A/HRC/RES/18/26
Recalling that 2011 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Declaration on the
Right to Development,
Stressing that, in General Assembly resolution 48/141 of 20 December 1993, the
Assembly decided that the responsibility of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights shall be, among others, to promote and protect the realization of the right to
development and to enhance support from relevant bodies of the United Nations system for
this purpose,
1.
Welcomes the holding of the panel entitled “The way forward in the
realization of the right to development: between policy and practice” during the eighteenth
session of the Human Rights Council as part of the series of events commemorating the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development;
2.
Takes note of the note by the Secretariat2 informing the Human Rights
Council that the consolidated report of the Secretary-General and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights on the right to development, in compliance with General
Assembly resolution 65/219 of 21 December 2010, would be submitted to the Council at its
nineteenth session, and that the twelfth session of the intergovernmental open-ended
Working Group on the Right to Development was scheduled for 14 to 18 November 2011;
3.
Notes the efforts under way in the framework of the Working Group on the
Right to Development, with a view to completing the tasks entrusted to it by the Human
Rights Council in its resolution 4/4, and reaffirms the conclusions and recommendations of
the Working Group agreed at its eleventh session;3
4.
Also notes the work of the high-level task force on the implementation of the
right to development, the mandate of which ended in 2010, including its consolidation of
findings and the list of right to development criteria and corresponding operational subcriteria;4
5.
Recalls that the Working Group on the Right to Development will consider at
its twelfth session the two compilations of views received from Governments, groups of
Governments and regional groups, and from other stakeholders, on the work of the highlevel task force,
6.
Decides:
(a)
To continue to act to ensure that its agenda promotes and advances
sustainable development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and,
in this regard, lead to raising the right to development, as set out in paragraphs 5 and 10 of
the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, to the same level and on a par with all
other human rights and fundamental freedoms;
(b)
That the criteria and corresponding operational sub-criteria mentioned in
paragraph 4 above, once considered, revised and endorsed by the Working Group, should
be used, as appropriate, in the elaboration of a comprehensive and coherent set of standards
for the implementation of the right to development;
(c)
That the Working Group on the Right to Development shall take appropriate
steps to ensure respect for and practical application of the above-mentioned standards,
which could take various forms, including guidelines on the implementation of the right to
2
3
4
2
A/HRC/18/22.
A/HRC/15/23, paras. 45-47.
See A/HRC/15/WG.2/TF/2 and Add.1 and 2.