A/HRC/23/45
former President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Timor-Leste. DTP is affiliated
with the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
22.
The Independent Expert was invited to conduct and facilitate training sessions on the
right to international solidarity; human rights in development; economic, social and cultural
rights and the concept of State obligations; and extraterritorial obligations of States in the
field of economic, social and cultural rights. During her stay in Timor-Leste, the
Independent Expert also held informal consultations with several stakeholders on the right
to international solidarity. One of the recommendations coming out of the consultations was
for DTP to include the right to international solidarity as one of its main topics in all its
training courses. Mr. Ramos Horta, in his class for the trainees, stressed that the
independence of Timor-Leste had been made possible because of international solidarity.
2.
Asia Development Alliance
23.
The Independent Expert attended, as a key speaker, the first regional meeting of the
Asia Development Alliance (ADA) held from 31 January to 2 February 2013 in Bangkok,
which brought together CSOs from across Asia. The meeting was held on the theme
―Promote Asian solidarity for the world we want: Asian CSO strategies on global
development challenges‖.4 The meeting emphasized the importance of solidarity among
national and subnational CSO platforms in Asia in building a global vision and strategies in
terms of engaging in global processes, such as the United Nations development agenda
beyond 2015 and the Millennium Development Goals, the follow-up to the Fourth Highlevel Forum on Aid Effectiveness, held in Busan in 2011, and other related processes.
24.
The main objective of ADA is to promote more effective international cooperation
and solidarity among CSOs in partnership with like-minded international CSO networks
engaged in the promotion of sustainable human development in the context of the post2015/Millennium Development Goals process. The ADA meeting focused on: (a) sharing –
sharing of experiences among national platforms about their activities as well as their
advocacy work on an enabling environment; (b) analysis – reflection on key international
and regional issues, trends and challenges facing national platforms with a focus on
international processes and meetings; and (c) strategizing – making joint action plans based
on a common event calendar and designing a sustainable facilitation and coordination
mechanism. Two parallel sessions were held: one entitled ―Enabling Environment for CSO
Development Effectiveness‖, the other ―Financing for Development – Beyond the
Monterrey Consensus‖. The ADA meeting was hosted by the Asian Forum for Human
Rights and Development, and co-convened by the Voluntary Action Network India, for
South Asia; the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia and the Caucus of Development
NGO Networks (Philippines), for South-East Asia; and the Korea NGO Council for
Overseas Development Cooperation, for North-East Asia.
III. International Human Solidarity Day
25.
In its resolution 60/209, the General Assembly identified solidarity as one of the
fundamental and universal values that should underlie relations between peoples in the
twenty-first century, and in that regard decided to proclaim 20 December of every year as
International Human Solidarity Day. Through its resolution 57/265, the Assembly decided
to establish the World Solidarity Fund, which was set up in February 2003 as a trust fund of
4
10
See International Forum of National NGO Platforms, ―Asian Voice for the World We Want 2015:
Asian Development Alliance Bangkok Declaration 2013‖, 13 February 2013, available from
www.ong-ngo.org.
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents