A/HRC/21/19 5. At its first meeting, on 7 May 2012, the Working Group re-elected by acclamation Tamara Kunanayakam (Sri Lanka) as Chairperson-Rapporteur and adopted its agenda (see annex I) as well as its programme of work. 6. In her opening statement, the Chairperson-Rapporteur recalled the mandate of the Working Group and the deliberations that had taken place at the previous session, and referred to the intersessional informal consultations. Expressing the hope that the twenty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development would provide inspiration to move forward, to confront and eliminate the obstacles in the way of its implementation, and to help translate commitments into practical action and enable its realization, she underlined the importance of forging a vision and purpose in moving forward and making progress in considering, revising and refining the right to development criteria and operational sub-criteria. The Chairperson-Rapporteur pointed out that in the light of the historical, cultural, social and economic specificities and backgrounds among countries it was natural that there would be differences of opinion and interpretation. She appealed to delegations to continue the discussions in a constructive spirit and atmosphere with a view to adopting conclusions and recommendations by consensus, following past practice. 7. Prior to the adoption of the agenda and programme of work, there was discussion about the use of the Declaration on the Right to Development as a basis against which to evaluate the criteria and operational sub-criteria developed by the high-level task force on the implementation of the right to development (A/HRC/15/WG.2/TF/2/Add.2), as well as on consideration of the indicators elaborated by the task force in discussions on the criteria and operational sub-criteria. In that context, the European Union stated that it would be making comments on the indicators when discussing the sub-criteria. Egypt (on behalf of the NonAligned Movement) stated that the mandate of the Human Rights Council referred to the criteria and sub-criteria, not to indicators, which should not be on the table for consideration. This position was supported by Senegal (on behalf of the African Group) and Cuba. 8. In that regard, the Chairperson-Rapporteur recalled her consultation on 30 April 2012 with the coordinators of the regional and political groups, at which it was agreed that the Working Group would commence with consideration of all the criteria, followed by the sub-criteria. She added that, on the issue of indicators, one group of States had felt that the indicators should be addressed by the Working Group, while another had pointed out that the Working Group had no mandate to do so, although it would be open to examining the possibility of adapting the language in such a manner as to subsume certain indicators under the category sub-criteria, if that was considered appropriate. 9. At the session, the Working Group focused on a first reading of the criteria proposed by the task force, collecting views thereon and on refinements to the proposed criteria, as well as proposals for additional criteria. For that purpose, the Working Group had before it two conference room papers (A/HRC/WG.2/13/CRP.1 and 2) containing, respectively, submissions received from Governments, groups of Governments and regional groups, and submissions from other relevant stakeholders, including United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and institutions, as well as other relevant multilateral institutions and forums. The papers were prepared by the secretariat pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 19/34. III. Summary of proceedings A. Opening statements 10. Senegal, speaking on behalf of the African Group, pointed out that developing countries had used the framework of international negotiations to promote the right to 4