UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called for the right to development to be placed at the core of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the post-2015 development agenda, saying the time is right for its implementation.
10 March 2014: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called for the right to development to be placed at the core of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the post-2015 development agenda, saying the time is right for its implementation.
Pillay was speaking at an event organized by Egypt and the African Union (AU) on ‘Africa and the Right to Development: Towards Post-2015 Agenda,’ during the 25th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, Switzerland. She called for the SDGs to set strong targets and indicators, noting that people’s sovereignty over natural wealth and resources is intrinsic to the right to development.
Pillay stressed that the three pillars of the UN Charter – peace and security, human rights, and development – meet in the UN Declaration on the Right to Development, which the UN General Assembly adopted in 1986 (resolution 41/128). The UN Commission on Human Rights established a high-level task force on implementation of the right to development in 2004. The task force met almost every year till 2010 to assess obstacles to implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular, MDG 8 on a global partnership for development.
In 2012, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) reaffirmed the right to development, as did the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in its Human Rights Declaration (articles 35-37), and the UN system in its Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review of Operational Activities for Development (QCPR) during that same year. In December 2013, Pillay addressed the sixth session of the Open Working Group (OWG) on SDGs on human rights, the right to development and global governance, and her office (OHCHR) launched a book, ‘Realizing the Right to Development,’ in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Declaration. The book presents analytical studies on the context, meaning and application of the right to development. [Pillay’s Statement at AU Event] [Pillay’s Statement to OWG 6] [Declaration on the Right to Development] [OHCHR Webpage on Landmarks in Right to Development] [OHCHR Webpage on High-Level Task Force] [Realizing the Right to Development]