Statement by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Africa Day 2009: African Forum for Dialogue "Africa's development: Whose responsibility?

27 May 2009

H.E. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Ambassador Masri, Excellencies, Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, it is my honour and pleasure to participate in the first African Forum for Dialogue being held as part of Africa Day celebrations and to offer some remarks through the prism of human rights, more specifically through the concept and “imperative” of the right to development as a contribution to the discussion on the theme of the Dialogue.

The right to development originated from a Senegalese jurist, Justice Keba M’Baye who coined the concept in 1972 at an international conference on human rights. He was instrumental in getting the Commission on Human Rights to adopt a resolution in 1977 which implicitly recognized the existence of such a right for the first time. Two years later the Commission re-affirmed the existence of that right. In 1981 the RTD found its explicit recognition in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Article 22 of the Charter states that ‘All peoples shall have the right to their economic, social and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity in the equal enjoyment of the common heritage of humankind’; and that ‘States shall have the duty, individually and collectively, to ensure the exercise of the right to development’.

To date, Africa remains the only region in the world which has a legally biding instrument recognizing the RTD. Understandably, Africa holds a sense of ownership and commitment to its promotion and realization.

Africa also played a central role in the efforts and initiatives that culminated in the adoption of the 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development by the UN General Assembly. A broader and significant consensus on this right was achieved in 1993 at the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights which affirmed it as “a universal and inalienable right and an integral part of fundamental human rights”. The quest for clarification on the content and the operational framework for the realization of the RTD continues. Meanwhile the Declaration on the Right to Development remains the most authoritative document on the right to development. While some are skeptical about its legal values, the right to development, as defined in the Declaration, has come to enjoy a distinctive value as a fundamental human right, and to be promoted and accepted as such.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Like other human rights, however, commitment does not easily translate into implementation. While many important success stories emerged in Africa in recent years, the global outlook of the continent in terms of progress towards the realization of the right to development remains quite gloomy.

Many countries of the continent often have the lowest human development indicators for life expectancy, adult literacy, maternal and child mortality, and gross domestic product per capita. The AIDS pandemic continues to affect Africa severely with 22 million people living with HIV, particularly in the southern region of the continent. Access to basic primary school education is still a function of cost, and access to opportunities can be further limited often due to ethnicity and gender. Political challenges, corruption and democratic deficits and weak governance remain and continue to blight many countries which are otherwise dynamic and resource-rich. The global economic and financial crises are having severe impacts on the ability of developing countries, particularly in Africa, to mobilize resources for development and to address the impact of these crises, and threatening to further undermine the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs.

Given the magnitude, complexity and urgency of these challenges and the human rights and the human rights dimension that lie at their core, Africa is high on the agenda of the High Commissioner and her Office. Working closely with African countries and organizations, we are promoting rights-based approach to addressing development challenges. In line with the right to development principles, economic policies and decision-making processes of governance should be transparent, accountable to the people and non-discriminatory, while people, especially women and vulnerable members of society should be empowered and participate in those processes in an active and meaningful way. We encourage States to pursue participatory development, recognizing that participation is already a feature in many cultures and traditions of African peoples and supporting the human-centered development approach affirmed in the African Charter for Popular Participation in Development.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the efforts for the promotion of the right to development over the past decades, the intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development has been at the forefront supported by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In 2004, the Working Group opened a new page with a consensus on the way forward in the operationalization of the RTD partly through the establishment of a task force with a unique composition of five independent experts and selected international development, trade and financial institutions. The consensus was to depart from a rhetorical debate on the RTD itself or its definition and shift focus towards the practical aspects of its implementation through the development and pilot application of a set of criteria for assessing global partnerships from the RTD perspective. The criteria are intended for the assessment of progress in international cooperation for development, as defined in MDG8, in the context of partnership and mutual accountability between the developed and developing countries. They are aimed at the translation of an abstract declaration of principles into concrete suggestions to be implemented by Member States, international development, trade and financial institutions and other stakeholders.

The pilot application of the criteria to selected global partnerships has contributed to raising awareness of the right to development and the integration of its core principles into policies of the institutions responsible for the partnerships concerned. The global partnerships that have been evaluated from the RTD perspective include those directly relevant to Africa, such as the African Peer Review Mechanism, the ECA/OECD Mutual Review of Development Effectiveness and the Cotonou Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union. For instance, the task force’s dialogue with the European Commission and the ACP countries on the Cotonou Agreement has highlighted the need to assess the implications of the Agreement and Economic Partnership Agreements for human rights in ACP countries.

An important task ahead is to continue to enhance the knowledge, visibility and system-wide recognition leading to broader public recognition of the values of the right to development beyond Geneva and the UN human rights fora. I would certainly like to encourage African countries to continue to play a key role in the important work of the Working Group and contribute to sustained efforts to operationalize the right while further clarifying its substantive component.

I wish to conclude by emphasizing that at the core of the realization of the right to development lies the participation of all concerned stakeholders, both at the national and international levels, including States, international organizations and institutions, the private sector and civil society actors. The OHCHR is firmly committed to continue to play an instrumental role in giving practical effect to this right, in particular in the process of Africa’s development.

Thank you.