RES/4/4 The right to development

Human Rights Council

Resolution 4/4. The right to development

The Human Rights Council,

Recalling its resolution 1/4 of 30 June 2006, and recalling also all Commission on Human Rights and General Assembly resolutions on the right to development, in particular the urgent need to make the right to development a reality for everyone,

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

Taking note of the efforts under way in the framework of the Working Group on the Right to Development with the support of the high-level task force on the implementation of the right to development to develop a set of criteria for the periodic evaluation of global partnerships as identified in Millennium Development Goal 8,

1. Welcomes the report of the eighth session of the Working Group on the Right to Development (A/HRC/4/47);

2. Decides:

(a) To act to ensure that its agenda promotes and advances sustainable development and the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and, in this regard, to agree on a programme of work that will 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 road map outlined in paragraphs 52 to 54 of the report of the eighth session of the Working Group on the Right to Development, which would ensure that the criteria for the periodic evaluation of global partnerships, as identified in Millennium Development Goal 8, prepared by the high-level task force and being progressively developed and refined by the Working Group, is extended to other components of Millennium Development Goal 8, by no later than 2009;

(c) That the above criteria, as 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;

(d) That, upon completion of the above phases, the Working Group will take appropriate steps for ensuring respect for and 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;

(e) To renew the mandate of the Working Group on the Right to Development for a period of two years, and that the Working Group shall convene annual sessions of five working days and present its reports to the Council;

(f) To renew also the mandate of the high-level task force on the implementation of the right to development, established within the framework of the Working Group on the Right to Development, for a period of two years, and that the task force will convene annual sessions of seven working days and present its reports to the Working Group on the Right to Development;

(g) To request the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to take all necessary measures and allocate necessary resources for the effective implementation of the present resolution;

3. Decides also to review the progress of the implementation of the present resolution as a matter of priority in its future sessions.

Adopted without a vote 31st meeting
30 March 2007

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