On monday February 27th the Human Rights Council started its 52nd session in Geneva. General Secretary Antonio Guterrez opened the high level segment of the session.
On February 28th an high level panel discussion on the Right to Development took place and IFOR joined a statement delivered by Associazione Papa Giovani XXIII.
Check against delivery
Mr. President,
The Declaration on the Right to Development provides an essential guide to the manner
in which States, the international community and all organs of society shall act and
cooperate to ensure an enabling environment for development that is sustainable, just,
equitable and inclusive.
Nowadays, inequality has worsened to the point of becoming a threat to our societies
undermining progress in the fight against poverty and endangering the future of our
planet. Crisis after crisis the long-term structural gaps have widened and consolidated.
The implementation of the right to development and the embrace of the principle of
international solidarity are of paramount importance and inescapable ways to reduce the
many inequalities that threaten fundamental human rights, in particular for those who
are marginalised and poor.
APG23 and the co-signing NGOs look forward to the prompt finalisation and adoption
of a convention on the right to development, convinced that this will be a further
important step for the implementation of such a vital right.
We regret that some States are still reluctant to fully recognise the right to development
in all its dimensions and/or promote its realization.
Once and for all, the time has come to free the right to development from the trap of the
political games as well as the tendency to cherry-pick its contents and let it fly!
Thank You!