A/HRC/36/35
B.
Report of the Secretary-General and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights on the right to development
35.
The Chief of the Right to Development Section of the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) introduced the report of the SecretaryGeneral and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the right to
development (A/HRC/33/31). The report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council
resolution 30/28 and General Assembly resolutions 48/141 and 70/155, contains an
overview of the activities of OHCHR relating to the right to development over the period
from May 2015 to June 2016, and a discussion on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development and the implementation of the right to development. The annexes to the
report contain key messages from OHCHR on human rights and financing for development
and on human rights and climate change, which have been widely used in advocating the
integration of human rights and the right to development in those important processes.
36.
OHCHR carried out several activities to promote the right to development, including
many to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development,
such as the publication of a fact sheet entitled “Frequently asked questions on the right to
development”4 and the production of a short video entitled “The right to development —
development is a human right”.5 In addition to advocating the integration of the right to
development into the financing for development, climate change and sustainable
development processes, OHCHR sought to mainstreaming human rights, including the right
to development, into United Nations system policies and operational activities and engage
cooperation. To conclude, the report highlighted that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development was informed by and grounded in the right to development and that follow-up
and review of the implementation of the Goals provided a solid basis for assessing the
progressive realization of the right to development.
37.
OHCHR launched its Human Rights Appeal 2017 in February 2017. The Appeal
provides a succinct overview of the fundamental challenges that the world will face in the
foreseeable future and spotlights the efforts that OHCHR plans to undertake to address
those challenges. OHCHR committed to support Member States in meeting their
commitments and obligations in relation to the 2030 Agenda. As requested by the Human
Rights Council in its resolution 33/14, the High Commissioner’s next annual report will
include an analysis of the implementation of the right to development, taking into account
existing challenges and making recommendations on how to overcome them.
38.
In the ensuing discussion, the representative of the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela, speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, recalled the requests to the
Secretary-General and the High Commissioner to integrate the right to development into
the work of the United Nations system and appealed to OHCHR to bolster the work
necessary to mainstream the right to development and support developing countries in
developing relevant policies. That required allocation of necessary resources and
cooperation with States in order to remove any stumbling blocks to achieving the right to
development. Concern was expressed about the scheduled dates for the next session of the
Working Group, which coincided with other important intergovernmental human rights
meetings.
39.
The representatives of South Africa and Pakistan expressed agreement with the NonAligned Movement and stressed that more needed to be done to ensure the fulfilment of the
right to development. They mentioned that the right to development-based approach had
contributed significantly to promoting the inextricable nature of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights. On the contrary, the United Nations human rights system had yet to adopt
through an intergovernmental process a human rights-based approach to development. They
noted that the report of the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner was heavily
slanted on that approach. They also noted that the report did not address concrete and
4
5
Available from www.ohchr.org/EN/PublicationsResources/Pages/FactSheets.aspx.
See https://www.youtube.com/embed/pdKfypBTtdI.
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