HRC for study of obstacles from financial, trade systems

by Chakravarthi Raghavan

Geneva, 19 April 2001 - - Recognizing the functioning of the international financial and trading systems, the current intellectual property regime and the excessive debt burdens, as among the obstacles to the full realization of the right to development, the UN Human Rights Commission (HRC) has mandated an independent expert to prepare a study on the impact of these issues on the enjoyment of human rights.

The Commission adopted Monday by an overwhelming majority of 48 votes against two (Japan and the United States) and three abstentions (Canada, South Korea and the UK) a comprehensive resolution on the Right to Development which among other things extended the mandate of the Independent Expert, Dr. Arjun Sengupta of India, for three years, and the mandate of its open-ended Working Group for one year.

In the resolution, the Commission said the gap between the developed and developing countries remained “unacceptably wide”, and that developing countries continued to face difficulties in participating in the globalization process, with many risking marginalisation and effective exclusion from its benefits.

The Commission recognized the need for a suitable permanent follow-up mechanism for the implementation of the right to development in the future, and extended for another year the mandate of the open-ended Working Group of the Commission studying this issue.

Before voting on the resolution, tabled by South Africa and Mexico on behalf of the members of the Non-Aligned Movement and China, the Commission had turned down by equally big margins, amendments by Canada to delete from the resolution the paragraphs on the obstacles to development arising from the financial and trading system and the intellectual property rights regime; and the paras on the mandate to the Independent Expert to study these questions. Canada, Germany, Japan, Poland, the UK and the USA were the only six voting for the amendments.

At previous sessions of the Commission, as well as the ECOSOC and UN General Assembly and other bodies, the US has been insisting that the right to development was an individual right, and that the only role of States was to democratise and adopt the free-trade-free-market system, and development would automatically follow.

On the issues relating to the financial and trading systems and related issues, and the mandate to the independent expert, resolution said:

“21.. Recognizes, while bearing in mind the existing efforts in this respect, the importance of evaluating the impact of international financial, economic, monetary and multilateral trading systems on the enjoyment of human rights, while noting that issues such as those listed below are obstacles to the full realization of the right to development:

* (a) the functioning of the international financial system, including macroeconomic decision-making,

* (b) the international trading system, including barriers to market access,

* (c) the existing intellectual property rights regime, impediments to transfer of technology and the need for bridging the knowledge gap (‘the digital divide’),

* (d) the excessive debt burden, gaps in the fulfilment of international development commitments and issues relating to migrants;

“22.Requests the independent expert to prepare, in consultation with all relevant United Nations agencies and the Bretton Woods Institutions, a preliminary study on the impact of these issues on the enjoyment of human rights for consideration by the Working Group at its future sessions;

“23. Requests the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN specialized agencies, UN funds and programmes, the international financial institutions and other relevant actors to collaborate with the independent expert in the fulfilment of his mandate and encourages future cooperation;

“24. Requests the open-ended working group on the right to development as well as the independent expert on the right to development, to consider, as appropriate, the relevant economic and development outcomes of the international conferences, inter alia the South Summit of the Group of 77 and the follow-up thereto, in elaborating their recommendations for the implementation of the right to development;”

In subsequent paragraphs, the Rights Commission said:

“Decides, in view of the urgent need to make further progress towards the realization of the right to development as elaborated in the Declaration on the Right to Development and based on the established practice of the Commission on Human rights (a) to extend the mandate of the open-ended Working Group on the Right to Development for one year, (b) to extend the mandate of the independent expert for three years”.

In other paragraphs of the resolution, the HRC expressed its appreciation of the work of the Working Group and of the Independent Expert and the proposal for a ‘development compact’, and requested the expert to clarify further the development compact, formulate an operational model, country-specific studies.

The resolution reaffirmed the right to development and the realization of that right as essential to the implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action on Human Rights, and that States have the primary responsibility for creation of national and international conditions favourable to the realization of the right to development and the commitment to cooperate with each other to that end.

In the resolution, the HRC recognized that for realizing the right to development, national actions and international cooperation must reinforce each other in a manner going beyond measures for realizing each individual right, that the international cooperation for realizing right to development should be conducted in a spirit of partnership, in full respect of all human rights.

For many developing countries, the Commission said, the realization of the rights, inter alia, to food, health and education may be important entry points to the realization of the right to development and that the concept of ‘development compact’ is intended to give expression to some basic tenets of the interdependence of all human rights and national ownership of development strategies.

In other parts of the resolution, the Commission called for enabling legal, political, economic and social environment for realization of the right to development; the need to prevent, address and take effective action against corruption at both national and international levels; the importance of the role of the State, civil society, free and independent media, national institutions, the private sector and other relevant institutions; the role of women, the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women as an effective means to combat poverty, hunger and disease, the need to pay special attention to persons belonging to minorities; the right to development of children and with special attention to the rights of the girl child.

In another paragraph, the Commission “reaffirms the need for States to cooperate  with each other in ensuring development and eliminating obstacles to development and recognizes the importance of the international community promoting effective international cooperation for the realization of the right to development” and that effective realization of this right “requires effective development policies at the national level, as well as equitable economic relations and a favourable economic environment at the international level.” – SUNS4880

The above article first appeared in the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS) of which Chakravarthi Raghavan is the Chief Editor.

[c] 2001, SUNS - All rights reserved. May not be reproduced, reprinted or posted to any system or service without specific permission from SUNS. This limitation includes incorporation into a database, distribution via Usenet News, bulletin board systems, mailing lists, print media or broadcast. For information about reproduction or multi-user subscriptions please contact: suns@igc.org