A/HRC/21/28 20. The International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions held a panel discussion in March 2012 on national human rights institutions and the right to development. The main purpose of the discussion was to give the institutions the chance to exchange information and experiences on their activities at the national level on the right to development, and also to hear from relevant United Nations bodies and mechanisms on their experience. Presentations were made by the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the national human rights institutions of Cameroon, Nicaragua and Thailand. 21. In March 2012, the Human Rights Division of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan organized a two-day training workshop for civil society organizations on human rights and the role of such organizations in the realization of the South Sudan Development Plan. The scope of the discussion was based on, inter alia, the definition of development as included in the Declaration on the Right to Development. The three-year plan of the Mission aims at achieving security, development, economic growth and the reduction of poverty. Participants were trained on skills, techniques and approaches to monitoring the developmental goals spelled out in the Plan. Participants also learned how to work with other partners in South Sudan to promote the right to development. Participants in the workshop also looked at the role of the legislature, the executive and the judiciary in promoting and protecting the right to development and at the progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights as laid out in the transitional Constitution of South Sudan. 22. OHCHR provided inputs to a number of events, such as a panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming and international cooperation organized during the nineteenth session of the Human Rights Council12 and the high-profile panel discussion hosted by the High Commissioner on International Women’s Day, on the theme “Capitalizing on women’s potential in times of crisis”. 23. The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, during her visit to the Solomon Islands in March 2012, urged the Government and the country’s development partners to launch specific programmes targeting women and their right to development and the right to a life free from violence. 13 The mission was underpinned by the recognition of the ongoing challenges faced by the Solomon Islands in overcoming poverty and underdevelopment, as well as the efforts made by the Government, together with its development partners, to achieve this important goal. 24. OHCHR provided secretariat support to the Open-ended Working Group on the Right to Development, which convened its thirteenth session in Geneva from 7 to 11 May 2012. At the session, the Working Group focused on a first reading of the criteria proposed by the high-level task force, collecting views thereon or on refinements to the proposed criteria, as well as proposals for additional criteria. The High Commissioner opened the session and underlined the fact that justice, dignity and freedom from fear and want were central tenets of the right to development. Human rights must be regarded as indispensible assets and indeed as the foundations of a global partnership for development that aims 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), the thirteenth session of UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the quadrennial comprehensive policy review and the development agenda 12 13 See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=11894&LangID=E. See www.OHCHR.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=11983&LangID=E. 7