South Centre Input for SR on RtD, 17 April 2026

Input for the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development

For the 2026 thematic reports to the Human Rights Council on “Participation in development” and to the United Nations General Assembly on “Peace for development”

South Centre

April 2026

The South Centre has submitted its latest input to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development for the 2026 thematic reports on “Participation in Development” and “Peace for Development”.

Our report underscores that development is not a charitable concession but an inalienable human right. To overcome the structural violence of the current international order, we advocate for:

• Reforming the Global Architecture: Democratising the Bretton Woods institutions and the UN Security Council to rectify the historical underrepresentation of Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
• A “Human Rights Economy”: Transitioning from voluntary corporate “tick-box” exercises to a Legally Binding Instrument (LBI) that ensures extraterritorial accountability for transnational corporations.
• Dismantling “Regulatory Chill”: Reforming the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system, which currently prioritizes corporate profits over the policy space needed for development and climate justice.
• A Paradigm Shift to “Positive Peace”: Redirecting a portion of the $2.7 trillion global military expenditure toward the SDGs and grant-based climate reparations.
• Substantive Justice: Recognising traditional and indigenous knowledge as valid evidence in policy-making and ensuring reparative justice for historical dispossessions.

(more…)

Research Paper 149, 8 March 2022

The International Discourse on the Right to Development and the Need to Reinvigorate its Implementation

By Yuefen Li, Daniel Uribe and Danish

The world is currently at an ebb for realizing the Right to Development (RtD). Weakening of multilateralism, de-globalization, the scars left by the COVID-19 pandemic, misinterpretation and dilution of the RtD, and inertia to reform international governance are among the multitude of reasons for this phenomenon. However, the need for a better, more inclusive and greener recovery, and the efforts necessary to attain the 2030 Agenda, have provided the international community an opportunity to reinvigorate the realization of the RtD. These efforts have shown the great relevance of RtD to promote a people-centred and fairer development process and the need for an international enabling environment in order to promote the kind of development we want.

This paper reviews the history of international discourse on RtD including major milestones, main divisive issues between the global South and the North, the evolution of voting patterns on intergovernmental outcomes, existing legal and political issues currently being discussed, the various mechanisms on the RtD, and recommendations on the way forward to revitalize the implementation of RtD at the 35^th anniversary of the Declaration on Right to Development.

(more…)