The Right to Development
Chapter Twenty-Five
Syllabus topic 2, "Development"
Pages 99 to 102 of 595
In one line
The right to development is the claim, adopted by the United Nations in 1986, that every person and every people is entitled to take part in and to enjoy a process of development in which all human rights can be realised.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: the right to development was declared by General Assembly resolution 41/128 of 4 December 1986 in the Declaration on the Right to Development. Article 1 declares it an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized. Rio Principle 3 carries it into environmental law: the right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations.
Where it came from
The claim was pressed by the newly independent countries through the 1960s and 1970s, alongside the demand for a new international economic order. Its intellectual origin is usually traced to the argument that political independence without economic capacity is formal rather than real, and that the international economic arrangements a former colony inherited perpetuated its position.
The Declaration was adopted in 1986. It was not adopted unanimously: it was opposed by one State and a number abstained, and that pattern of division has continued, which is directly relevant to the question whether it is a right in any enforceable sense.
What the Declaration provides
Five articles are worth knowing, and quoting one is what makes an answer specific.
Article 1(1): the right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized.
Article 1(2) connects it to self-determination, including the exercise of the inalienable right of peoples to full sovereignty over their natural wealth and resources.
Article 2 makes the human person the central subject of development and an active participant and beneficiary of it, and places on States the right and duty to formulate appropriate national development policies.
Article 3 places on States the primary responsibility for creating the national and international conditions favourable to the realisation of the right, and requires them to cooperate.
Article 8 requires States to undertake all necessary measures for the realisation of the right, ensuring equality of opportunity in access to basic resources, education, health services, food, housing, employment and the fair distribution of income, with effective measures to ensure an active role for women, and with appropriate economic and social reforms to eradicate all social injustices.
The Right to Development
Article 10 requires steps to ensure the full exercise and progressive enhancement of the right, including the formulation, adoption and implementation of policy and legislative measures.
The four features that matter
It is individual and collective at once. The holder is "every human person and all peoples". Most human rights instruments choose one.
It is about the process, not only the outcome. The entitlement is to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy development. That is what supports consultation, consent and the participation requirements in the modern law of a development project, and it is why an environmental clearance granted without a public hearing is vulnerable.
It defines development by reference to human rights. Development is development "in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized". On that definition, a project that violates rights is not development at all, whatever it produces, and that is the sentence to use when the question pairs the right to development with environmental protection.
It has a duty-bearer problem. Article 3 places the primary responsibility on States and requires cooperation. Whether any State owes a legally enforceable duty to another, or to individuals in another, is exactly what the dissenting States objected to, and it has never been resolved.
The relationship with environmental protection
MU's 2026 paper sets "Right to Development and Environmental Protection" as one short note, so the relationship is the question.
They are not opposed. This is the point to make first. The Declaration defines development as a process in which all human rights are realised, and the right to a healthy environment is now recognised as a human right, both by the General Assembly in resolution 76/300 of 2022 and by the Supreme Court of India in the Article 21 line of decisions. A development that destroys the environment defeats itself on the Declaration's own terms.
Rio Principle 3 states the reconciliation. The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations. Two qualifications in one sentence: equitably, and for future generations as well as present ones. That is intergenerational equity written into the right to development itself.
Indian law contains both, in the same article. The Supreme Court has held that both the right to a healthy environment and the right to development are components of Article 21, and that adherence to sustainable development is what maintains the balance between them. The reconciliation in Indian law therefore happens inside a single fundamental right rather than between two competing ones.
Worked example
A hydroelectric project will supply power to a State that is short of it, and will submerge villages in a valley.
The Right to Development
The right to development, badly used, is the State's argument: the project is development, the people of the State have a right to it, and the objection must give way.
The right to development, properly used, cuts in both directions. The displaced villagers hold the right too, and their entitlement is to participate in and to contribute to the process, not merely to be compensated after it. Article 8's requirement of equality of opportunity in access to basic resources, housing and employment speaks directly to a rehabilitation package. And on the Declaration's own definition, a process that leaves the displaced worse off in their rights is not development.
Rio Principle 3 adds that the right must be fulfilled equitably and with future generations in view, which brings in the reservoir's life, the sedimentation, and what the valley will be worth when the dam silts.
That is how the right is used in an examination answer: not as a slogan for the project, but as a standard the project has to meet.
What the right does NOT do
It is not enforceable as such. The Declaration is a resolution of the General Assembly and is not a treaty. There is no complaint mechanism and no court in which the right can be claimed against a State.
It is not a right to a particular project. It is a right to a process. Nobody has a right to a dam.
It is not a defence to environmental harm. A State cannot answer an environmental obligation by invoking the right to development, because the right is itself defined by reference to the realisation of human rights.
Distinctions that carry marks
| Right to development, 1986 | Right to a healthy environment | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | GA resolution 41/128, Declaration | GA resolution 76/300 of 2022; in India, Article 21 |
| Holder | Every human person and all peoples | Every person |
| Content | Participate in, contribute to and enjoy development | A clean, healthy and sustainable environment |
| Duty-bearer | States, primarily, with a duty to cooperate | The State |
| Enforceable | Not as such | In India, yes, under Articles 32 and 226 |
| How they meet | Rio Principle 3, and Article 21 in India, through sustainable development |
Quick revision
- Declared by General Assembly resolution 41/128 of 4 December 1986, not adopted unanimously.
- Article 1(1): an inalienable human right by which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy development in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized.
- Article 2: the human person is the central subject, an active participant and beneficiary. Article 3: primary responsibility on States, with a duty to cooperate. Article 8: equality of opportunity in access to basic resources, education, health, food, housing, employment and fair distribution of income.
- Four features: individual and collective; about the process; defines development by reference to human rights; and has an unresolved duty-bearer problem.
- Rio Principle 3: the right must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations.
- In India both the right to a healthy environment and the right to development are components of Article 21, reconciled by sustainable development.
The Right to Development
Test yourself
1. State article 1(1) of the Declaration and identify the words that make it a right about process.
That the right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized. The words "participate in" and "contribute to" make it a right about the process and not only about the outcome.
2. Why can the right to development not be used as a defence to environmental harm?
Because the Declaration defines development as a process in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized, and the right to a healthy environment is now recognised as a human right. A project that destroys the environment therefore fails the definition of development it is invoking.
3. What does Rio Principle 3 add to the right?
Two qualifications in a single sentence: that the right must be fulfilled equitably, and that it must meet the developmental and environmental needs of future generations as well as present ones. That writes intergenerational equity into the right to development itself.
4. Is the right to development enforceable, and how is the position different in India?
It is not enforceable as such: the Declaration is a General Assembly resolution rather than a treaty, and there is no complaint mechanism. In India the position is different because the Supreme Court has treated both the right to development and the right to a healthy environment as components of Article 21, which is enforceable under Articles 32 and 226.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.