Permanent Mission of India, Geneva

Intervention by India Shri Ajit Kumar, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and other International Organizations at the 32nd Session of Human Rights Council (13 June – 1 July 2016) during  Panel Discussion on promotion and protection of the Right to Development

15 June 2016

Thank you Mr. President and the panelists for their comprehensive presentations

Thirty years have passed by since we adopted the UN Declaration on the Right to Development. The Vienna Declaration, the Millennium Declaration and Rio+20 Declaration as well as the UNGA resolution that established this Human Rights Council have all reaffirmed the Right to Development. Yet the global commitment to make this right a reality for everyone remains largely unfulfilled. Fresh ideas and new mechanisms are urgently needed to address the challenges in the full implementation of the Right to Development.

Mr. President,

As we mark the 30th Anniversary of the Declaration, we need to desist attempts to bracket the Right to Development to a group of countries or regions. As the principle UN body dealing with human rights, this Council should fully and categorically reaffirm the Right to Development as a distinct, universal, inalienable, and fundamental human right that is applicable to all people in all countries.

Right to Development should be firmly recognized as a primary enabling right that provides the normative basis for realization of all other rights. The Council and its mechanisms have much to do in promoting the Right to Development and mainstreaming it in the work of the wider UN system. Efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the Declaration or the Right itself should be actively discouraged.

Mr. President,

The ambitious Agenda 2030 arises out of the Declaration on the Right to Development and provides a fresh impetus for realizing its vision. For the SDGs to be successfully achieved we should focus on strengthening the Means of Implementation and creating an enabling and equitable global order that is informed by the Right to Development. The commitments made in Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the Paris Agreement Trade and other global agendas should be aligned with these efforts.

Achieving policy coherence would be critical in this context. We believe that the ‘Right to Development’ can provide the much-needed framework for fostering policy coherence among the various international instruments. We wish to hear the views of the panelists on how this can be advanced.

I thank you.

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