On 22 November 2016, a group of United Nations experts constituted 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 published a statement in which they affirmed that breastfeeding is a human rights issue for babies and mothers and should be protected and promoted for the benefit of both.

States should take urgent action to stop the “misleading, aggressive and inappropriate” marketing of breast-milk substitutes in a multi-billion-dollar global industry, say the UN Special Rapporteurs on the right to health, Dainius Pûras, and on the right to food, Hilal Elver, together with the Working Group on discrimination against women, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

• Read the joint statement  in support of increased efforts to promote, support and protect breastfeeding
• Read the UN News update on breastfeeding being a matter of human rights