Filling the Gaps in the Right to Development: A Study on the Understandings (and Misunderstandings) of Rights-Holders and Duty-Bearers

Abstract: The right to development (RTD) is an inalienable human right that has been affirmed by the United Nations General Assembly in the Declaration on the Right to Development (DRD), in 1986. The right has also been reaffirmed by several international declarations and in two regional human rights conventions, the African [Banjul] Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Arab Charter on Human Rights, and it is often discussed in development discourse. In the RTD development is viewed as a human right. This human right entails that development is a process where all human rights will be realized. An important component of this right is that the development process needs to be framed in terms of entitlements for rights-holders and duties on duty-bearers. The concepts of rights-holders and duty-bearers are crucial in any human right, since effect implementation of a right warrants an understandable framework that denotes what actor has a right and what actor has a corresponding duty to realize the right. In the DRD two rights-holders are designated, the human person and all peoples. Furthermore the DRD prescribes that states are the duty-bearers, and that these duty-bearers have obligations in the national as well as the international level. Although these actors have been identified in the DRD and there have been discussions on the RTD in international discourse for the better part of three decades, there still remains much confusion on how to interpret who the rights-holders are, especially what “all peoples” mean, and the interrelationship between the rights-holders. The same confusion is present when discussing duty-bearers. The presence of an international obligation for duty-bearers, pegs the questions: what the different obligations of states are in the national and the international level? As well as what the interrelationship between the different forms of duties is? This thesis aims at clarifying the understanding of rights-holders and duty-bearers in the RTD and pointing out gaps that still needs to be resolved. The intention is that a clear understanding of these concepts will hopefully lead to a more implementable right. In this thesis it is argued that the RTD is essentially a right of individuals. They have the right both in their individual capacity as human beings and as part of a collective, a “people”. In the collective individuals cannot actuate an individual claim, but they are beneficiaries as the right of the “people” they are a part of is realized. In regards to “people” it has been found that there exist misunderstandings in regards to the definition of a “people”. The different definitions that have been expressed are that “people” are states, the entire population of states or indigenous people and minority groups. This thesis has clarified that “peoples” should not be misunderstood as meaning the state, rather it is collectives of persons. The true identification of a “people” is that it denotes the entire population of a state, as well as indigenous peoples and minority groups when they are present. Furthermore a question regarding rights-holders is whether they exclusively refer to individuals and “peoples” in developing countries or if they apply to all human persons and all peoples. This thesis has argued that since human rights are universal the latter notion must be a correct interpretation of the scope of rights-holders. In regards to duty-bearer the thesis clarifies that they are states that are understood to have obligations to create a favourable national and international environment for the realization of the RTD. The primary obligation falls on states in the national context where they have an obligation to implement the right. However, to enable the full realization of the RTD it is deemed necessary that states cooperate to implement the right. This entails that states have an individual duty and a collective duty to advance the realization of the RTD internationally. Both of these duties are discussed in detail in the thesis.