The Right to Development

A/HRC/RES/48/10View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2021.

What else is in this group?

49 documents · 2000–2026

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2026).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2026	A/HRC/RES/63/3	The right to development	3,367	–
2025	A/RES/80/207	The right to development	5,093	–
2025	A/HRC/RES/60/7	The right to development	3,357	–
2024	A/RES/79/170	The right to development	5,367	–
2024	A/HRC/RES/57/19	The right to development	3,234	–

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2022

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2022	A/HRC/51/22	Right to development report of the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights		A/HRC/RES/48/10

What subjects does this mandate have?

3 subjects

International Instruments Right to Development Sustainable Development

What’s in this document?

25 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms its commitment to effectively integrate the right to development into its work and that of its mechanisms in a systematic and transparent manner;

Acknowledges the need to strive for greater acceptance, operationalization and realization of the right to development at the international level while urging all Member States to undertake at the national level the necessary policy formulation and to institute the measures required for the implementation of the right to development as an integral part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms;

Stresses that South-South cooperation is a complement to North-South cooperation, and hence should not result in the reduction of North-South cooperation or hamper progress in fulfilling existing official development assistance commitments, and encourages Member States and other relevant stakeholders to incorporate the right to development into the design, financing and implementation of cooperation processes;

Calls upon States and other relevant stakeholders to take appropriate measures to guarantee fair, transparent, equitable, efficient, universal and timely access to and the distribution of safe, quality, efficacious, effective, accessible and affordable COVID-19 vaccines, and to enable international cooperation;

Welcomes the consolidated report of the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the right to development;⁴

⁴A/HRC/48/26.

Requests the High Commissioner to continue to submit to the Human Rights Council an annual report on the activities of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, including on inter-agency coordination within the United Nations system that has direct relevance to the realization of the right to development, and to provide an analysis, taking into account existing challenges to the realization of the right to development, and to make recommendations on how to overcome them and concrete proposals for supporting the Working Group on the Right to Development in fulfilling its mandate;

Also requests the High Commissioner to take concrete measures in fulfilment of her mandated responsibility, and to enhance support for the promotion and protection of the realization of the right to development, taking as reference the Declaration on the Right to Development, all resolutions of the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Council on the right to development and agreed conclusions and recommendations of the Working Group;

Urges the Office of the High Commissioner, in the implementation of the Declaration on the Right to Development, to ensure balanced, efficient and visible allocation of both financial and human resources to the existing mechanisms within the Office, including the Expert Mechanism of the Right to Development and the Special Rapporteur on the right to development, for the realization of the right to development, also to ensure the visibility of the right to development by identifying and implementing tangible projects dedicated to the right to development, in collaboration with the Expert Mechanism and the Special Rapporteur, and to provide regular updates to the Human Rights Council in this regard;

Reiterates the importance of the core principles contained in the conclusions of the Working Group at its third session⁵ that are congruent with the purpose of international human rights instruments, such as equality, non-discrimination, accountability, participation and international cooperation, as critical to mainstreaming the right to development at the national and international levels, and underlines the importance of the principles of equity and transparency;

⁵See E/CN.4/2002/28/Rev.1.

Stresses the importance of the realization of the mandate of the Working Group, and recognizes the need for renewed efforts with a view to overcoming the existing political impasse within the Working Group so that it may fulfil in a timely manner its mandate as established by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 1998/72 and the Human Rights Council in its resolutions 4/4 and 39/9;

Also stresses the importance of constructive engagement at the twenty-second session of the Working Group, which will continue its consideration of the draft convention on the right to development submitted by the Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group, and requests the Chair-Rapporteur to submit a revised draft convention to the Working Group at its twenty-third session;

Requests the High Commissioner to engage experts for their continued provision of necessary advice, inputs and expertise to the Chair-Rapporteur in the fulfilment of his mandate and the preparation of the revised draft of the convention on the right to development, to facilitate the participation of the experts in the twenty-third session of the Working Group, and to provide advice with a view to contributing to discussions on the elaboration of a draft convention on the right to development, as part of the implementation and realization of the right to development;

Takes note with appreciation of the reports of the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development,⁶ and requests the Expert Mechanism to continue to pay particular attention to the international dimension of the right to development, and how this aspect will make the practical implementation of the right to development effective at the international, regional and national levels;

⁶A/HRC/48/62 and 63.

Welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to development,⁷ and requests him to continue to pay particular attention to the implementation of the right to development, which facilitates the full enjoyment of human rights, in accordance with his mandate;

⁷A/HRC/48/56.

Also welcomes the work of the Special Rapporteur on the right to development, in particular the guidelines and recommendations on the practical implementation of the right to development submitted to the Human Rights Council at its forty-second session;⁸

⁸A/HRC/42/38.

Reiterates its decision to continue to act to ensure that its agenda promotes and advances sustainable development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, and in this regard leads 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;

Stresses that the Working Group will take into account all resolutions on the right to development, in particular Human Rights Council resolutions 9/3 and 42/23 of 27 September 2019;

Requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to keep the right to development high on its agenda, to pursue further work in this area in full cooperation with the Special Rapporteur on the right to development and the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development in their activities, and to provide them with all the assistance necessary for the effective fulfilment of their mandates;

Takes note of the report of the Office of the High Commissioner on the biennial panel discussion of the Human Rights Council on the right to development, held at its forty-fifth session,⁹ and requests the Office, in accordance with paragraph 27 of Council resolution 42/23, to organize the biennial panel discussion on the right to development in a fully accessible format to persons with disabilities, including sign language interpretation, at the fifty-first session of the Council, and also requests the Office to prepare a report on the panel discussion and to submit it to the Council at its fifty-second session;

⁹A/HRC/48/22.

Encourages all Member States to cooperate with and to assist the Special Rapporteur and the Expert Mechanism in their tasks, and to supply all necessary information requested, where available, for the fulfilment of the mandates entrusted to them;

Requests the Special Rapporteur to participate in relevant international dialogues and policy forums relating to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the high-level political forum on sustainable development, financing for development, climate change and disaster risk reduction with a view to enhance the integration of the right to development in these forums and dialogues, and requests Member States, international organizations, United Nations agencies, regional economic commissions and other relevant organizations to facilitate the meaningful participation of the Special Rapporteur in these forums and dialogues;

Invites the Special Rapporteur to provide advice to States, international financial and economic institutions and other relevant entities, the corporate sector and civil society on measures to achieve the goals and targets relating to the means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for the full realization of the right to development;

Requests all special procedures and other human rights mechanisms of the Human Rights Council regularly and systematically to integrate the right to development perspective into the implementation of their mandates;

Encourages relevant bodies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, including United Nations specialized agencies, funds and programmes, relevant international organizations, including the World Trade Organization and relevant stakeholders, including civil society organizations, to give due consideration to the right to development in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, to contribute further to the work of the Working Group, and to cooperate with the High Commissioner, the Special Rapporteur and the Expert Mechanism in the fulfilment of their mandates with regard to the promotion and implementation of the right to development;

Decides to review the progress of the implementation of the present resolution, as a matter of priority, at its future sessions.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

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What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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