October 2016

UNITED NATIONS CREATES NEW MANDATE ON RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT

In recognition of the importance of the right to development as spelled out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN”s Human Rights Council recently adopted a resolution to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development. While the resolution received support from a number of developing countries, the EU, however withheld its support. 

By Kanaga Raja

            The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) decided on 29 September to appoint, for a period of three years, a Special Rapporteur on the right to development.

            The mandate of the new Special Rapporteur will include amongst others to contribute "to the promotion, protection and fulfilment of the right to development" in the context of the coherent and integrated implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other internationally agreed outcomes of 2015.

            These include the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

            To this effect, the Special Rapporteur is to engage with member states and other stakeholders and participate in relevant international meetings and conferences.

            A draft resolution proposing the appointment of the Special Rapporteur on the right to development was tabled by Venezuela on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), at the recently concluded thirty-third session of the Human Rights Council.

            The resolution (A/HRC/33/L. 29), as orally revised, was adopted by a vote of 34 in favour, two against and 11 abstentions.

            Those that voted in favour were: Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Burundi, China, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Togo, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Viet Nam.

            France and the United Kingdom voted against the resolution.

            Those that abstained were: Albania, Belgium, Georgia, Germany, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

            The mandate of the new Special Rapporteur as set out in the adopted resolution, also includes:

(i) To engage and support efforts to mainstream the right to development among various United Nations bodies, development agencies, international development, financial and trade institutions, and to submit proposals aimed at strengthening the revitalized global partnership for sustainable development from the perspective of the right to development;

(ii) To contribute to the work of the Working Group on the Right to Development with a view to supporting the accomplishment of its overall mandate, taking into account, inter alia, the deliberations and recommendations of the Working Group while avoiding any duplication;

(iii) To submit any specific study requested by the Human Rights Council in accordance with its mandate;

(iv) To submit an annual report to the Human Rights Council and to the General Assembly covering all activities relating to the mandate, with a view to maximizing the benefits of the reporting process.

            The Human Rights Council invited all Governments to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur in the performance of the tasks and duties mandated including by providing all necessary information requested and to give due consideration to the recommendations of the mandate holder.

            It requested the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner (for Human Rights) to provide the Special Rapporteur with the administrative, logistical and staff support necessary for the implementation of the mandate under the present resolution.

            The Council encouraged relevant bodies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, including United Nations specialized agencies, funds and programmes, relevant international organizations, including the World Trade Organization and relevant stakeholders, including civil society organizations, to give due consideration to the right to development in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and to contribute further to the work of the Working Group and to cooperate with the High Commissioner and the Special Rapporteur in the fulfilment of their mandates with regard to the implementation of the right to development.

            In its resolution, the Council emphasized the urgent need to make the right to development a reality for everyone.

            It also emphasized that all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development, can only be enjoyed in an inclusive and collaborative framework, at the international, regional and national levels.

            In this regard, it underlined the importance of engaging the United Nations system, including United Nations specialized agencies, funds and programmes, within their respective mandates, relevant international organizations, including financial and trade organizations, and relevant stakeholders, including civil society organizations, development practitioners, human rights experts and the public at all levels, in discussions on the right to development.

            The Council stressed that the responsibility for managing worldwide economic and social issues and threats to international peace and security must be shared among the nations of the world and should be exercised multilaterally, and that, in this regard, the central role must be played by the United Nations as the most universal and representative organization in the world.

            It welcomed the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and emphasized that the 2030 Agenda is informed by the Declaration on the Right to Development and that the right to development provides a vital enabling environment for the full realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.

            The Human Rights Council recognized that achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the unmet Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals, requires effective policy coherence and coordination.

            It also recognized that hunger and extreme poverty, in all its forms and dimensions, "are the greatest global challenges and require the collective commitment of the international community for their eradication."

            It therefore called upon the international community to contribute to the achievement of that goal, in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals.

            The Council emphasized that all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development, are "universal, indivisible, interdependent and inter-related".

            It underlined that the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals will require the strengthening of "a new, more equitable and sustainable national and international order", as well as the promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

            The Council took note of the commitment declared by a number of United Nations specialized agencies, funds and programmes and other international organizations to make the right to development a reality for all.

            In this regard, it urged all relevant bodies of the United Nations system and other international organizations "to mainstream the right to development into their objectives, policies, programmes and operational activities, as well as into development and development-related processes, including the follow-up to the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries".

            The Council stressed the primary responsibility of States for the creation of national and international conditions favourable to the realization of the right to development.

            It recognized that Member States should cooperate with each other in ensuring development and eliminating lasting obstacles to development, that the international community should promote effective international cooperation, in particular global partnerships for development, for the realization of the right to development and the elimination of obstacles to development, and that lasting progress towards the implementation of the right to development requires "effective development policies at the national level, as well as equitable economic relations and a favourable economic environment at the international level".

            It affirmed that the thirtieth anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development presents a unique opportunity for the international community to demonstrate and reiterate its unequivocal commitment to the right to development, recognizing the high profile it deserves, and redoubling its efforts to implement this right.

            The Council requested the High Commissioner to continue to submit to the Human Rights Council an annual report on the activities of the Office of the High Commissioner, including on inter-agency coordination within the United Nations system that have direct relevance to the realization of the right to development, and to provide an analysis of its implementation, taking into account the existing challenges and making recommendations on how to overcome them, in its next annual report.

            The Council urged the High Commissioner to pursue his efforts, in fulfilment of his mandated responsibility, to enhance support for the promotion and protection of the realization of the right to development, taking as reference the Declaration on the Right to Development, all resolutions of the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Council on the right to development, and agreed conclusions and recommendations of the Working Group.

            It acknowledged the need to strive for greater acceptance, operationalization and realization of the right to development at the international level, and urged all States to undertake at the national level "the necessary policy formulation and to institute the measures required for the implementation of the right to development as an integral part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms."

            The Council decided to continue to act to ensure that its agenda promotes and advances sustainable development and the achievement of the remaining Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals and, in this regard, lead to raising the right to development, as set out in paragraphs 5 and 10 of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, to the same level and on a par with all other human rights and fundamental freedoms.

            It also decided that the Working Group, taking into account Human Rights Council resolution 9/3, shall finalize consideration of the criteria and operational sub-criteria, preferably no later than the nineteenth session of the Working Group, in relation to the elaboration of a comprehensive and coherent set of standards for the implementation of the right to development, and "shall also take appropriate steps to ensure respect for the practical application of these standards, which could take various forms, including guidelines on the implementation of the right to development, and evolve into a basis for consideration of an international legal standard of a binding nature, through a collaborative process of engagement."

            Meanwhile, in other actions, the Human Rights Council, also decided to extend the mandates of the rights experts on human rights in Somalia, on contemporary forms of slavery, on safe drinking water and sanitation, on the right to the highest attainable levels of physical and mental health, on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights, on the human rights of older persons and on the rights of indigenous peoples. – Third World Network Features.

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About the author: Kanaga Raja is the Editor of the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS).

The above article is reproduced from SUNS #8324, 3 October 2016.

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