NAM stresses the importance of Right to Development

The United Nations established the Right to Development as an inalienable human right in 1986. UN Declaration on the Right to Development seeks to ensure people’s right to personal and financial improvement and progress. The Right to Development is based on human dignity and implies the right to self-determination and full sovereignty over wealth and natural resources. Article 1 of the Declaration states: “The right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized.”

It follows from Article 1 of the Declaration that there may be several different ways a country can develop, but only that process which “aims at and realizes all human rights and fundamental freedoms” and conforms to the standards of human rights would qualify as the object of the claim as the right to development.

Thus, the Right to Development made the human person as “the central subject of the development process and that therefore development policy should make the human being the main participant and beneficiary of development.” It placed people at the center of development while demanded equal opportunities and equitable distribution of economic resources.

Widening poverty gaps, food shortages, climate change, economic crises, armed conflicts, rising unemployment, popular unrest, and other pressing challenges confronting our world today. The right to development, which embodies the human rights principles of equality, non-discrimination, participation, transparency and accountability as well as international cooperation, can guide our responses to a series of contemporary issues and challenges.

Non-Aligned Movement has called for strict adherence to the principles of international relations as enshrined in the UN Charter, and full realization of all human rights, including the Right to Development. NAM has reaffirmed that democracy and good governance at the national and international levels, development and respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular, the right to development, are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. Adoption, for any cause or consideration, of coercive unilateral measures, rules and policies against the developing countries constitute flagrant violations of the basic rights of their populations.

NAM has called on the Member States to promote and protect all universally recognized human rights, in particular the right to development as a universal and inalienable right and as an integral part of all universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms as it was highlighted in the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on 22 September 2016 to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development.

A Joint Statement by The Group Of 77 and the Non-Aligned Movement during the high-level meet stated:

“We must take resolute steps to eliminate the massive and flagrant violations of human rights of peoples and human beings affected by situations such as those resulting from apartheid, all forms of racism and racial discrimination, colonialism, foreign domination and occupation, aggression, foreign interference and threats against national sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity, threats of war and refusal to recognize the fundamental right of peoples to self-determination … In this regard, we urge all States to expand and deepen mutually benefiting cooperation with each other in promoting development and eliminating obstacles to it, in the context of promoting an effective international co-operation for the realization of the right to development, bearing in mind that lasting progress towards the implementation of the right to development requires effective development policies at the national level as well as equitable economic relations and a favourable economic environment at the international level; and to work together towards the elaboration and adoption of a Convention on the Right to Development.”

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