RES/33/14 The right to development

GE.16-17211(E)



Human Rights Council Thirty-third session

Agenda item 3

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 29 September 2016

33/14. 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,

Reiterating the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, which reaffirms the

right to development as a universal and inalienable right and an integral part of every

human right,

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

17 September 2008, and recalling all Council and General Assembly resolutions on the

right to development, the most recent being Council resolution 30/28 of 2 October 2015

and Assembly resolution 70/155 of 17 December 2015,

Recalling all Commission on Human Rights resolutions on the right to development,

including resolutions 1998/72 of 22 April 1998 and 2004/7 of 13 April 2004 in support of

the implementation of the right to development,

Welcoming the seventeenth Summit of Heads of State or Government of Non-

Aligned Countries, held on Margarita Island, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, on 17 and

18 September 2016, and recalling previous summits and conferences at which the States

members of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries stressed the need to operationalize

the right to development as a priority, including through the elaboration of a convention on

the right to development by the relevant machinery, taking into account the

recommendations of relevant initiatives,

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 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,

Stressing 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,

Welcoming the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,1 and

emphasizing 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,

Recognizing that achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including

the unmet Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals,

requires effective policy coherence and coordination,

Recognizing also 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, and therefore calling upon the international

community to contribute to the achievement of that goal, in accordance with 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, and the promotion and protection of all human rights and

fundamental freedoms,

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, and 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 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, equitable economic relations and a favourable economic environment at the

international level,

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

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

1 General Assembly resolution 70/1.

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

Development,

Affirming 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,

Recognizing the need for independent perspectives and expert advice to strengthen

the work of the Working Group on the Right to Development and to support the efforts of

Member States to realize fully the right to development, including in the context of the

implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals,

Reaffirming Human Rights Council resolutions 5/1, on institution-building of the

Council, and 5/2, on the Code of Conduct for special procedure mandate holders of the

Council, of 18 June 2007, and stressing that the mandate holder shall discharge the duties of

the mandate in accordance with those resolutions and the annexes thereto,

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; 2

2. Requests 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 existing challenges and making recommendations on

how to overcome them, in his next annual report;

3. 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;

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 the 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 Human Rights 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 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

2 A/HRC/33/31.

measures required for the implementation of the right to development as an integral part of

all human rights and fundamental freedoms;

7. Welcomes the celebrations held in 2016 to commemorate the thirtieth

anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development, including the convening of the

annual high-level panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming, with the theme “The

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and human rights, with an emphasis on the right

to development” at the thirty-first session of the Human Rights Council, the panel

discussion on the promotion and protection of the right to development at the thirty-second

session of the Council and the high-level segment of the General Assembly to

commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development,

held at the seventy-first session of the Assembly, which provided a unique opportunity to

Member States to demonstrate and reiterate their political commitment, accord the right to

development the great attention it deserves and to redouble their efforts towards the

realization of the right to development;

8. Also welcomes the report of the Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on

the Right to Development on the seventeenth session of the Working Group;3

9. Further welcomes the re-election of the Chair-Rapporteur of the Working

Group and the skill with which he led the discussions at the seventeenth session;

10. Notes the presentation to the Working Group at its seventeenth session of the

set of standards for the implementation of the right to development prepared by the Chair-

Rapporteur of the Working Group,4 which is a useful basis for further deliberations on the

implementation and realization of the right to development;

11. Requests the Working Group to continue to consider criteria and operational

subcriteria with a view to finalizing the text as expeditiously as possible, preferably no later

than its nineteenth session;

12. Requests the High Commissioner to facilitate the participation of experts in

the eighteenth session of the Working Group, to provide advice with a view to contributing

to discussions on the implementation and realization of the right to development, including

the implications of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and looks forward to the

possible engagement of the Working Group with the high-level political forum;

13. 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 of 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

seventeenth session;

(c) That the Working Group, taking into account Human Rights Council

resolution 9/3, shall finalize consideration of the criteria and operational subcriteria,

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

3 A/HRC/33/45.

4 A/HRC/WG.2/17/2.

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;

14. Also decides to appoint, for a period of three years, a Special Rapporteur on

the right to development, whose mandate will include:

(a) 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,

including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction,5 the Addis Ababa Action

Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development6 and the Paris

Agreement on climate change,7 and to this effect engage with Member States and other

stakeholders and participate in relevant international meetings and conferences;

(b) 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;

(c) To contribute to the work of the Working Group 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;

(d) To submit any specific study requested by the Human Rights Council in

accordance with its mandate;

(e) 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;

15. Invites 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;

16. Requests the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner to provide the

Special Rapporteur with the administrative, logistical and staff support necessary for the

implementation of the mandate under the present resolution;

17. Encourages 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, 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;

5 General Assembly resolution 69/283, annex II.

6 General Assembly resolution 69/313, annex.

7 See FCCC/CP/2015/10/Add.1, decision 1/CP.21, annex.

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

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

39th meeting

29 September 2016

[Adopted by a recorded vote of 34 to 2, with 11 abstentions. The voting was as follows:

In favour:

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

China, Congo, Côte 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 (Bolivarian Republic of), Viet Nam

Against:

France, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Abstaining:

Albania, Belgium, Georgia, Germany, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal,

Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of

Macedonia]