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Mr Chairman,
I have the honour to make this statement in the name of the European Union.
"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 and Montenegro, and the EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration."
Let me first congratulate you on your re-election as Chair of this Working Group. The EU welcomes the constructive dialogue we have achieved under your guidance over the last two years, enabling us to shift our debate from the general to the specific and from the conceptual to the operational. This has enabled us to focus on ways to improve the practical implementation of the right to development, which must remain our shared priority. You have our full support in your efforts to advance our work in this direction.
The EU reiterates its attachment to 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. States have the primary responsibility for the respect of all human rights, including the right to development. This can best be achieved by applying a human rights perspective to national development plans and global partnerships, which stress the universality, indivisibility, interrelatedness and interdependence of all human rights. In this context, the EU welcomes the clear recognition in the World Summit Outcome Document that development, security and human rights are interlinked and mutually reinforcing.
The High Level Task Force, at its second meeting in December last year, showed that it can play a significant role in identifying practical ways to advance the right to development. The very fact that it provides a forum for constructive dialogue between right to development experts and representatives of key multilateral institutions whose work can impact on the right to development, is a positive factor. The sharing of ideas, viewpoints and experience contributes demonstrably to raising awareness and informing policies and practices.
In its second meeting, the Task Force was able to focus on providing real added value as it addressed the question of MDG 8 and how to improve the effectiveness of global partnerships for development with regard to the realisation of the right to development. As we noted in our statement at that meeting, this was a welcome and timely debate. It provided the right basis to move us beyond discussions that single out actions at either the national level or the international level. It recognised that sustainable development will require appropriate action at both levels, in a spirit of mutual commitment and accountability.
The EU welcomed the presentations during the Task Force’s meeting on existing partnerships at the global, regional and bilateral levels. These were highly informative and revealed clear areas of best practice. In this regard we particularly welcomed the participation in this meeting of the Task Force of representatives of the OECD, the UN Economic Commission for Africa and NEPAD. The work of these and other organisations, in the form of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the OECD-NEPAD Mutual Review on Development Effectiveness and other such recent initiatives, provided a sound basis on which the Task Force could consider criteria for assessing global partnerships for the realisation of the right to development. The EU believes that the criteria identified in paragraph 82 of the Task Force’s report provide an excellent basis for effective evaluation of partnerships, and would be interested in discussing how these might be taken forward in practice. We welcome the recognition of a number of key elements in the criteria, such as gender equality, non-discrimination, participation, good governance and the needs of the most vulnerable segments of the population. We suggest that it might initially be useful to consider how the criteria could be operationalised in terms of benchmarks or indicators.
The EU also notes with interest the recommendations directed by the Task Force to other existing accountability mechanisms. For its part, the Member States of the EU undertake to ensure that these recommendations are brought to the attention of those within their governments responsible for the areas of trade, debt and other relevant areas. Similarly, we hope that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will bring the recommendation addressed to the Treaty Bodies to their attention.
As regards the recommendation on monitoring the activities of TNCs, the EU agrees fully that host state, states of origin, NGOs, the IFC and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises should be attentive to the need for policy coherence. We note that there is currently a process underway, mandated by the Commission on Human Rights, to identify and clarify standards of corporate responsibility and accountability for transnational corporations and other business enterprises with regard to human rights, and to elaborate on the role of states in effectively regulating and adjudicating the role of transnational corporations. We believe that this mandate established by the CHR provides a strong means to take forward the question of corporate responsibility, including corporate accountability, with regard to all human rights, including the right to development. We look forward to the 2006 and 2007 reports of the SRSG in this regard.
Mr Chairman,
The High Level Task Force has already very much demonstrated its worth. It has provided us with considerable food for thought at this session of the Working Group. And it has also illustrated, through the sheer wealth of issues it touched on during its meeting, that we have so far only looked at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the assessing MDGs in the context of the right to development. There is much more to be done to include and implement human rights, including the right to development, in all MDG activities. We look forward to the debate ahead of us this week.
* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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