From Development to Right to Development:

What does RTD add  to development thinking?

Economic Growth and Development: High rates of economic growth allows fulfilment of other objectives of human and social development.

Human Development Approach: Economic growth by itself is not a sufficient condition for expanding capabilities and freedoms of individuals. Goods and services must be provided to expand capabilities and freedoms.

Human Rights Approach: Provides for access and availability of goods and services, following human rights standards. It focuses on claims that individuals have on the State and other agents to secure their capabilities and freedoms. It helps establish accountability of the State and the international community. It is primarily concerned with `how' outcomes are realized.

Right to Development Approach: The Right to Development approach integrates the human development approach with the human rights approach to development. Right to Development goes beyond accepting the goals of development in terms of human development. It converts those goals into rights of individuals and identifies the responsibility of all the duty holders, in accordance with human rights standards. Economic growth with equity forms a constituent element of the right to development.

 

Recent Initiatives in Promoting the Right to Development

The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) has formulated programmes of assistance for all members of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) to take into account the requirements of implementing the Right to Development in collaboration with donor organizations, NGOs and other civil society organizations.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has made attempts to promote implementation of the Right to Development in its General Comments.

Right to Development has been incorporated in the Maastricht Guidelines on violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Major donors have reformulated their development cooperation programmes along the Right to Development framework.

The Right to Development Project has been launched in 2001 with the help of the Government of Netherlands to study ways to realize RTD in practice beginning with the rights to food, education and health through empirical studies in selected countries.