“Under the Aegis of Man”: The Right to Development and the Origins of the New International Economic Order

Abstract

This article explores how the idea of a “right to development” first emerged at the UN, and how it became a normative cornerstone for one of the main pillars of the program of the New International Economic Order (NIEO) in the 1970s—the Charter on the Economic Rights and Duties of States (CERDS). While the idea of a right to development began as a strident and sometimes fiery demand, its transformation into the CERDS contributed to the cooling of its tone. After the adoption of the NIEO, the right would be resurrected again—as a human right—in the late 1970s.