A ‘Significant Success’ For Pakistani Diplomacy

APP

Geneva: This pioneering achievement marks a major milestone towards promoting the right to development after almost 40 years of intergovernmental deliberations and a “significant success” for Pakistani diplomacy, said diplomatic observers.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has voted to adopt by a wide margin a draft covenant on the right to development as a human right that puts people at the centre of the development process.

In 2018, the HRC mandated the Council’s Working Group on the Right to Development Chair Ambassador Akram to draft a legally binding treaty on the right to development. Zamir presented a draft text to the Council in its May 2023 session which adopted it on Thursday.

Under terms of the Council’s resolution, it decided to submit to the General Assembly the draft international covenant on the right to development for its consideration and subsequent adoption.

The vote in the 47-member Council was 29 in favour to 13 against, with 5 abstentions.

The right to development as a human right has been pursued by developing countries, in keeping with the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for over the past four decades, to ensure that the right to development is recognised as a part of all human rights that are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent.

However, the acceptance of this right has so far been opposed by the developed countries, leading to a stalemate on the issue.