Human rights experts release joint statement calling for increased efforts to support breastfeeding

On 22 November 2016, a joint statement by the UN Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Food, Right to Health, the Working Group on Discrimination against Women in law and in practice, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child called for increased efforts to promote, support and protect breastfeeding. The human rights experts told countries that they need to do more for breastfeeding as a human right, including ending the inappropriate marketing of breast-milk substitutes and other foods intended for infants and young children.

Read the statement: United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner

We remind States of their obligations under relevant international human rights treaties to provide all necessary support and protection to mothers and their infants and young children to facilitate optimal feeding practices.   States should take all necessary measures to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding, and end the inappropriate promotion of breast-milk substitutes and other foods intended for infants and young children up to the age of 3 years.

Citing new evidence published in the Lancet earlier this year, the experts emphasized the importance and many benefits of breastfeeding for both the mother and her child. They expressed concern about the lack of progress made in improving breastfeeding rates globally and in providing women and their children with the support and protection they are entitled to.

Read a summary by the World Health Organisation