A/HRC/27/27
its principles to presentations by youth on a variety of themes of particular relevance to
young people.
38.
In October 2013, OHCHR made a presentation at a training course organized by the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Bosnia for economies in
transition on a new generation of international investment policies. The presentation
focused on the human rights impact of trade and investment agreements. In November
2013, OHCHR organized jointly with the United Nations Development Programme and
Transparency International, and in cooperation with Austria, Morocco and Poland, a side
event on the human rights case against corruption during the fifth session of the Conference
of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption in Panama. The
event concluded, inter alia, that effective anti-corruption efforts are essential to the creation
of an enabling environment for development at both the national and international levels, as
envisaged in the Declaration on the Right to Development. Also in November, OHCHR
provided a briefing on the right to development to some 50 European Union staff members
in charge of human rights within the European Commission and the European External
Action Service. The briefing covered the broad mandate of the High Commissioner with
regard to the right to development, and the challenges faced in the implementation of this
right. In January 2014, OHCHR delivered a briefing for Commonwealth Member States on
the right to development, with a particular focus on the draft right to development criteria
and sub-criteria, including entry points, opportunities and technical aspects for Member
States to contribute to the revision of the draft criteria and sub-criteria within the Working
Group on the Right to Development.
39.
In March 2014, the High Commissioner addressed a side event held during the
twenty-fifth session of the Human Rights Council on the theme “Africa and the right to
development: towards the post-2015 development agenda”, organized by Egypt, the
African Union and the National Council for Human Rights of Egypt. Against the backdrop
of challenges faced by the continent in achieving sustainable and inclusive development,
including inequitable and exploitative economic arrangements, poverty, inequalities and
vulnerabilities, discrimination, conflict and disproportionate effects of climate change,
participants in the event stressed in their presentations and discussions the need to place the
right to development at the centre of the post-2015 agenda and sustainable development
goals. The High Commissioner called for a new agenda aligned with the human rights
framework, with the right to development at its centre, underpinned by a strong
accountability framework of goals, targets and indicators. She advocated a new social and
international order strengthened by the right to development to address systemic failures,
structural injustices and responsibility gaps in global governance, and a genuine global
partnership for development.
40.
Also in March, OHCHR participated in a side event on human rights and sustainable
development, organized by the Permanent Mission of Gabon. OHCHR spoke on the theme
“The right to development and its inclusion in the post-2015 development agenda”.
Recalling the universal human rights framework, the Declaration on the Right to
Development and the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development, OHCHR stressed the need to place the right to development at the centre of
the post-2015 development agenda and sustainable development goals, together with a
strong framework for accountability.
41.
In Addis Ababa, OHCHR participated in conferences organized by the Economic
Commission for Africa in close partnership with the African Union on such themes as
gender, development, statistics, trade, finance and justice, with a view to highlight the
imperative and value of integrating the right to development and a human rights-based
approach into the formulation, implementation and monitoring of policies and strategies in
different fields. Interactions with the African Peer Review Mechanism Unit of the
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