Prosperity through right to development

Human dignity part of rights

The adoption of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development does not only mark the official recognition of the right to development, but it can also be regarded as the first successful joint action undertaken by the Global South, comprising Asia, Africa and Latin America, at the international level in the area of human rights. Its success can serve as a source of inspiration.

There can be no doubt that China's successful effort to eradicate poverty is the biggest human rights accomplishment in the history of humankind. Many Westerners fail to see the right to development is not about money, but about human dignity. Having decent sanitation and hygiene, access to affordable healthcare, and enough food on the table are the basic conditions of a dignified life.

The link between human dignity and the right to development was made for the very first time eloquently in the 1991 White Paper on Human Rights in China. The idea of people-centered development, as stressed by the white paper, has become a key concept in discussions about the right to development.

Tom Zwart, a professor of human rights at Utrecht University and director of Netherlands School of Human Rights Research