A/HRC/8/9 page 3 Introduction 1. In its resolution 62/161 entitled, “The right to development”, the General Assembly reaffirmed the request to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in mainstreaming the right to development, to undertake effectively activities aimed at strengthening the global partnership for development between Member States, development agencies and the international development, financial and trade institutions, and to reflect those activities in detail in her next report to the Human Rights Council. The General Assembly also requested the Secretary-General to submit a report at its sixty-third session, an interim report to the Council on the implementation of resolution 62/161, including efforts undertaken at the national, regional and international levels in the promotion and realization of the right to development, and invited the Chairperson of the Working Group on the Right to Development to present a verbal update to the Assembly at its sixty-third session. 2. The present report is submitted in accordance with the above-mentioned requests. ACTIVITIES OF THE OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS RELATING TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT 3. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) continued to provide organizational, substantive and analytical support to the open-ended Working Group on the Right to Development, which is mandated to monitor and review progress made in the promotion and implementation of the right to development, providing recommendations and further analysing obstacles to its full enjoyment. 4. In addition, OHCHR continued to provide similar support to the high-level task force on the implementation of the right to development, established under Commission on Human Rights resolution 2004/7. The objective of the task force is to provide the necessary expertise to the Working Group to enable it to make appropriate recommendations to various actors on the issues identified for the implementation of the right to development. The task force comprises five experts nominated by the Chairperson of the Working Group on the Right to Development. 5. The criteria adopted by the Working Group in 2006 for the periodic evaluation of global partnerships for development - as identified in Millennium Development Goal 8 - from the perspective of the right to development (“the right-to-development criteria”) and their subsequent application, refinement and progressive development constitute important steps forward towards the operationalization of the right to development, reflecting the concrete and pragmatic approach taken by the Working Group in its deliberations. The efforts to operationalize the right to development through the progressive development of the criteria have contributed to the creation of an environment conducive to undertaking activities aimed at strengthening global partnerships for development between Member States, development agencies and the international development, financial and trade institutions.