External pressure threatens Sri Lanka's right to development

Taking the floor under the general debate of Item 3 (Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development), Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Tamara Kunanayakam affirmed that if the "Council is to remain credible, it must give equal attention to economic, social and cultural rights as to civil and political rights; to the collective dimension as to the individual dimension; to the international as to the national."

She regretted that more than 25 years after the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development and the consensus achieved, obstacles were still being placed in the way of its implementation, depriving developing countries of their right to determine the type of society in which this inalienable right can be realised. Reiterating that development, human rights and peace are inter-dependent and inter-related, Ambassador Kunanayakam said that Sri Lanka considered the multi-dimensional approach to development in which the people are the central subject, as the only sustainable path to reconciliation.

The full text of the statement:
"Agenda Item 3

Report of the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the UN Open-ended Inter-governmental working group on the Right to Development: Statement by Sri Lanka My delegation wishes to associate itself with the statement made by Egypt, on behalf of the Non Aligned Movement.

Sri Lanka wishes to reiterate that development, human rights and peace are inter-dependent and inter-related; that all human rights and fundamental freedoms are indivisible and inter-dependent; that, if this Council is to remain credible, it must give equal attention to economic, social and cultural rights as to civil and political rights; to the collective dimension as to the individual dimension; to the international as to the national.

More than 25 years after the adoption of the Declaration, and despite the consensus achieved, obstacles continue to be placed in the way of its implementation, depriving developing countries of their right to determine the type of society in which this inalienable right can be realised.

Less than three years after the end of an almost three-decade old conflict against terrorism and separatism, Sri Lanka considers that the multi-dimensional approach to development is the only sustainable path to reconciliation, which is its primary objective.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has continuously emphasised that economic growth must be accompanied by equity, that all people must benefit from the peace dividend, even in the remotest parts of the country. Multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-religious Sri Lanka relies on a participatory, community-based, decentralised development strategy to shape a society that is best suited for the realisation of the full potential of its members.

Last year alone, Sri Lanka recorded an unprecedented GDP growth rate of more than eight percent, reflecting an imperative transformation of our rural economy on which the majority of people depend for their livelihood. Despite progress, Sri Lanka is subject to external pressures, threats and conditionalities that continue to threaten its reconciliation process and the fragile peace, without which the right to development cannot be realised.

There can be no development without effective international cooperation and solidarity, as a complement to national efforts

Article 9.1 of the Declaration provides that, and I quote :
"All the aspects of the right to development set forth in the present Declaration are indivisible and interdependent and each of them should be considered in the context of the whole."
In keeping with this requirement, my delegation calls upon the Working Group, in defining criteria and operational sub-criteria, to ensure that the multi-dimensional aspect of the right to development is respected, and a balance struck, between the individual and the collective, the national and the international, forming the basis for a legally binding instrument".

Courtesy: Asian Tribune