There is a right to development distinct from other human rights yet encompasses all human rights
The right to development was first recognized and made a legal right in 1981 in the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Right, a regional human right instrument. Article 22 states that:
"1. All peoples shall have the right to their economic, social and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity and in equal enjoyment of common heritage of mankind. 2. States shall have the duty, individually or collectively, to ensure the exercise of the right to development."
The United Nations General Assembly in 1986 adopted the Declaration on the Right to Development by resolution 41/128 of December 1986. Article 1, paragraph 1 of the Declaration states that:
"The right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized."
The general principles in the Declaration recognizes that development is a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process aimed towards the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population and individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation. Any process that violates, denies or hinders human rights is an obstacle to development. According to the Declaration, the human person is the central subject of the development process , therefore development policies should make the human being the main participant and beneficiary of the development process.
According to the August 2000 report of the independent expert on the right to development, Arjun Sengupta, Article 1 of the Declaration embodies three main principles that focuses on inalienability, particular process of development that respects the realization of all human rights and entitlement to participate:
a) There is an inalienable human right that is called the right to development
b) There is a particular process of economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized; and
c) The right to development is a human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to and enjoy that particular process of development.
This blog is developed to follow the process of development around the world and in Nigeria in particular and to relate the processes and events to this Declaration.
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