GENEVA (31 January 2024) - The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, will conduct a country visit to Venezuela from 1 to 14 February 2024. The Special Rapporteur will assess a range of issues related to the realisation of the right to food in Venezuela, including the resilience of the food system, access to food in detention facilities and food security of children and other groups in vulnerable situations. He will also examine existing good practices and the impact of sanctions on food security in the country. During his visit, Fakhri will meet with various actors, including officials from the Government, the judiciary, independent institutions, farmers, Indigenous Peoples, academia and civil society actors. He will travel to Caracas, Sucre and Zulia. The expert will hold a press conference on Wednesday 14 February at 12:00 noon local time at Renaissance Caracas La Castellana Hotel. Access will be strictly limited to journalists. The Special Rapporteur will present his final report to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2025. ENDS Mr. Michael Fakhri was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food in March 2020 and assumed his functions on 1 May 2020. Mr Fakhri is a professor at the University of Oregon School of Law where he teaches courses on human rights, food law, development, and commercial law. He is also the director of the Food Resiliency Project in the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center. The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity. For inquiries and media requests, please contact Jamshid Gaziyev (jamshid.gaziyev@un.org or +41.79.444.4860). For inquiries and media requests in Venezuela, please contact Elena Ruiz (Communication and Advocacy Officer UN Venezuela, elena.ruizlabrador@un.org or +58 424 20 88609). For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts please contact Maya Derouaz (maya.derouaz@un.org) and Dharisha Indraguptha (dharisha.indraguptha@un.org). Follow news related to the UN’s independent human rights experts on X @UN_SPExperts