CIESIN Thematic Guides
Right to Development
Developing nations assert a right to development, arguing that they should not now be unfairly hampered by limitations that the highly industrialized nations did not place on themselves during their development. Many of the developed nations have resisted the assertion of this right. One important line of argument against the right to development is that the right is not absolute, but should be linked to Political and Civil Rights as well as environmental and economic concerns.
The report of the Global Consultation on the Right to Development as a Human Right (1990) resulted from an effort to give specific content to the United Nations General Assembly's 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development. Barsh (1991) discusses the Global Consultation and the implications of the United Nations system's recognition in "The Right to Development as a Human Right."