Right to Development will remain “a distant dream for billions” without a shift in global priorities – High Commissioner

Excellencies, Distinguished delegates,

We meet at a troubled time for our world, and for human rights.

Horrific conflicts. Skyrocketing inequalities. Climate chaos. Debt distress.

Around the world, populists are exploiting divisions and pushing back against fundamental rights – aided and abetted by a deluge of disinformation on social media platforms.

The results are heartbreaking.

Humanitarian and human rights crises, from Sudan to Ukraine and Gaza, rightly make headlines.

But under the radar, many of the poorest people in the world are falling even further behind.

The World Bank says 2020-30 is set to be a lost decade for development.

Last week’s Human Development Report confirmed that progress is experiencing a dramatic slowdown.

In many developing countries, poverty reduction has come to a virtual standstill since the COVID19 pandemic began five years ago.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs are slipping further out of reach.

More than half of low-income countries are currently in, or at high risk of, debt distress. But the development finance they need is dwindling, as major economies shift their priorities and expand defence budgets to record levels.

Finance to developing countries has been shrinking since 2020. It now faces further cuts of 18 percent from major donors.

That is the backdrop to today’s financial turbulence, new tariffs, and talk of global recession and a trade war.

These threats may seem like a high-stakes poker game between leaders of the richest countries, with the global economy as the bank.

But the shockwaves of a trade war will hit Least Developed Countries with the force of a tsunami. This is a matter of life and death for them.

I welcome reports that the United States and China have made progress in their trade talks.

But I am disturbed by approaches that treat the poorest people on earth as collateral damage.

As soaring inequality and injustice feed division and polarization, they make the world a more dangerous place for everyone.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates,

The right to development will remain a distant dream for billions of people unless we achieve a fundamental shift in global priorities.

I firmly believe that progress in realising the full spectrum of human rights can reverse today’s destructive trends. And that the best way to ensure global security is through sustainable development and the realization of human rights – not trade wars or arms races.

The right to development is unique and essential to this shift, because it explicitly recognizes the interconnectedness of individuals, communities, and countries.

It is the bridge between rights for people and communities, and the rights that Governments have committed to realize through international conventions and treaties.

No government can invest in sustainable development unless it has the resources and technical expertise to make that happen. Those resources depend on global action.

Intergovernmental institutions, centred on the United Nations, are the platform and facilitator for those discussions and agreements.

Today’s high geopolitical tensions, spiraling environmental and climate crises, and gloomy economic forecasts, call for a strong, united front.

Developed and developing countries must work together in partnership and solidarity to tackle issues that affect both.

States must make global governance more responsive, and multilateral institutions more representative – as envisaged in the Pact for the Future.

Implementing the Pact must ensure adequate and predictable development assistance, support for technology transfer, and sustainable solutions to debt distress.

But human rights go far beyond economics.

As Nobel laureate Amartya Sen pointed out, development is, above all, about freedom.

At a basic level, it is about freedom from poverty, hunger, and preventable disease. It also encompasses the freedom to choose where to live, how to earn money, how many children to have, and much more.

The right to development is about the right of every individual to control their life; to fulfil their potential; to participate in the decisions that affect them. It recognizes a special role for women, who are often key agents of social change, helping to realize the rights of their families and communities.

All human rights are about liberation and emancipation, providing a path forward from inequalities and injustices. And they are deeply interlinked. There is no right to development without social, economic, cultural, political and civil rights.

My Office is working around the world to realise the right to development, from specific issues including unilateral coercive measures and the non-repatriation of funds of illicit origin, to supporting States in building human rights economies, and our efforts for environmental protection and sustainability.

That work includes supporting over 80 projects in 38 countries with budget analysis, advice on debt servicing, and on policies that promote the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

In closing, I urge Member States to embed human rights, including the right to development, as a guiding principle in their own laws and policies, and in global agreements.

The Global Plastics Treaty; the Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation; the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development – all these must align with human rights, and first and foremost, the right to development.

They must help States to support and protect their people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.

Today’s model – of health for some, wealth for some, jobs for some, rights for some – is short-sighted, divisive and ultimately, dangerous.

At a time of intense global turmoil, investment in human rights requires a tiny fraction of global resources, and delivers immense benefits for all.

Thank you.

OHCHR – 12 May 2025

https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2025/05/right-development-will-remain-distant-dream-billions-without-shift