires good high schools and universities, where students are exposed to a variety of ideas, learn to think for themselves, and develop the capacity to innovate. Not long ago the region marked a hopeful milestone in higher education. In our meeting yesterday, President Karzai told me he recently handed out diplomas to university graduates, including 300 degrees in medicine, and a hundred degrees in engineering, and a lot of degrees to lawyers, and many of the recipients were women. (Applause.)
People of the Middle East can count on the United States to be a strong partner in improving your educational systems. We are sponsoring training programs for teachers and administrators in nations like Jordan and Morocco and Lebanon. We sponsored English language programs where students can go for intensive language instruction. We have translated more than 80 children's books into Arabic. And we have developed new online curricula for students from kindergarten through high school.
It is also in America's interest to continue welcoming aspiring young adults from this region for higher education to the United States. There were understandable concerns about student visas after 9/11. My administration has worked hard to improve the visa process. And I'm pleased to report that we are issuing a growing numbers of student visas to young people from the Middle East. And that's the way it should be. And we'll continue to work to expand educational exchanges, because we benefit from the contribution of foreign students who study in America because we're proud to train the world's leaders of tomorrow and because we know there is no better antidote to the propaganda of our enemies than firsthand experience with life in the United States of America. "
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/05/20080518-6.html

The 2007 Wiretap Report
U.S. Courts, May 4, 2008

The number of intercepted wire, oral or electronic communications — also known as wiretaps — authorized by federal and state courts in 2007 was 20 percent higher than in 2006. Courts issued 2,208 such orders in 2007, compared to 1,839 in 2006, according to The 2007 Wiretap Report.
Press release http://www.uscourts.gov/Press_Releases/2008/wiretap.cfm
Report's text and tables http://www.uscourts.gov/wiretap07/contents.html

City on the Hill or Just Another Country? The United States and the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy
Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives

Testimony of Ambassador John Shattuck, Chief Executive Officer, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation; former Assistant Secretary of State, Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; former Ambassador to the Czech Republic

May 22, 2008

I’d like to begin by pointing to a disturbing paradox that exists in our foreign policy today. The U.S. today has economic and military assets unparalleled in history, but our influence and standing in the world have hit rock bottom.

One of the reasons for this is that the U.S. today is seen by people in many parts of the world to be a violator, not a defender, of human rights. A poll conducted last year by the BBC in 18 countries on all continents showed that 67 percent disapproved of U.S. detention practices in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Another poll conducted in Germany, Great Britain, Poland and India found that majorities or pluralities believed that the U.S. has engaged in torture and violated international treaties. A third poll by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations showed that majorities in 13 countries, most of which are traditional allies, believe that “the U.S. cannot be trusted to act responsibly in the world.”

The global perception of a gap between the values the U.S. professes and the way it acts – particularly on human rights and the rule of law – has severely eroded U.S. power and influence.
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/sha052208.htm

Testimony of Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch

http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/rot052208.pdf (17 pages)

Rising Food Prices and Global Food Needs: The U.S. Response
Congressional Research Service (via OpenCRS), May 18, 2008

Rising food prices are having impacts across the world, but especially among poor people in low-income developing countries. Since 2000, a year of low food prices, wheat prices in international markets have more than tripled, corn prices have doubled, and rice prices rose to unprecedented levels in March 2008. Such increases in food prices have raised concerns about the ability of poor people to meet their food and nutrition needs and in a number of countries have lead to civil unrest. More than 33 countries, most of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa are particularly affected by food prices increases. The World Bank has estimated that more than 100 million people are being pushed into poverty as a result of food-price escalation.
A number of interrelated factors have been identified as causes of the rising food prices. Droughts in Australia and Eastern Europe and poor weather in Canada, Western Europe and Ukraine in 2007 have reduced available supplies. Reduced stocks have prompted many countries to restrict exports. Rising oil and energy prices have affected all levels of the food production and marketing chain from fertilizer costs to harvesting, transporting and processing food. Higher incomes in emerging markets like China and India have resulted in strong demand for food commodities, meat and processed foods and higher prices in world markets. Increased demand for biofuels has reduced the availability of agricultural products for food or feed use. Export restrictions in many countries have exacerbated the short supply situation.
One immediate consequence of the rise in global food prices is the emergence of a shortfall in funding for international food aid. The World Food Program has launched an urgent appeal for $755 million to address a funding gap brought on by high food and fuel prices. WFP indicates that without additional funding it would have to curtail feeding programs that meet the needs of more than 70 million people in 80 countries. The United States has responded to the WFP appeal for food aid and its own food aid funding shortfall by announcing a release of $200 million from the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust (BEHT), a reserve of commodities and cash that can be used to meet unanticipated emergency food aid needs. Congress is considering an FY2008 emergency supplemental appropriation for emergency food aid requested by the Administration. The President announced on May 1, 2009 a request for Congress to appropriate an additional $770 million in FY2009 to deal with the international food situation.
http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL34478_20080508.pdf (22 pages)

Updated: April 3, 2008