A/HRC/19/70
56. Particular attention should be paid to the crucial role of free, active and
meaningful participation in the development process including by women, persons
with disabilities, indigenous peoples, minorities, children and youth, utilizing existing
and available normative instruments. The principle of free, prior and informed
consent of affected communities should be respected at all stages of development
decision-making. New and innovative tools and approaches to participation were
encouraged, such as public budget monitoring, participatory video and other means
by which individuals reclaim control over both the form and content of participation,
as well as experimental and improvisational cultural processes.
57. Civil society has to take the lead as the engine for the realization of the right to
development. Wider space for civil society and an enabling environment for active civil
society engagement was a critical element of the right to development. Civil society
organizations had a legitimate role at the micro, meso and macro levels, and should
not be seen purely in terms of service delivery.
58. International cooperation, international solidarity, the role of culture and the
right to education were all essential in achieving the right to development and in
creating an enabling environment for its realization. It was stressed that obstacles to
development had to be eliminated, including addressing asymmetries in the global
market, the failing dominant economic model, financial regulation through a human
rights lens, exploitation of natural resources, and conflict and war. There was a need
for political will, both at national and international levels and a need for human
rights-based policy coherence.
59. A new compact for development cooperation should emphasize more inclusive
aid architecture, effective State institutions, climate finance, aid for trade, and the
private sector. Human rights must be at the heart of any new development cooperation
architecture, advocating operationalization of a right to development framework,
policy coherence, accountability and civil society participation.
60. The preamble to the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization
provides that “sustainable development” is a goal of the organization together with the
need for positive efforts designed to ensure that developing countries, secure a share in
the growth in international trade commensurate with their economic and sustainable
development needs. However, other participants pointed out that multilateral and
bilateral trade agreements and the resultant trade arrangements had far-reaching and
often adverse implications on the realization of person’s right to development in lowincome countries. Multidimensional aspects of the right to development and all human
rights must be mainstreamed in the programmes of United Nations bodies, such as the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and other international
organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the World Intellectual
Property Organization, and into all thematic agenda of the international community;
such aspect include climate change and justice, LDCs, trade and investments,
education and culture, etc.
B.
Recommendations
61. The Human Rights Council should advance the right to development in parallel
with intergovernmental processes and the building of a wider constituency through
encouraging the broadest participation of civil society and all other relevant
stakeholders in promoting the right to development.
62. Implementation of the right to development is enhanced through a range of
measures at national, regional and global levels that aim at promoting social and
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