ABSTRACT
The Declaration on the Right to Development, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 4 December 1986, sets the issue of development in historical and especially colonial and postcolonial context. While responsibility for present economic inequalities cannot all be placed at the foot of past empires or indeed present multinationals, the UN recognised that ‘massive and flagrant violations of the human rights of the peoples and individuals’ affected by ‘colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, all forms of racism and racial discrimination, foreign domination and occupation’ have contributed to poverty and underdevelopment in many countries. In addition, the elimination of ‘aggression and threats against national sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity and threats of war’ would contribute to ‘circumstances propitious to the development of a great part of mankind’. In other words, the UN makes a clear link between war and civil disturbance and underdevelopment. There was thus reiteration that ‘international peace and security are essential elements for the realization of the right to development’, and ‘that there is a close relationship between disarmament and development’ and ‘that
Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition (16 November 1964) Declaration on Social Progress and Development (11 December 1969) Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons (20 December 1971) Declaration on the Use of Scientific and Technological Progress in the Interests of Peace and for the Benefit of Mankind (10 November 1975) Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons (9 December 1975) Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace (12 November 1984) Declaration on the Right to Development (4 December 1986) Guidelines for the Regulation of Computerized Personal Data Files (14 December 1990) International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (18 December 1990) Principles for the protection of persons with mental illness and the improvement of mental health care (17 December 1991) Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights (UNESCO) (c. 2001)
Right to enjoy culture, international cultural development and co-operation Declaration of the Principles of International Cultural Co-operation (UNESCO) (4 November 1966) Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (UNESCO) (19 November 1974)
For full texts, follow links at www.unhchr.org
and social development and well-being of all peoples and, in particular, those of the developing countries’. Box 9.3 presents many of the largely unfulfilled aspirations of the international community.
