The Declaration on the Right to Development – a framework for an alternative vision of society

NEW YORK (23 October 2014) – The Chair-Rapporteur of the intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development, Tamara Kunanayakam, today urged all Governments around the world to redouble their efforts to advance the 1986 UN Declaration on the Right to Development as a framework for an alternative and people-centred vision of society.

“The ongoing efforts to elaborate a post-2015 sustainable development agenda is of significance for the realization of the right to development in that it provides us yet another opportunity to advance the Declaration as a framework for an alternative vision of society,” said the Chair-Rapporteur in her address to the UN General Assembly.

“We need a society,” Ms. Kunanayakam said, “which is based on values and principles, and in harmony with the environment, so that life with dignity becomes a reality for all without discrimination, for present and future generations.”

The Chair-Rapporteur asked the global body for greater commitment and political will “to provide the Working Group with the means necessary to rise to the exigencies demanded by the current global situation that is characterised by multiple systemic crises and growing inequalities.”

“The Declaration on the Right to Development, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 1986, is a common good, it belongs to each and every one of us, and so do the responsibility and the duty to implement the vision that it advances,” she added.

Ms. Kunanayakam recalled that the year 2016 will mark the 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development. “I hope that this anniversary and all that it stands for, will inspire us to move forward with the sense of urgency that the current global situation demands,” she said.

In that respect, the Chair-Rapporteur urged the international community “to confront and eliminate the obstacles that stand in the way of development, to translate our commitments into concrete action, and to create the conditions for the enjoyment of the inalienable right to development for all peoples, everywhere.”

(*) Read the report of the Working Group on the Right to Development: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Development/Pages/15thSession.aspx 

The Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development was established in 1998 by the then Commission on Human Rights and by the Economic and Social Council, to monitor and review the promotion and implementation of the right to development as elaborated at national and international levels.  The Working Group is composed of all UN Member States and based in Geneva.

Ms. Tamara Kunanayakam (Sri Lanka) took up her functions as the Group’s Chairperson-Rapporteur in 2011. She has worked as both international and national civil servant, among others, as Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva. Ms. Kunanayakam has also worked for civil society organizations and as independent researcher and is an expert on the right to development. Learn more, log on to: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Development/Pages/WGRightToDevelopment.aspx or http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Development/Pages/DevelopmentIndex.aspx

Read the Declaration on the Right to Development: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/RightToDevelopment.aspx

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