A/HRC/4/47 page 6 II. SUMMARY OF THE PROCEEDINGS A. Consideration of the report of the high-level task force on the implementation of the right to development and consideration of next steps (agenda items 4(a) and (b)) 18. Algeria made a general statement on behalf of the Group of African States. Referring to resolution 60/251 of the General Assembly, it underscored the centrality of the right to development in the framework of promoting and protecting human rights and its importance in relation to the mandate of the Human Rights Council. The Group of African States reaffirmed that only a non-fragmented approach, including equitable international trade rules and responses to energy, raw material and debt burden issues, could reduce the growing gap between developing and developed countries. In a framework of fighting poverty, the Group of African States called for international cooperation exclusive of conditionality. In relation to the future work of the task force, the African Group recommended examining questions contributing to the elaboration of a convention on the right to development. 19. Cuba, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), reasserted the importance and centrality of the right to development in the mandate of the Human Rights Council and stressed that, since the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development, 20 years ago, very little had been shown in terms of implementation of this right by the international community. In the current globalization context, NAM underscored inter alia the lack of autonomy of developing countries as regards decision-making to formulate development policies suitable to their realities; unfair trade rules and practices that restrict market access and allow for export subsidies; a decrease in and failure to comply with commitments to official development assistance and transfer of technology and heavy debt burdens, as a factor of permanent decapitalization of developing countries. Referring to the Declaration on the Right to Development, NAM reaffirmed the duty of States to cooperate for the creation of conditions conducive to realizing the right to development. In this context, it called for international cooperation that is not subject to conditionality, nor be treated as a matter of charity. The instrumental nature of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 8 in realizing the other seven Goals was underlined. In the context of the work of the task force on the criteria for periodic evaluation of global development partnerships from a rights-to-development perspective, NAM called for the identification of gaps in the consideration of the various partnerships and contributing to the elaboration of a convention on the right to development, in line with the General Assembly resolution 61/169. 20. In a general statement on behalf of the European Union (EU), the candidate countries Turkey, Croatia and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the countries of the Stabilization and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, Germany reaffirmed the firm commitment of the EU to the realization of the right to development. The EU underscored the primary responsibility of States for the promotion and protection of all human rights, including the right to development; responsibility to create internal conditions favourable to their development, and to cooperate at an international level in eliminating obstacles to development. The EU reiterated its support to the work of the task force, and welcomed the development of innovative instruments and indicators, as reflected in the consideration of the African Peer