Towards a Just Institutional Order: A Commentary on the First Session of the UN Task Force on the Right to Development

Abstract

A novel mechanism that brings together human rights experts with the representatives of the international development, finance and trade institutions was recently established within the United Nations (UN) under the auspices of the Working Group on the Right to Development. At its first session, this High-Level Task Force adopted a range of recommendations on challenges to the Millennium Development Goals and on the importance of human rights impact assessments. In so doing, it took some initial steps towards integrating the international law of human rights, including the framework provided by the 1986 UN Declaration on the Right to Development, into the priority areas of these other international actors. The aim of this commentary is to provide insight into the conclusions adopted by the Task Force and to highlight the contribution of the human right to development to the topics under its consideration. It also seeks to reflect on the significance of human rights law to issues that were tabled, such as, accountability for human rights at the international level, international cooperation, economic growth, and trade-offs in the allocation of resources. In concluding that the Task Force must face head on the impediments to the realisation of human rights posed by the institutional arrangements for the governance of the international economic order, the article ends by offering suggestions for its future work.