RES/30/28 The right to development

Human Rights Council Thirtieth session

Agenda item 3

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 2 October 2015

30/28. 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 27/2 of 25 September 2014,

Recognizing the renewed commitments to achieve the remaining Millennium

Development Goals, 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,General Assembly resolution 65/1.

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 organization

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,

Welcoming the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,General Assembly resolution 70/1.

Recognizing that achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including

the Millennium Development Goals and the sustainable 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, and therefore calling upon the international community to contribute towards

achieving that goal in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals,

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

existing difficulties and accelerating action towards the achievement of the unmet

Millennium Development Goals and the transition to the Sustainable Development Goals,

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

development, are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated,

Underlining 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,

Emphasizing that the right to development should be central to the implementation

of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,

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 urging 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 lasting obstacles to development, that the international

community should promote effective international cooperation, in particular a 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,

Encouraging all Member States to constructively engage in the discussions for the

full implementation of the Declaration on the Right to Development with a view to

overcoming the existing political impasse within the Working Group on the Right to

Development,

Recalling 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,

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/30/22.

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, that have direct relevance to the promotion

and the realization of the right to development;

3. Urges the High Commissioner to pursue his efforts, in fulfilment of his

mandated responsibility, to enhance support for the promotion and the 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;

4. Requests 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 by identifying and implementing tangible projects dedicated to the right to

development, and to provide regular updates to the Council in this regard;

5. Recognizes the need for renewed efforts towards intensifying deliberations in

the Working Group to fulfil, at the earliest, its mandate as established by the Commission

on Human Rights in its resolution 1998/72 of 22 April 1998 and the Human Rights Council

in its resolution 4/4;

6. 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;

7. Takes note with appreciation of the oral update given by the Chair-

Rapporteur of the Working Group on its sixteenth session;

8. Welcomes the newly elected Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group and

commends him for his able stewardship in guiding the deliberations of its sixteenth session,

and appreciates all the work accomplished by the outgoing Chair-Rapporteur, including the

draft framework presented at the sixteenth session of the Working Group;See A/HRC/WG.2/16/2, annex.

9. Also welcomes the commencement of the second reading of the draft criteria

and corresponding operational subcriteria;

10. Recalls that the Working Group continues its mandate and requests the

Chair-Rapporteur to prepare a document containing a set of standards for consideration by

the Working Group at its seventeenth session to implement the right to development based

on relevant United Nations resolutions and documents, including the Declaration on the

Right to Development, relevant international conventions and decisions as well as

internationally agreed development goals and United Nations resolutions, in consultation

with Member States, relevant international organizations and other stakeholders;

11. Also recalls that the above-mentioned document would be prepared without

prejudice to the ongoing discussions on the criteria and operational subcriteria, in the

context of which the Working Group shall complete its second reading at its seventeenth

session and decide on further action thereafter, with the objective of elaborating a

comprehensive and coherent set of standards for the implementation of the right to

development;

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

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

Working Group, and in this context urges their broader engagement;

13. Also acknowledges the recommendation of the Working Group at its

sixteenth session to discuss the post-2015 development agenda in the context of the right to

development, and urges all relevant United Nations agencies, international organizations,

civil society and other stakeholders to contribute actively to these deliberations and the

further recommendation of the Working Group to the Office of the High Commissioner;

14. Decides:

(a) 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;

(b) To endorse the recommendations of the Working Group adopted at its

sixteenth session;

(c) That the Working Group will continue, at its seventeenth session, to

accomplish its mandate, including to complete its second reading of the draft right to

development criteria and corresponding operational subcriteria and to consider the

document containing the draft set of standards requested in paragraph 10 above for the

elaboration of a comprehensive and coherent set of standards for the implementation of the

right to development;

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

practical application of the comprehensive and coherent set of 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;

(e) To convene a two-day formal meeting of the Working Group, after the

seventeenth session, to consider further and discuss the document containing the draft set of

standards requested in paragraph 10 above;

15. Requests, as part of the activities to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of

the Declaration on the Right to Development:

(a) The High Commissioner to seek the views of Member States in preparing a

paper on the realization and implementation of the right to development, as elaborated in

the Declaration on the Right to Development, in particular its article 4, and submit it to the

Working Group for consideration at its seventeenth session;

(b) The General Assembly to consider holding a high-level segment on the right

to development during the general debate at its seventy-first session;

16. Encourages Member States to convene, individually and collectively, events

with their own resources for the commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of the

Declaration on the Right to Development;

17. Also encourages Member States to pay particular consideration to the right to

development in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

18. 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 give due consideration to the

right to development in the implementation of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,

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;

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

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

43rd meeting

2 October 2015

[Adopted by a recorded vote of 33 to 10, with 4 abstentions. The voting was as follows:

In favour:

Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Botswana,

Brazil, China, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Gabon,

Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Maldives, Mexico, Morocco,

Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi

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

(Bolivarian Republic of), Viet Nam

Against:

Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Montenegro, Netherlands, the

former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, United Kingdom of Great Britain

and Northern Ireland, United States of America

Abstaining:

Albania, Japan, Portugal, Republic of Korea]