A/HRC/24/37 national and international responsibilities, and to ensure access to resources by developing countries and their participation in global decision-making for the realization of the right to development. It called for systemic reforms and the establishment of a mechanism within the United Nations to evaluate the incorporation of the right to development in its work. The right to development was on par with all other human rights and its criteria and subcriteria should evolve into an international legal standard. 17. The European Union reiterated its commitment to sustainable development and poverty eradication. The right to development was based on the interdependence and indivisibility of all rights, and required that human rights and development policies make the human being the central subject. The European Union emphasized that States had primary responsibility for the creation of national and international conditions for development. 18. Sri Lanka said that it had taken steps to implement the right to development nationally with effective results such as rural development, high literacy rates and free health care. However, national responsibility alone was not enough, and the international element was essential for the realization of the right to development, including mainstreaming this right in the United Nations. Pakistan said that cross-cutting issues of the global economic crisis must be considered by the Working Group in order to build an enabling environment for development. 19. The United States of America stated that it was determined to engage in a constructive discussion to make the right to development unifying rather than divisive. It would not join a consensus on negotiating a binding treaty and believed that the Working Group should consider limiting the criteria and subcriteria to a few critical elements that focused on the human rights aspects of the right to development. It was of the view that indicators were consistent with development practice and necessary for evaluating its most significant effect on the lives of the largest number of people. International financial institutions did not have human rights obligations, States did not have human rights, and the primary responsibility for development rested with States. The Working Group should align criteria with specific rights and emphasized non-discrimination, gender and women’s rights, and good governance. The United States of America said it did not support subcriteria on the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the World Bank, nor the discussion of specific treaties such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. This should be discussed within a separate intergovernmental process, for instance, within the context of the post-2015 development agenda. 20. According to Switzerland, the right to development was a universal principle arising from human rights codification as a whole. The right to development could bring development and human rights together, and the full realization of human rights for all was the ultimate goal of development. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals required policy coherence toward global partnership that took the right to development into account. States had primary responsibility for the creation of national and international conditions conducive to the right to development. The Fourth High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness called for international cooperation to meet the challenge of development. A human rightsbased approach was necessary to strengthen partnership for development. Switzerland did not think that a legally binding instrument on the right to development was a solution, but would support continuing dialogue and pragmatic solutions. The criteria and subcriteria could lead to a political agreement on guidelines for global partnership. 21. China said that the right to development was an inalienable human right and the process of development was not balanced. The international community should strengthen partnership for development and improve mechanisms of global governance. The United Nations played a leadership role in setting up an effective framework for sustainable 7

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