A/HRC/21/19 I. Introduction 1. The open-ended Working Group on the Right to Development was established by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 1998/72 and the Economic and Social Council in its decision 1998/269 with a mandate to monitor and review progress made in the promotion and implementation of the right to development, as elaborated in the Declaration on the Right to Development, at the national and international levels, providing recommendations thereon and further analysing obstacles to its full enjoyment, focusing each year on specific commitments in the Declaration; to review reports and any other information submitted by States, United Nations agencies, other relevant international organizations and non-governmental organizations on the relationship between their activities and the right to development; and to present for the consideration of the former Commission on Human Rights (subsequently the Human Rights Council) a sessional report on its deliberations, including advice to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with regard to the implementation of the right to development, and suggesting possible programmes of technical assistance at the request of interested countries with the aim of promoting the implementation of the right to development. 2. The Human Rights Council, in its resolution 9/3, decided to renew the mandate of the Working Group until it completes the tasks entrusted to it by the Council in its resolution 4/4, and that the Working Group would convene annual sessions of five working days and submit its reports to the Council. 3. The Working Group accordingly convened its thirteenth session in Geneva from 7 to 11 May 2012. II. Organization of the session 4. The High Commissioner for Human Rights opened the session and underlined that justice, dignity and freedom from fear and want were the central tenets of the Declaration on the Right to Development. Human rights must be regarded as indispensible assets and indeed as the foundations of a global partnership for development that aimed at achieving the well-being of all people without discrimination. The full integration of the right to development into all areas of the work of the United Nations system and of international financial and trade institutions, as well as its major processes, such as the follow-up to the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC IV), the thirteenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII), the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the quadrennial comprehensive policy review and the post-2015 development agenda, was important. She pointed out that the politicization, the polarization and the impasse in the intergovernmental debate on the right to development had to end. A common objective should be to create a practical and operational framework for the implementation of the right to development, so as to realize the potential of that right with open, sustained engagement, including by encouraging the participation and input of a wider constituency. 1 1 For the full text of the High Commissioner’s statement, see www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12120&LangID=e. 3