ABSTRACT
The legal status of the RTD as a human right is the most important issue that needs to be addressed while examining its legal status in international law. According to the Declaration, the RTD is a human right. But this assertion is contentious and controversial. The Declaration envisages that every human person and all peoples are at the same time the right-bearers as well as duty-holders of the RTD.1 It also declares: ‘states have the primary responsibility’, ‘the duty to cooperate with each other’, ‘the duty to take steps, individually and collectively’ to facilitate the realization of the RTD. All these appear to be vague phrases. While the vagueness in the content of the language is common to all human rights instruments,2 given the controversial position of the RTD, this problem needs to be addressed to resolve the issue of justiciability. Thus when the discussion comes to the actual realization of the RTD, it is found that the rights and duties assumed thereunder are not totally simple and clear. Hence, the RTD faces a challenge. The debate surrounds many issues, for example what is the source of this right? Who should be the right-holder and who should be the duty-bearer? What should be the content of such a right? How can such a right be enforced? The controversy becomes more complicated when the RTD of people, or a group or a state is talked about. This leads to what may be called the heart of the debate: the implementation (justiciability) of the RTD. This chapter addresses all these issues: the sources, the subjects, the content and the justiciability of the RTD.
