GENEVA — Turkish academic Hilal Elver was appointed as United Nations special rapporteur on right to food, on Thursday in Geneva. Elver is a professor of global studies at the University of California and Co-Director of the Climate Change Project. Her husband Richard Falk recently completed a six-year term as a special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories. Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or specific human rights theme. This position is honorary and the expert is not a staff of the United Nations nor paid for his/her work.