External debt of Southern countries and the Right to Development

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
Open-ended Working Group on the Right to Development
25 February – 8 March 2002

[Excerpt from the declaration]

The Declaration on the Right to Development is the first and only international document to provide a general definition of development: ‘a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process, aimed at the continuous improvement of the well-being of the entire population and all individuals, based on their active, free and meaningful participation in development and the equitable sharing of its benefits’. It is also the only international instrument that reflects, in condensed form, the most widely accepted approach to the normative content of this right.

Read the CETIM’s oral statement in French