RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT AFFECTED BY CRISIS OF GOVERNANCE, INEQUITABLE GLOBALIZING WORLD, RIGHTS CHIEF TELLS HIGH-LEVEL SEMINAR

09.02.2004

Distinguished experts,

Thank you for agreeing to participate in this High level seminar on "Global Partnership for Development" which we have organized at the request of the Commission on Human Rights. The Commission expressly hoped that you would review and identify effective strategies for mainstreaming the right to development and contribute to a concept document on the implementation of the right to development that the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights is working on.

The United Nations declared the right to development as a human right with the aim of highlighting development as a public policy goal of the international community deserving of the highest priority and mobilisation. Development thus became an imperative norm of international public policy. The right to development holds its own place as a specific right and is simultaneously a framework right for the achievement of all other human rights, civil and political and economic, social and cultural. The principle of non-discrimination has particular relevance to the implementation of the right to development, which is to be pursued nationally, regionally and internationally. I should like to bring to your attention in this regard, an important report we have submitted to the Commission on Human Rights on the principle of non-discrimination in international human rights law and in international trade law. In a nutshell, the report finds that the application of the latter can have the effect of impeding the former.

At the Millennium Summit, the Heads of State and Government reaffirmed their commitment to create an environment that was conducive to development and elimination of poverty and that upheld the principles of human dignity, equality and equity. They resolved to make the right to development a reality for everyone and to freeing the entire human race from want. To this end, the international community placed before itself the goal of developing a global partnership for development.

Yours is a seminar of human rights and, at the end of the day, the insights and suggestions you come up with must have a distinctive human rights focus. The quest for the implementation of the right to development must draw upon the work of the international community on development and international economic and social issues. The human rights programme is meant to add human rights dimensions to those discussions, not to duplicate them.

The achievement of the right to development is affected, in our times, by a crisis of governance, by an inequitable globalising world, by a crisis of values in our contemporary world, and by a world of shocking violations of human rights. A human rights seminar has to recognize these hard facts.

In the Human Rights Day message I issued on 10 December, last year, I lamented the fact that gross violations were pervasive in the world due to poverty, conflicts, terrorism, state violence, prejudice, and bad governance. A society that is badly governed will never achieve the right to development. You will need to come to terms with this fact.

The Independent Expert on the Right to Development, in the important report he has submitted before you, has highlighted the many inequities of our globalising world: in the words of one author, our Runaway World. He points out the constraints that arise because an inequitable process of globalisation tends to favour those with better endowments and greater command over resources, and hence with favourable initial conditions, as against those that are at a disadvantage on these counts and are “late comers” in the process of development.

The Independent Expert recognizes that, nationally, there is no uniform policy prescription that can be followed by all countries in pursuing the objectives of development, the more so when it comes to implementing the right to development. Internationally, he considers that in the current phase of globalization, international cooperation is as important as the package of national policies in implementing a strategy for realizing the right to development. He considers that the international framework for supporting the implementation of the right to development has to be global in reach, provide an environment that is transparent and non-discriminatory and promotes access and equity in the distribution of benefits from the development process to the countries, regions, and their people.

These are important insights, I venture to submit that in acting on them it is important to have in view as well the obstacles to achieving the right to development that are represented by bad governance, inequitable globalisation, a crisis of values, and shocking violations of human rights. Allow me to touch on each briefly.

It is a well known fact that democracy and the rule of law are scarce commodities in our world. Corrupt ruling elites siphon off the bulk of the resources of their people, who are left to fend for themselves as best they could. Good governance at home is the first requirement for achievement of the right to development,

But even with good governance, many developing countries find it difficult to survive, let alone compete, in today’s inequitable globalising world. Runaway ideologies of the market have led to a crisis of values in our contemporary world. Only by upholding fundamental human rights can we hope to reverse this crisis of values. The purpose of governance is to uphold basic human rights. A globalising world must re-commit to the International Bill of Human Rights. Herein lies the significance of what one author has dubbed “the spirit of democratic capitalism”, Herein lies the importance of the Secretary-General’s initiative to launch a global compact on human rights, labour rights, and the environment. A globalising world must not be allowed to impair the responsibilities of governments to respect, protect, and ensure fundamental human rights.

When one thinks of a global partnership for development, or of the implementation of the right to development, one cannot help thinking of the plight of the disadvantaged, the marginalised and the vulnerable. The Least-Developed and Island Developing Countries come to mind in this context. What does the right to development mean for them? What does the right to development mean for indigenous peoples and minorities? What does the right to development mean for the women of the world who are so terribly discriminated against? What does the right to development mean for children who are hungry in the face of abundance?

And then, distinguished experts, what does the right to development mean for those who are poor in the midst of plenty, for those who are arbitrarily killed, tortured, made to disappear, discriminated against, arbitrarily detained, enslaved, trafficked?

Human rights concepts must have real meaning for ordinary people in their every-day lives. It is my strong hope that you will help bring the right to development nearer to the people for whose benefit the right was proclaimed

Thank you.