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Geneva, 25 February 2002



Statement by

Mary Robinson,
United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights

at the
Open-Ended Working Group on the
Right to Development



Chairperson,
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen

Introduction

My purpose in addressing you is to encourage you. I do so from a deep conviction that your work is of central importance.

At the follow-up to the World Conference on Social Development in June 2000, I welcomed a new dialogue between development and human rights specialists, based on the affirmation of the right to development by all States - large and small, north and south. A few months on, the Millennium Assembly promised to make the right to development a reality for everyone. Now, two years on, we should be in a new and positive position in the third session of this Working Group to build on that consensus and propose positive insights and concrete ideas that if accepted, the Commission could record as a real breakthrough on this vital right. Let us try to do so in order that our efforts over the next two weeks can be harnessed towards a practical outcome.

As we all know only too well, discussion on the right to development has been too long a prisoner to political controversy. That should not, indeed cannot, continue if the Working Group truly wishes for success. While in this forum we proceed from year to year with a somewhat abstract dialogue, things are happening in the world, through which I would argue the right to development is being recognised and realised in practice. The Working Group should take stock. It should take encouragement from the fact that many of the elements set out in the Declaration of 1986 are providing the building blocks of development programmes, movements, initiatives and ideas both ambitious and modest all over the world. It will also find that my Office has been active in promoting the Right to Development through emphasizing these elements in numerous contexts, including in working with the Independent Expert. My staff and I are confident our efforts have borne fruit. We believe that we have demonstrated in the eyes of others the enduring merit and value of the1986 Declaration as a rich normative source for global social change and justice.

Allow me to recall some of those core elements of the Declaration - the centrality of all human rights and the principle of non-discrimination, participation, accountability, international co-operation and a multi-dimensional view of development that embraces but goes beyond economics. The most important and - indeed exciting - illustration I can offer of the application of these elements in a dynamic and creative relationship is the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

New Partnership for Africa’s Development

As you will know the New Partnership for Africa's Development was first developed by the leaders of South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Senegal and Algeria. In July last the OAU in the context of proclaiming the new African Union, adopted NEPAD as the road map for development in all of Africa. It is significant because it is an African initiative and will be an African led programme. It is significant also because it articulates a comprehensive vision of development, with a programme of action that embraces initiatives on peace and security, democracy and political governance, as well economic and corporate governance with a commitment to regional and sub regional approaches to development. NEPAD is equally innovative in integrating into development plans as resources the rich cultural history of Africa and its contribution to the variety of cultures of the global community.

African countries recognise that if the necessary higher level of debt relief, ODA and longer term private investment flows from their partners in the industrialised countries are to come about, then in their own words "accountable government a culture of human rights and popular participation”, are among the conditions for sustainable development. Detailed proposals on good governance are to be put in place by the NEPAD steering committee, which will involve peer review and a code of conduct. The task African leaders have set themselves is of course huge but it has already evoked positive support and involvement from the G8 where it will be taken up in the June meeting in Canada.

I do recommend study by the Working Group of the NEPAD core text. You will find there as I have illustrated the practical application of all of the elements of the Right to Development. The procedures and mechanisms of implementation are also worth study in considering the question of implementation of the Right to Development.

Ethical Globalisation and International Co-operation

One objective of NEPAD is to end the marginalisation of Africa through its integration into the global economic and political processes. At the Global Social Forum in Porto Allegre and at the Economic Forum in New York last month I appealed for an ethical globalisation.

I noted that “Globalisation is a reality; it is not new, and it is not going away. It is within our power, however, to ensure that it becomes a positive force for all the world’s people.”

Support for an ethical globalisation is to be found in the Right to Development Declaration not least in respect of the international co-operation provision in Article 3.

Article 3 declares that states have a duty to cooperate with each other in assuring development and eliminating obstacles to development. We have seen the potential of international co -operation in the response through the Security Council to terrorism following 11 September. Cooperation is key. I highlight two points:

· International cooperation includes but is not restricted to development assistance. But the right to development is not a State right to development assistance. As NEPAD recognises the right to development is about empowering individuals and communities. Governments of poor countries are the vehicles for the use of aid and this carries with it important responsibilities. However, if the development goals of the Millennium Declaration are to be met, wealthy countries - OECD countries as well as large developing countries - have responsibilities also including through meeting the development assistance goal of 0.7% of GDP. Few countries actually do so yet.

· International cooperation is an important element as I have said of ethical globalization. At Porto Alegre, I emphasized the need for States to examine the impact of agricultural trade agreements on the right to food and the right to development. Similarly, in implementing intellectual property agreements, I encouraged States to ensure at the same time the rights of people facing life-threatening diseases. The recent Declaration at Doha gives us room to hope that constructive approaches to economic globalization might be a realizable goal. The right to development can and should provide the framework to achieve this.


Where do we go from here?

Indicators and benchmarks on the right to development

The next step in thinking on the right to development will require the compilation of an agreed list of core development indicators for civil, cultural and political rights, to measure such things as the administration of justice, political participation and personal security. It will also require integrating the "rights element" into socio-economic indicators - for example, by desegregating health and education indicators to test for equality and non-discrimination.

What we are looking for are tools for development, not weapons of critique - a set of time-bound targets for achieving the various components of the right to development against which the relative success of development programmes can be judged. I encourage you to consider this as part of your deliberations over the next two weeks.

Development compacts and the right to development

The Independent Expert has demonstrated in his work a practical approach to the right to development with an emphasis on how to make this right a meaningful dimension of international economic relations and domestic policy. His proposed development compacts provide a good context and opportunity to develop thinking on many of these issues. The Independent Expert has proposed a method for implementing the right to development immediately based on national development programming using a participatory model and international cooperation through development assistance. This model will elevate to the multilateral level what is already happening at the bilateral level. It also appears to me to be fully in line with the approach of the New Partnership for African Development. I encourage you to discuss his ideas seriously.

But I encourage you to go further and to consider the best mechanism to elaborate the obligations attached to the right to development and the most appropriate means of translating universal standards into local benchmarks and indicators to ensure the transparency and objectivity that will be needed for the development compacts to work.

High Commissioner’s Report to the Commission

My report under Item 7 of the provisional agenda of the fifty-eight session of the Commission will be before you. I thought to mention some points from it to underscore what I said at the outset my Office is constantly involved in activities under the six resolutions of the General Assembly and Commission that mandate our work on the Right to Development. SET OUT GA and Commision resolutions

The report gives detail of dissemination activities including the new training materials we have prepared with UNDP on human rights in development. We have a dedicated page on the OHCHR website on human rights and development. This is broken down into information links on the right to development, rights based approaches to development, mainstreaming human rights, poverty, good governance and globalisation. That page also provides full coverage of the Working Groups meeting with all documentation placed on line.

On mainstreaming I should mention the MASCOT project, an abbreviation for support for mainstreaming human rights including rights based development within UN country teams. Another project which is outline is HURIST, a joint project with UNDP designed to define, test and implement methodologies for integrating human rights standards and principles in sustainable human development.

The report to the Commission also notes that in November last the Office organised the First African Regional Dialogue on “Human Rights, the African Union and the New Partnership for African Development”. The dialogue included as a topic the “Human Right to Development”.

Although it is not included in the report because of its timing I should mention that in December last I delivered a Presidential lecture at the World Bank in Washington at the invitation of Mr. Wolfensohn. Members will recall that resolution A/RES/53/155 suggested that I should carry out a dialogue with the Bank on the right to development. This lecture was a first phase of that dialogue which my staff has followed up since. It is clear that there is the beginning of convergence of thinking between the Bank and OHCHR on the centrality of human rights to sustainable development. I confidently expect that that convergence will prove positive in deeper co-operation between us in the future.

Let me also mention the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in August/September next in Johannesburg. As suggested at the Commission’s 57th session, my Office in conjunction with UNEP held a fruitful two-day conference that included experts and State participation on human rights and the environment. The intention is that the conclusions of this seminar will be made available to the World Summit. The relevant documents will be circulated for your information.

On your agenda is a review of the Office's work on the Right to Development. At that point you will hear a more detailed account of that work. I welcome any suggestions you may have as to what more we can do to assist the Working Group and to advance the right to development. However that offer has the usual caveat: more can only be done if the necessary resources are also committed.

Conclusion

This working group is one of the few United Nations fora devoted to discussion of development in all its forms - political, cultural, economic and social. I urge you to use this opportunity to begin a process - heralded by the Millennium Declaration - to make the right to development a reality for everyone.

For development without human rights is meaningless. Poverty eradication without empowerment is unsustainable. Social integration without minority rights is unimaginable. Gender equality without women’s rights is illusory. Full employment without workers’ rights may be no more than a promise of sweat shops, exploitation, and slavery. Development without participation and accountability is undemocratic. The logic of the right to development is inescapable.

We can only move forward if there is consensus and we can move further if the consensus is stronger. I would ask therefore that the conclusions of your work confine themselves to that which can be agreed with conviction. I do believe that the new thinking represented by NEPAD should be a source of inspiration and encouragement to all of us.


Thank you




ANNEX


The mandated responsibilities of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights with regard to the right to development are:

1. General Policy

- Promoting balanced and sustainable development for all people and ensuring the promotion, protection A/RES/48/141, (20 Dec 1993), para. 4 (c). and realization of the right to development, as established in the Declaration on the Right to Development A/RES/48/141, (20 Dec 1993), para. 3 (c).
- According priority to the right to development and providing commensurate support in terms of staff, services and resources for its programmatic follow-up A/RES/53/155, para. 20(b).

2 Consultations

- Undertaking consultations with States. Ibid., para. 20(e).
- Carrying out a dialogue with the World Bank with regard to the right to development Ibid., para. 20(g).
- Undertaking consultations with the independent expert on the right to development. E/CN.4/RES/2001/9, para. 5(a). and E/CN.4/RES/2001/9, para. 23.

3. UN System Activities

- Enhancing support from relevant bodies of the United Nations system for the realization of the right to development, A/RES/48/141, (20 Dec 1993), para. 4 (c). involving relevant entities of the United Nations to promote and advocate the right to development and its realization, Ibid., para. 20(h). and see also E/CN.4/RES/1998/72, para. 9. promoting the right to development through participation in coordination mechanisms and initiatives within the United Nations system A/RES/55/108, para. 12, A/RES/53/155, para. 20 (a), and E/CN.4/RES/1998/72, para. 9(a), A/RES/53/155, para. 15 and para. 15(c). and informing the Commission on Human Rights and the General Assembly of the activities of the organizations, funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system for the implementation of the Declaration on the Right to Development, as well as obstacles identified by them to the realization of the right to development. A/RES/53/155, para. 16.

4. Dissemination and Promotional Activities

- Ensuring widespread dissemination and promotion of the Declaration on the Right to Development, Ibid., para. 20(c). producing publications, workshops and seminars, Ibid., para. 20(c). and organizing regional seminars. Ibid., para. 20(f).

5. Institutional Support

- Ensuring that the working group on the right to development and the independent expert on the right to development receive all necessary assistance, including staff and resources required to fulfil their mandates. A/RES/55/108, para. 17.

6. Reporting

- Reporting on the right to development to the General Assembly, Commission on Human Rights and to the Working Group on the Right to Development. A/RES/55/108, para. 15. and E/CN.4/RES/1998/72, para. 11(a).



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