GENEVA (29 April 2024) – The Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development will hold its ninth session on 1 and 2 May 2024 at United Nations headquarters in New York, with meetings that will be webcast live. The session will, exceptionally, take place over two days instead of three owing to the liquidity situation in relation to the regular budget.

At this session, the Expert Mechanism will assess its progress and foster meaningful exchanges of viewpoints and experiences among Member States and key stakeholders. Deliberations will be enriched by insights from recent and ongoing negotiations, including the Third South Summit, the forthcoming Financing for Development Forum, the Conferences on Small Islands Developing States and on Landlocked Developing Countries, in addition to the Summit of the Future.

The session will feature a general debate, a discussion on proposed studies, and four interactive dialogues with representatives from Member States, civil society, practitioners, and experts:

1. Global agreements: From political commitments to contractual or legal obligations and their impact on the right to development (Wednesday 1 May, 3 pm – 5:15 pm)
2. Realizing the right to development through North-South, South-South, Triangular, and other sui generis forms of international cooperation: Exploring complementarities and good practices (Thursday 2 May, 10 am – 11 am)
3. (iii)  Development and climate financing: innovative tools and nature solutions to help realize the right to development (Thursday 2 May, 11.30 am – 1 pm)
4. Roundtable with key stakeholders on cross-cutting issues (Thursday 2 May, 3 pm – 5 pm).

More information on the session and relevant documents can be found here.

Location: Conference Room 5, United Nations Headquarters, New York. All participants are requested to register using Indico. Registration remains open until 4 pm (Eastern Time), Tuesday 30 April 2024.

Interpretation: All open meetings during the two-day session will be provided with interpretation in the six UN official languages.

Time and date: Wednesday, 1 May and Thursday, 2 May 2024, from 10 am to 1 pm and from 3 pm to 6 pm (Eastern Time).

The Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development is a subsidiary body of the United Nations Human Rights Council that provides thematic expertise on the right to development in searching for, identifying and sharing best practices with Member States and promoting the implementation of the right to development worldwide. It holds two annual sessions in New York and Geneva.

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For more information and media inquiries, please contact Lucía de la Sierra or Ly Ngo at OHCHR-emrtd@un.org)

For other media requests, please contact Pascal Sim, HRC Media Officer (Geneva), at simp@un.org, or Laura Gelbert, OHCHR Media and Communications Officer (New York), at gelbert@un.org

To learn more about the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development, visit: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrc-subsidiaries/expert-mechanism-on-right-to-development