Peace for development: Road map for a peace economy – Report of the Special Rapporteur, prof. Surya Deva, on the right to development
Prof. Surya Deva was dit jaar de gastspreker op de Koen De Feyter Memorial-lezing van de Universiteit Antwerpen op donderdag 10 september. Het was op 20 september precies twee jaar geleden dat prof. Koen De Feyter, decaan van de Rechtenfaculteit, plotseling overleed. De thema’s die hem na aan het hart lagen, zoals het recht op ontwikkeling als een fundamenteel mensenrecht, komen aan bod in deze lezingenreeks.
Purpose of the mandate
More than 30 years after the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development, billions of people in all parts of the world have been left behind and are yet to see their right to development realised.
The 2015 Millennium Development Goals’ report indicated that 800 million people still lived in extreme poverty and suffered from hunger. In 2015, over 160 million children under age five still suffered the consequences of malnutrition.
Almost fifty percent of global workers were still working in vulnerable conditions. Today, over 880 million people are estimated to be living in slum-like conditions in cities across the developing world.
Read more about why the right to development is a human rights issue
About the mandate
The UN Human Rights Council, in its resolution 33/14 of 29 September 2016, established the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to development. Mr. Saad Alfarargi was appointed the first Special Rapporteur, who took up his function on 1 May 2017. The current Special Rapporteur is Mr. Surya Deva, who started his mandate on 1 May 2023.
The Special Rapporteur contributes to the realisation of the right to development by developing practical guidance to implement the right and to integrate it within development policies and programmes at local, national, regional and international levels.
The Special Rapporteur also promotes the integration of the right to development in the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and climate change negotiations.
Learn more about the history of the mandate
Current mandate holder
Mr Surya Deva took up the role of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to development on 1 May 2023. Deva is a Professor at the Macquarie Law School and Director of the Environmental Law Research Centre as well as the B&HR Access to Justice Lab at Macquarie University, Australia.
He conducts research in the areas of business and human rights, comparative constitutional law, international human rights law, sustainable development, climate change, and gender equality. Deva served as a member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights (2016-22).
Read Mr Surya Deva’s full biography
https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-development
Peace for development: Road map for a peace economy – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to development
Summary
In the present report, submitted to the General Assembly pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 33/14 and 60/7, the Special Rapporteur on the right to development, Surya Deva, elaborates on the mutually reinforcing nexus between peace, human rights, development, gender equality and the environment.
He also exposes the political economy and neo-colonial moorings of conflicts, which disrupt peace. Conflicts affect the realization of the right to development, as well as other human rights.
At the same time, the right to development provides concrete pathways to prevent conflicts and sustain peace. States and companies need to move away from funding war economies towards investing in a peace economy.
The Special Rapporteur provides a road map for a peace economy – comprising foundational, preventive, institutional and deterrent components – as a way to achieve this required shift to leave no one behind.
(Published: 15 July 2026; A/81/187)
Het hele rapport van de speciale rapporteur kan worden gedownload op de website van de OHCHR: https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a81187-peace-development-road-map-peace-economy-report-special
Lees ook:
In Memoriam Koen De Feyter : https://cimic-npo.org/2024/09/26/55-013/
Lees ook (inhoud september 2026)
