The Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition was adopted on 16 November 1974, by governments who attended the 1974 World Food Conference that was convened under General Assembly resolution 3180 (XXVIII) of 17 December 1973.

Although it has been accepted that obtaining exact statistics regarding world hunger is difficult, it is believed that in the early 1960s, there were approximately 900 million undernourished individuals worldwide.

This growing concern was an important factor leading to the first World Food Conference convening in Rome in 1974[10] in an attempt to uncover an adequate solution in order to combat this issue.

The Declaration itself identifies that the key purpose in its adoption was to develop more adequate means for the international community as a whole, to take action to resolve the world hunger problem.

This Declaration highlighted the urgency of attending to this matter and called for rapid and sustained action to bring an end to this menacing problem of world hunger.

It also sought to remind the world that the access to adequate food is an essential factor in the full development of an individual's physical and mental faculties.

Because of this, a number of human rights advocates such as the United Nations and the World Food Summit have since been calling for further action in the attempt to end this crisis.

[22] These organisations now believe that the best way to bring an end to this crisis is through the implementation of enforceable international laws that guarantee the right for people to be free from hunger.