United Nations: Report on the right to development

The present report contains an analysis of the efforts undertaken for and the challenges to the realization of the right to development in the context of the response to and the recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The report also contains an overview of the activities of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the promotion and realization of the right to development. 

Submitted pursuant the Human Rights Council Resolution 48/10 and GA resolution 76/163, the report  stresses the difficulties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic in the enjoyment of all human rights. In point 1.2 the report makes a special emphasis that  “The health crisis and the resulting social and economic crises have reversed gains in well-being and human development and shone a light on the structural consequences of decades of underfunded or dismantled public services and policies related to economic and social rights.”

Although the consequences are noticeable, the report stresses the opportunity “to change course, learn the lessons from the ongoing COVID19 crisis and promote a just, green and sustainable recovery through increased and effective international cooperation”. 

The overall analysis brought by the report considers “how the application of the right to development, its principles and norms, as defined in the Declaration on the Right to Development, would have contributed to preventing and/or easing various impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and guiding the global response to and the recovery from the pandemic”.

The report also contains information on the activities of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that have direct relevance for the realization of the right to development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, including inter-agency coordination within the United Nations system.4 The report concludes with recommendations.