A/HRC/36/35
Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group, covered all the broad consensual categories and
elements enshrined in the Declaration on the Right to Development. Those standards could
serve as basic policy guidelines and pave the way for the establishment of a normative
framework. The myriad problems faced today required a multifaceted approach by States,
internally, externally and collectively, including a gender-based approach, quality
education, equitable and preferential market access, technological advances and support for
debt servicing, which could help to establish a fair and human rights-sensitive economic
and financial order.
23.
The representative of Algeria, expressing agreement with the Non-Aligned
Movement, the African Group and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, noted that
social and economic stability was important to ensure not just the needs of present
generations, but also of future generations. The Working Group should focus on
international cooperation and solidarity in relation to the right to development and the need
to work on new approaches to realize the right.
24.
The representative of Brazil stated that the Working Group had to conclude
unfinished business and make progress with deliberations in order to be more relevant to
the discussions on development, especially the 2030 Agenda. The 2030 Agenda placed
people squarely at the centre of development, just like the right to development,
international cooperation and the removal of obstacles to development. The profile of the
right to development had to be raised, including by mainstreaming it in the work of the
Human Rights Council and the United Nations system as a whole.
25.
The representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela stated that, without the
realization of the right to development, enjoyment of all other human rights could not be
attained, and that it required the development of an adequate international legal framework
in the context of the 2030 Agenda. Unilateral coercive measures against countries in the
Global South impeded peoples from advancing towards full sovereignty and development,
thereby violating basic human rights. The world economic crisis created by the capitalist
system, the denial of resource and technology transfer and the foreign debt burden all
impacted on the implementation of the right to development.
26.
The delegate from Ecuador, expressing agreement with the Non-Aligned Movement,
stated that a genuine global partnership was needed that would make it possible to
restructure relationships between developed and developing countries and to address the
unfair distribution of wealth, reform discriminatory and perverse power structures, establish
an independent and transparent international mechanism to manage sovereign debt,
promote fiscal justice, clamp down on tax evasion and havens and advance towards a
binding instrument on business and human rights.
27.
The delegate from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
expressing agreement with the European Union, stated that the United Kingdom fully
supported the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights. The right to
development required the full realization of civil and political rights and the progressive
realization of economic, social and cultural rights, in addition to credible development
policies and good governance. The United Kingdom was not in favour of an international
legal standard of a binding nature on the right to development. It was fully committed to
delivering the Sustainable Development Goals, both at home and around the world, and
considered the agenda a framework through which the world could combat the most
pressing challenges of our time.
28.
The delegate from the United States of America stated that the United States was
committed to international development as a critical element of its foreign policy. The
United States considered that there was a strong link between human rights and
development. However, for several reasons, it has long-standing concerns about the concept
of the “right to development”, in terms of definition and how it has been framed. For those
reasons, it had consistently expressed objection to references to “the right to development”
in General Assembly and Human Rights Council resolutions, and had serious reservations
with respect to the direction of the related work and had made several proposals. Although
it fully agreed that changes were necessary, because of those and other concerns that it had
expressed in several previous Working Group sessions, and which have yet to be
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