About the Working Group

The Intergovernmental Open-ended Working Group on the Right to Development was set up in 1998 with the aim to:

• monitor and review progress made at the national and international levels in the promotion and implementation of the right to development as elaborated in the Declaration on the Right to Development;
• provide recommendations and analyse obstacles to the full enjoyment of the right to development, focusing each year on specific commitments in the Declaration;
•  review reports and any other information submitted by States, United Nations agencies, other relevant international organisations and non-governmental organisations on the relationship between their activities and the right to development.

Led by the Chair-Rapporteur, the Working Group presents to the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council with a sessional annual report on its deliberations, including advice to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with regard to the implementation of the right to development, and suggesting possible programmes of technical assistance at the request of interested countries with the aim of promoting the implementation of the right to development.

Prior to this working group being established, a number of other mechanisms have existed.