Developing Rights: The UN Declaration on the Right to Development

Abstract

On 4 December 1986, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 41/128 which contained the Declaration on the Right to Development. The Declaration was a further attempt by the United Nations to develop a normative regime to deal with one of the most pressing issues of our day – underdevelopment. It was a logical culmination of a movement that started with the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and continued through the period of the anti-colonial struggle. Once the right to self-determination was no longer challengeable as a political entitlement, attention shifted to its socio-economic corollary. In 1969, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on Social Progress and Development. The different UN Development Decades were also meant to address the problems of underdevelopment and the ever-increasing gulf between developed and developing countries. In 1974, a major attempt was launched by the UN General Assembly to change certain basic aspects of international law in the hope that this would lead to a new international economic order. Those efforts are yet to be substantially rewarded.