An Analysis of the Right to Development: a Focus on COVID-19

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THE ROLE OF YOUTH IN ATTAINING THE RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT DURING COVID19

Joleen Bakalova, USA

The impact of COVID-19 on youth’s right to development is almost always discussed by adults. Topics of articles and reports are often written by and for those in older generations to help inform policy. While it is extremely important to move forward based on the perspective of highly-educated experts, there is also great value in young people analyzing the impact of the pandemic on their right to development and contributing to decision-making themselves.

COVID-19 has affected nearly every aspect of human life since its mass spread in 2020, and it has disrupted equitable access to development around the globe for young people since. Though devastation due to the virus has been experienced across the board, the pandemic has created disproportionate impacts, with the brunt of the global crisis falling upon least developed countries and those at the lowest rungs of their socioeconomic ladders. As the experts, activists, and other stakeholders discussed during the Fifth Session of the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development, there have been increases in child labor, child marriage, inadequate access to education, economic insecurity, and other significant barriers to the right of development, particularly in marginalized communities.

Unfortunately, the destabilizing harm of the pandemic will continue to be felt for years to come. Speakers of the session pointed towards public health-related issues, like vaccine nationalism and the varying qualities of medical infrastructure, as well as systemic issues, like neoliberalism and modern imperialism, as the barriers our collective society must overcome in order to ensure the right to development for all people.

As for young people’s right to development, progress can not be made without addressing the core public health and systemic issues at hand that have been spotlighted during this pandemic, and we must have a key role in doing so. One of the experts emphasized the importance and dire need to “look far beyond” those that society usually deems experts for guidance in this time of crisis. She highlighted that those within a particular group are intimately familiar with their community ’s needs, and it is crucial that these voices are included in global decision-making dialogue. This expert’s statements are extremely applicable to youth.

Young people are the face of our world in this pandemic reality. Though we have experienced the devastation of loss, the isolation from society, and the maturation during a global crisis, we have also experienced the excitement and hope for progress. We have also experienced an innate desire to move our lives forward, to move society forward.

Us young people are indeed the future, which has been discussed time and time again. As the future, our access to the right to development is, by effect, the world’s access to the right to development. Only when youth are at the center of the world’s efforts toward promoting our shared right to development can we come closer to attaining it.

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WHAT CAN THE RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT ENTITLE PEOPLE?

Jie Chu, China

“Human rights are an interdependent and indivisible system of multiple rights, ”the People’s Daily

once said.

“Without the right to development, other human rights will lose the vitality and momentum of sustainable development. ” It is not difficult to see that the right to development is one of the fundamental human rights and is at the forefront.

When it comes to “What does the right to development entitle people? ”The United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development gives concrete explanations and answers. The right to development gives people the right “to participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development” , which includes the core rights of access to food, housing, education, health and so on.

It is the ideal pursuit of human society to have equal opportunities for development and to share the fruits of development so that everyone can develop in an all-round way and be empowered by the right to development.

Take China as an example, as a populous country and also the world’s largest developing country, it is not easy to solve the problem of people’s food and clothing. However, through the country ’s rapid development of economy, the improvement of the social welfare system, and the people-centered development concept, China has been able to lift itself out of poverty by 2020.

On November 23,2020, the Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council of China decided that all the 832 poverty-stricken counties in the country had been lifted out of poverty and that the tasks and targets for poverty alleviation across the country had been fulfilled. This can be seen as a concrete manifestation of the rights that the right to development entitles people.

There are limits to the development of countries that have lost its right to development. I believe the same is true for people. The development of a country should always be people-centered, put the wellbeing of the people at the top priority and strengthen international cooperation to deal with worldwide crisis.