RES/27/2 The right to development

GE.General Assembly resolution 65/1. 4-17679 (E)



Human Rights Council Twenty-seventh session

Agenda item 3

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,

political, economic, social and cultural rights,

including the right to development

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council

27/2

The right to development

The Human Rights Council,

Recalling the Charter of the United Nations and the core human rights instruments,

Reaffirming the Declaration on the Right to Development, adopted by the General

Assembly in its resolution 41/128 of 4 December 1986,

Reaffirming also Human Rights Council resolutions 4/4 of 30 March 2007 and 9/3

of 17 September 2008, and recalling all Commission on Human Rights, Council and

General Assembly resolutions on the right to development, the most recent being Council

resolution 24/4 of 26 September 2013,

Recognizing the renewed commitments to achieve the Millennium Development

Goals by their target date of 2015, as set out in the outcome document adopted at the high-

level plenary meeting of the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly on the Millennium

Development Goals,1

Emphasizing the urgent need to make the right to development a reality for

everyone,

Emphasizing also 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, and in this regard underlining the importance

of engaging the United Nations system, including United Nations funds, programmes and

specialized agencies, 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,

Recognizing that achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including

the Millennium Development Goals, requires effective policy coherence and coordination,

Recognizing also that extreme poverty and hunger are one of the greatest global

threats and require the collective commitment of the international community for its

eradication, pursuant to Millennium Development Goal 1, and therefore calling upon the

international community to contribute towards achieving that goal,

Underlining the imperative need for raising awareness of the progress made, still

existing difficulties and accelerating action towards the achievement of the Millennium

Development Goals,

Emphasizing that all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to

development, are universal, indivisible, independent and interrelated,

Underlining that the post-2015 development agenda will need to aim at

strengthening a new, more equitable and sustainable national and international order, as

well as the promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Emphasizing that the right to development should be central to the post-2015

development agenda,

Taking 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, and in this regard encouraging 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,

Stressing the primary responsibility of States for the creation of national and

international conditions favourable to the realization of the right to development,

Recognizing that Member States should cooperate with each other in ensuring

development and eliminating obstacles to development, that the international community

should promote effective international cooperation, in particular global partnership 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,

Recalling that 2011 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Declaration on the

Right to Development,

Stressing that, in General Assembly resolution 48/141 of 20 December 1993, the

Assembly decided that the responsibility of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Human Rights shall be, among others, to promote and protect the realization of the right to

development and to enhance support from relevant bodies of the United Nations system for

that purpose,

1. Takes note of the consolidated report of the Secretary-General and the United

Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the right to development,A/HRC/27/27. which

provided information on the activities undertaken by the Office of the High Commissioner

relating to the promotion and realization of the right to development in the period from May

2013 to April 2014;

2. Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to continue to submit to the

Human Rights Council an annual report on its activities, including on inter-agency

coordination within the United Nations system with regard to the promotion and realization

of the right to development;

3. Takes note of the efforts under way in the framework of the Working Group

on the Right to Development with a view to completing the tasks entrusted to it by the

Human Rights Council in its resolution 4/4, in fulfilment of the mandate of the Working

Group as established by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 1998/72 of 22

April 1998;

4. Acknowledges the need to strive for greater acceptance, operationalization

and realization of the right to development at the international level, while urging 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;

5. Welcomes the launching in the Working Group of the process of considering,

revising and refining the draft right to development criteria and corresponding operational

sub-criteria, with the first reading of the draft criteria and operational sub-criteria;

6. Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Working Group on its

fifteenth session;A/HRC/27/45.

7. Recalls that the Working Group, at its fifteenth session, had before it four

documents containing detailed views and comments on the draft criteria and operational

sub-criteria submitted by Governments, groups of Governments, regional groups and other

relevant stakeholders, including United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and

institutions, as well as other relevant multilateral institutions and forums, in fulfilment of

the conclusions and recommendations agreed at its fourteenth session;

8. Takes note with appreciation of the continuation of the process of

considering, revising and refining the draft criteria and the corresponding operational sub-

criteria, and welcomes the completion of the first reading of the draft criteria and

operational sub-criteria;

9. Acknowledges the need to have the contributions of experts, regrets the low

attendance of invited experts from international organizations at the fifteenth session of the

Working Group, and in this context urges their broader engagement and re-emphasizes the

importance of engaging further and inviting to the sixteenth session of the Working Group

experts from relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes and institutions, as

well as other multilateral institutions and forums, international organizations and other

relevant stakeholders;

10. Also acknowledges the need to further consider, revise and refine the draft

criteria and corresponding operational sub-criteria mentioned in paragraphs 5 and 8 above,

as mandated by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 21/32;

11. Decides:

(a) To continue to act to ensure that its agenda promotes and advances

sustainable development and the achievement of the Millennium 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;

(b) That the criteria and corresponding operational sub-criteria mentioned in

paragraph 5 above, once considered, revised and endorsed by the Working Group, should

be used, as appropriate, in the elaboration of a comprehensive and coherent set of standards

for the implementation of the right to development;

(c) That the Working Group shall take appropriate steps to ensure respect for and

practical application of the above-mentioned 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;

(d) To endorse the recommendations of the Working Group as reflected in its

report on its fifteenth session;

(e) That the Working Group will continue, at its sixteenth session, to accomplish

its mandate including, in particular, to consider, revise and refine the draft right to

development criteria and corresponding operational sub-criteria;

(f) To convene a two-day informal intersessional intergovernmental meeting of

the Working Group with the participation of States, groups of States and relevant United

Nations agencies, funds and programmes and institutions, as well as other multilateral

institutions and forums, and international organizations and other relevant stakeholders,

with a view to improve the effectiveness of the Working Group at its sixteenth session;

(g) That the Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group will further her efforts to

improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Working Group with a view to

accomplishing its mandate, including through drafting a framework for consideration at the

sixteenth session of the Working Group, in consultation with regional and political groups;

(h) To consider the extension of the meeting time of the Working Group, as

appropriate;

12. Encourages Member States to pay particular consideration to the right to

development in the context of the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda;

13. Urges 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;

14. Encourages the Office of the High Commissioner, in the implementation of

the Declaration on the Right to Development, to take sufficient measures to ensure

balanced and visible allocation of resources and due attention to ensure visibility of the

right to development through identifying and implementing tangible projects dedicated to

the right to development, and to provide continuous updating to the Human Rights Council

in this regard;

15. Encourages relevant bodies of the United Nations system, within their

respective mandates, including United Nations funds, programmes and specialized

agencies, relevant international organizations, including the World Trade Organization and

relevant stakeholders, including civil society organizations, to contribute further to the work

of the Working Group and to cooperate with the High Commissioner in the fulfilment of his

mandate with regard to the implementation of the right to development;

16. Decides to review the progress of the implementation of the present

resolution, as a matter of priority, at its future sessions.

39th meeting

25 September 2014

[Adopted by a recorded vote of 42 to 1, with 4 abstentions. The voting was as follows:

In favour:

Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Benin, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile,

China, Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Czech Republic, Estonia,

Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy,

Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco,

Namibia, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi

Arabia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela

(Bolivarian Republic of), Viet Nam

Against:

United States of America

Abstaining:

Japan, Republic of Korea, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland]