ARTICLES

Reflections on the right to development: Challenges and prospects

Mesenbet Assefa Tadeg

Lecturer of Law, College of Law and Governance, Department of Law; Director, Mekelle University Human Rights Center, Ethiopia

SUMMARY

The right to development is one of the most contested rights, continuing to attract the attention of academics, international lawyers and scholars in the development discourse. Since the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development in 1986, the question whether a legal right to development exists, particularly in the context of states' rights, is unresolved. The article seeks to explore the challenges and prospects of recognising the right to development as a legal right. In making such an inquiry, the article discusses the legal framework governing the right to development, the theoretical controversies surrounding its articulation and the prospects of its implementation. Beyond reinvigorating the discussion on the right to development, the article aims to give the reader new insights on the subject.

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* LLB (Bahir Dar), LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa) (Pretoria);Tsehay2000@gmail.com. This article is based on the author's dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the degree LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa), Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, 2008.
1 The collective struggle of developing countries for the establishment of an international order that favours their special needs culminated in the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order; GA Res 3201(S-VI) UN GAOR 6th special session Agenda Item 6, 2229th plen mgt at UN Doc A/RES/3201(S-VI) (1974).
2 O Sheehy 'The right to development and the proliferation of rights in international law' (2002) 5 Trinity Law Review 253.         [ Links ]
3 Sheehy (n 2 above) 254.
4 R Rich The right to development: A right of peoples? (1992) 312, cited by Sheehy (n 2 above) 254.         [ Links ]
5 K M'Baye 'Le droit au développement comme un droit de l'homme' in Revue internationale des droits de l'homme (1972), cited in RL Barsh 'The right to development as a human right: Results of the Global Consultation' (1991) 13 Human Rights Quarterly 322.         [ Links ]
6 Declaration on the Right to Development adopted by General Assembly Resolution 41/128 (4 December 1986).
7 Barsh (n 5 above) 322. With respect to scholars from the south, see also M'Baye (n 5 above); UN Independent Expert on the Right to Development; A Sengupta 'Implementing the right to development' in N Schrijver & F Weiss (eds) International law and sustainable development: Principles and practices (2004) 15; TA Aguda Human rights and the right to development in Africa (1989). For arguments forwarded by academics from the north, see J Donnelly 'In search of the unicorn: The jurisprudence and politics of the right to development' (1985) 15 California Western International Law Journal 475.
8 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action A/CONF 157/23 (12 July 1993).
9 African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted 27 June 1981.
10 UN Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1989/45 (6 March 1989) 'The Realisation of the Right to Development' Global Consultation on the Right to Development as a Human Right HR/PUB/91/2 United Nations, New York (1991).
11 Open-Ended Working Group on the Right to Development E/CN/4 RES/1998/72.
12 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted 10 December 1948, Preamble para 6.
13 Preamble, para 5 Universal Declaration.
14 Arts 22 & 25 Universal Declaration.
15 BA Andreassen & S Marks (eds) Development as a human right: Legal, political and economic dimensions (2006) 241.
16 UN Doc E/CN 4/SR1389, 1392-98 (1977), Resolution 5 (XXXIII) para 4.
17 UN Doc E/CN.4/1334 (1979). For a further discussion on the ethical grounds of the RTD, see RY Rich 'The right to development as an emerging human right' (1983) 23 Virginia Journal of International Law 322.
18 General Assembly Resolution 34/46 (1979).
19 The United States of America was the only country that cast a vote against the Declaration, while Denmark, Finland, the Federal Republic of Germany, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Sweden and the United Kingdom abstained.
20 Art 1 Declaration on the Right to Development.
21 Andreassen & Marks (n 15 above) 11.
22 A Eide 'Human rights requirement to social and economic development' (1996) 21 Food Policy 23.
23 Art 6 Declaration on the Right to Development.
24 Art 1(1) Declaration on the Right to Development.
25 Art 5 D Declaration on the Right to Development.
26 Arts 3, 4 & 10 Declaration on the Right to Development.
27 Art 2(3) Declaration on the Right to Development.
28 Art 2(3) Declaration on the Right to Development (my emphasis).
29 Art 8(1) Declaration on the Right to Development (my emphasis).
30 Vienna Declaration (n 8 above).
31 Art 10 Vienna Declaration.
32 BS Santos Towards a new common sense: Law, science and politics in the paradigmatic transition (1995) 357; see also M Bedjaoui The right to development in international law: Achievements and prospects (1991), cited in RW Perry 'Rethinking the right to development: After the critique of development, after the critique of rights' (1996) 18 Law and Policy 228.
33 Preamble, para 9 African Charter.
34 Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC) & Another v Nigeria (2001) AHRLR 60 (ACHPR 2001) para 64.
35 Democratic Republic of the Congo v Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda (2004) AHRLR 19 (ACHPR 2004) para 95.
36 Communication 276, Centre for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group International on behalf of Endorois Welfare Council v Kenya (2003) 27th Activity Report of the African Commission, para 269.
37 Endorois case (n 36 above) para 298.
38 Endorois case (n 36 above) paras 297 & 298.
39 Endorois case (n 36 above) para 277.
40 As above.
41 Endorois case (n 36 above) para 279.
42 Art 62 African Charter.
43 See the 3rd and 4th Periodic Report of Algeria (2006). This report stated that the state was concerned with equitable distribution of the benefits of development and this was supported by statistical data on the measures taken to fulfil socio-economic rights. See also the 8th, 9th and 10th Periodic Reports of the Democratic Republic of Congo (2007) para 208.
44 Art 43(1) Ethiopian Constitution.
45 Art 43(2) Ethiopian Constitution.
46 See the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, Objective IX and the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi, art 31.
47 M Bedjaoui International law achievements and challenges (1991), cited in H Steiner & P Alston (eds) International human rights in context: Law, politics and morals (2000) 1321.         [ Links ]
48 J Dugard International law: A South African perspective (2005) 34.         [ Links ]
49 Bedjaoui (n 47 above) 1323.
50 J Makarczyk Principles of a new international economic order (1988) 186, cited in SR Chowdhury et al (eds) The right to development in international law (1992) 11.         [ Links ]
51 Art 2(2) Declaration on the Right to Development.
52 Art 3(1) Declaration on the Right to Development.
53 Arts 2, 3, 7 &10 Declaration on the Right to Development.
54 Report of the Secretary-General on the International Dimensions of the Right to Development as a Human Right UN ESCOR 35th session paras 152-159, UN Doc E/ CN.4/1334 (1979). See also Report of the Open-Ended Working Group of Governmental Experts on the Right to Development UN ESCOR 45th session para 25 UN Doc E/CN.4/1989/10 (1989).
55 GA Res 3281 (XXIX), UN GAOR, 2nd Comm, 29th session, Agenda Item 48 arts 7 & 9, UN Doc A/RES/3281 (XXIX) (1975).
56 GS Varges The new international economic order legal debate (1983) 39 42-43, cited in ID Bunn 'The right to development: Implications for international economic law' (1999-2000) 15 American University International Law Review 1431.         [ Links ]
57 Art 3(3) Declaration on the Right to Development ; see also art 4(2).
58 Art 5 Declaration on the Right to Development.
59 Art 2 ICESCR.
60 General Comment 3 para 13.
61 S Marks 'Making space for new human rights: The case of the right to development' (1998) 1 Harvard Human Rights Yearbook 3, 33.         [ Links ]
62 L Irish 'The right to development versus a human rights-based approach to development' (2005) 3 International Law Journal of Civil Society 6.         [ Links ]
63 Donnelly (n 7 above) 475.
64 GA Res 41/120, para 4 (d), 41 UN GAOR Suppl (No 53), UN Doc A/41/53 (1986).
65 As above.
66 As above.
67 As above.
68 H Lauterpacht An international bill of the rights of man (1945), cited in Marks (n 61 above) 38.
69 Andreassen & Marks (n 15 above) 5.
70 Endorois case (n 36 above).
71 DRC case (n 35 above).
72 Andreasen & Marks (n 15 above) 6.
73 As above.
74 Open-Ended Working Group (n 11 above).
75 See art 43 of the Ethiopian Constitution which expressly guarantees the right of the people of Ethiopia to development.
76 Art 22 African Charter.
77 Marks (n 61 above) 35.
78 A Sengputa et al (eds) Reflections on the right to development (2005) 93.
79 As above.
80 OECD Shaping the 21st century: The contribution of development co-operation (1996).
81 Steiner & Alston (n 47 above) 1319.
82 Sengputa et al (n 78 above) 10.
83 AE Gouwenberg 'The legal implementation of the right to development' unpublished LLM thesis, Leiden University (2009).         [ Links ]
84 As above.
85 As above.
86 Report of the High-Level Task Force on the Implementation of the Right to Development, 3rd session (2007)UN Doc A/HRC/4/WG 2/TF/2, para 87.
87 Marks (n 61 above) 7.