HRBA Portal

OHCHR Page:  The Right to Development

Information Platform on the Right to Development
Platform launched by OHCHR and the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)
The Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development
An overview of the history and mandate of this Working Group, including links to the Working Group Sessions.

High-Level Task Force on the Implementation of the Right to Development
An overview of the High-Level Task Force including its history, mandate, membership, and links to its Annual Sessions.

The Right to Development: Framework for Achieving the MDGs
A downloadable or viewable pdf document describing how the Right to Development can strengthen this global partnership to help achieve the MDGs. It makes a strong case for global partnerships among State governments that build their development strategies around this right as being more likely to achieve the MDGs.

Gender and the Right to Development
This document supports the Declaration on the Right to Development’s emphasis on non-discrimination and makes specific reference to the active role of women in the development process.

Relevant International Standards

The Declaration on the Right to Development

The Declaration on the Right to Development, adopted by the United Nations in 1986, states unequivocally that the right to development is a human right.   The first article of the text of the Declaration articulates the concept of the right to development.  It states:

The right to development framework shifts the emphasis from economic growth as an end in itself, towards a model which puts people at the centre of the development process.  It aims to improve “the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in development and in the fair distribution” of the resulting benefits.

See the full text:  The UN Declaration on the Right to Development

Refer also to the OHCHR’s Information Note, The Right to Development at a Glance.  This document provides an overview of the value added of the right to development, and how it can be operationalized in practical terms.

The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action

On 25 June 1993, representatives of 171 States adopted by consensus the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference on Human Rights, presenting to the international community a common plan for the strengthening of human rights work around the world.  The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action reaffirms theright to development’, as established in the Declaration on the Right to Development, as a universal and inalienable right and an integral part of fundamental human rights.

See the full text:  The Vienna Declaration and Program of Action

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, also known as Rio Declaration, recognises the right to development as one of its 27 principles. Principle 3 of the Declaration states “The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations

View the full text:  Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

Other Relevant Instruments

65/1. Keeping the promise: United to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals: Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly
This 2010 MDG Outcome Document reaffirms “the importance of freedom, peace and security, respect for all human rights, including the right to development, the rule of law, gender equality and an overall commitment to just and democratic societies for development.”

United Nations Mechanisms dealing with the Right to Development

The intergovernmental open-ended Working Group on the Right to Development was established in 1998.  The Working Group meets once a year and reports to the Human Rights Council (HRC) and the GA.

Its mandate is inter alia:

1. to monitor and review progress made in the promotion and implementation of the right to development as elaborated in the Declaration, at the national and international levels, providing recommendations thereon and further analyzing obstacles to its full enjoyment…;
2. to review reports and any other information submitted by States, United Nations agencies, other relevant international organizations and non-governmental organizations on the relationship between their activities and the right to development; and
3. to present for the consideration of the HRC a sessional report on its deliberations, including advice to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with regard to the implementation of the right to development, and suggesting possible programmes of technical assistance at the request of interested countries with the aim of promoting the implementation of this right.