A/HRC/17/25
and a High-Level Task Force on the implementation of the right to development (20042010).
28.
The right to development is a self-standing right,27 which includes all other human
rights. As the Declaration on the Rights to Development states in its article 1, it is a right
“by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in,
contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all
human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized."28 Accordingly, the right to
development includes the right to health guaranteed in ICESCR and other international
human rights treaties.29
29.
The right to development is a right of individuals and of peoples. It is
distinguishable from the right to health in this respect, which is more related to the
individual citizen’s relationship with the State. Nevertheless, overlap exists. General
comment No. 14 of CESCR confirms that the right to health, as outlined in Article 12 of the
ICESCR, has both collective and individual dimensions, and that collective rights are
critical in the field of health, as modern public health policy relies heavily on prevention
and promotion, approaches directed primarily towards groups.30 Similarly, both the right to
health and the right to development underline the imperative of ensuring transparency,
equality, participation, accountability and non-discrimination.31
30.
The right to health extends to the underlying determinants of health, embracing a
wide range of socio-economic factors that promote conditions in which people can lead a
healthy life,32 which necessarily incorporates other rights. Yet a distinct feature of the right
to development is its focus on a process of simultaneously advancing the full range of
human rights. In this regard the words of former independent expert on the right to
development and former chairperson of the Working Group on the Right to Development,
Arjun Sengupta, are illustrative. As he notes: “the right to health could be implemented on
its own, but when treated as a component of the right to development, its realization must
include policies to expand resources as well as institutions over time, taking into account
competing claims of other rights which must be coordinated with the right to health. Such
exercise might imply a much larger claim on resources and much greater inputs from
international cooperation than would be the case for the fulfilment of the right to health by
itself.”33
31.
The comprehensive nature of the right to development has the potential to encourage
cross-sectoral collaboration and decrease “siloing” in pursuing realization of rights, and the
right could be also used to address the underlying determinants of health through provision
of public goods and distributive justice.34
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
10
Laure-Hélène Piron, The Right to Development: A Review of the Current State of the Debate for the
Department for International Development, Department for International Development (April 2002),
p. 31
A/RES/41/128, art. 1
A/RES/41/128
E/C.12/2000/4, note 30.
E/CN.4/2005/WG.18/2, para. 32.
E/C.12/2000/4, para. 4.
Arjun. K. Sengupta, preface in Stephen P. Marks (ed.), Implementing the Right to Development: The
Role of International Law, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung & Harvard School of Public Health, 2008.
Benjamin Mason Meier and Ashley M. Fox, “Development as health: Employing the Collective Right
to Development to Achieve the Goals of the Individual Right to Health”, Human Rights Quarterly,
vol. 30, No. 2 (May 2008), pp. 318, 338-339.
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents