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Corporate obligations towards the realization of the right to development

LL.M. (Human Rights Law) / The idea of “development” being a legitimate universal human entitlement is not a new phenomenon. The emergence of this concept can be traced back to a number of universal norms which emerged from the United Nations (UN) legal framework since its creation in 1945.These norms include principles such as: greater democracy and representation in international relations; the economic complementarities of independent States; individuals as beneficiaries of social, economic and political development; respect for human rights; and the interrelationship between human rights and development.1 These principles provided the background against which the first UN working group on the Right to Development started elaborating a legal framework aiming at providing a binding solution to the conflict between industrialized States and developing States concerning the distribution of the world’s resources in 1970. At that time, the atmosphere at the UN Commission on Human Rights was highly charged with ideological positioning. Socialist countries pressed for peace and disarmament; developing States for development and an end to apartheid; Western industrialized States for establishing damage control machinery to scrutinize violations of civil and political rights.2 In 1977, the Commission on Human Rights submitted to the U.N Secretary General its first proposal which considered the suggestion of the UN Working group on the Right to Development. The proposal suggested that the “universal entitlement to development” was a prerogative of States on behalf of their populations.3 This proposal was rejected in 1979 by the conservative North American, European members of the U.N, and other committee members.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:11339
Date04 June 2014
CreatorsLubo, Kasongo
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
RightsUniversity of Johannesburg

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