26.06.2006
United Nations Human Rights Council, First Session (Geneva, 19-30 June 2006)
Consideration of the report of the Working Group on the Right to Development
Statement by H.E. Ambassador Wolfgang PETRITSCH
Permanent Representative of Austria
on behalf of the European Union
Geneva, 26 June 2006
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The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, as well as the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.
- Grateful to Ambassador Salama’s for his presentation of the report of the Working Group. Take this opportunity to thank him once again for his excellent and dedicated work in steering our discussions on this crucial issue.
- EU welcomes this report, in particular its very concrete recommendations of criteria for assessing global partnership from the perspective of the right to development.
- This is exactly the kind of practical result that we believe can make a real difference in achieving the implementation of the right to development for individuals in countries around the world.
- Achieving these consensus conclusions was due in good part to the hard work of the Chair and all Member States involved. But it was also very much due to the crucial contribution of the High Level Task Force on the Right to Development.
- At only its second meeting, the Task Force demonstrated its ability and growing capacity to build dialogue and understanding about the right to development and its practical implications among development and trade practitioners as well as human rights experts.
- By bringing inter-disciplinary as well as cross-regional expertise together to share best practices and field level approaches, the Task Force was able to identify specific ways to assess MDG 8 on global partnership in terms of the right to development, with a view to its improved operationalisation.
In conclusion:
- The EU maintains its firm support for the right to development as defined in the Declaration on the Right to Development, as a 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 realised.
- We also believe that this Working Group and the High Level Task Force it has established have demonstrated their ability over the last couple of years to make a real difference to the implementation of this right in countries around the world.
- We therefore support the extension of both mandates for a further year, in the terms proposed in the report.
- The EU does not consider that pursuing a legally binding instrument specifically on the Right to Development would be useful or productive in advancing the implementation of this right.
- A human rights instrument is not the appropriate way to enhance such partnerships. Indeed, human rights instruments rightly and necessarily address the obligations of a State to its citizens and not obligations between states.
* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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