The right to development and US foreign policy

In recent years there can be observed a considerable intensification of the debate on the right to development both in the Human Rights bodies at UN level and in academic literature. The Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development and the Highlevel Task Force on the Implementation of the Right to Development have formulated a catalogue of criteria which can be used as a guide for the implementation of the right to development at the international level with the aim of improving the effectiveness of global development partnerships. Moreover legal scholars have intensively discussed the various questions with regard to the contents, the duty-bearers and the holders of this human right. But dspite all these efforts, the concept of the right is still highly controversial: The Non-Aligned Movement, for example, has already proposed the elaboration of a convention on the right to development, whereas most developed countries are still quite reluctant to accept a legally binding text. In particular, the administration of the United States of America is (mostly) not willing to vote in favour of resolutions supporting this right in the UN Human Rights bodies or even in the General Assembly because they suspect that otherwise new customary rules regarding obligatory foreign assistance could come into existence. The article gives an overview of the recent history of the right to development and discusses the US position in this part of the international human rights debate. Reprinted by permission of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft