The Legal Gap in Famine Declarations: A Case Study of Gaza and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification

Abstract

This paper presents a critical analysis of the procedural and legal weaknesses of international recognition of famine, which will be the international crisis of 2025 in Gaza as a case. Although according to Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), World Health Organization (WHO), and other UN officials, the conditions of famine that was observed were beyond any doubt that is, acute malnutrition over 15 percent, more than two deaths per 10000 people per day and drastic shortages in the consumption of food, there was no binding claim made by the law. This inconsistency of confirmed technical facts and official legal recognition implies a conceptual lapse in international humanitarian law. The research applies a qualitative case study design to combine a doctrinal analysis of law and process tracing to investigate how political, institutional and sovereignty-related issues hinder the application of empirical data on famine into enforceable humanitarian intervention. The results reveal that the lack of binding famine-declaration mechanisms under international law permits a political instrumentalization of data, postpones intervention, and undermines responsibility of starvation-associated abuses. The Gaza example has shown that famine recognition is a political choice and not an obligation of law or morality. The way to deal with this gap is to incorporate IPC famine thresholds into binding international mechanisms and enhance data transparency and provide independent monitoring mechanisms. A narrowing of the gap between technical verification and legal enforcement is a key to provision of a timely humanitarian response, protection of the right to food and maintenance of the international justice regarding the crisis in the future.