The Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue, in cooperation with the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the UN and other International Organizations in Switzerland, will organitze a panel discussion entitled “The Right to Development, 30 years later: achievements, challenges and the way forward”, which will take place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 5 December 2016. The discussion will be an opportunity to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development, as well as the 2016 International Human Rights Day.
The Chairman of the Geneva Centre’s Board of Management, H. E. Dr. Hanif Al Qassim, and H. E. Mr. Vaqif Sadiqov, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the UN and other international organizations in Switzerland will deliver inaugural addresses.
Panel members will be: Ambassador Zamir Akram, Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on the Right to Development; Dr. Manuel Montes, Senior Advisor on Finance and Development at The South Centre; Prof. Koen de Feyter, Chair of International Law at the University of Antwerp; and Prof. Dr. Nico Schrijver, Chair of Public International Law and Academic Director of Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University, and Expert Member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The discussion will be moderated by Ambassador Idriss Jazairy, Executive Director of the Geneva Centre.
The panel discussion will analyse achievements and progress made towards, as well as challenges ahead for, the attainment of the Right to Development. By means of a brainstorm with different stakeholders, it will aim at giving a voice to the voiceless and building bridges between developed and developing countries in the mainstreaming of human rights in national and international policies. The ultimate goal is to revive the same consensus of the international community that served as a backdrop to the adoption of the Declaration as well as earlier UN Resolutions on the Right to Development.
2016 should be seen as a year of hope for the Right to Development as well as a step in the long path to making development a reality for all, starting by looking back on achievements and lessons learned to build sustainable solutions. Leaving behind controversy and North-South divides, this approach places people at the centre of the development process, as defined 30 years ago in the Declaration.