“The Social Forum”
Explanation of Position
Statement of the Delegation of the United States of America
UN Human Rights Council – 24th Session
Geneva,
September 26, 2013
The United States supports the engagement and participation of civil society organizations and the private sector in the work of the Human Rights Council. However, the United States continues to have significant concerns about this resolution on the Social Forum, and therefore dissociates from consensus.
Among our concerns is the fact that this resolution contains inaccurate and misleading text on economic and financial crises, which contradicts previously agreed text from numerous recent General Assembly and ECOSOC resolutions. Further, the resolution’s commentary on global economic trends is outside the scope of this body, and does not accurately reflect economic trends. In addition, we do not believe calls for “the promotion and effective realization of the right to development” in this document are constructive; while the United States is committed to finding ways we can work together to make the issue of the “right to development” a uniting, rather than divisive, issue, our position on this is well known, and we are disappointed with the decision to include this language. As we have repeatedly stated, theoretical work is needed to define the right to development; discussion of the right to development needs to focus on aspects of development that relate to human rights, universal rights that are held and enjoyed by individuals, and which every individual may demand from his or her own government.
We continue to believe that the Social Forum is a poor use of our limited resources and that continued attempts to use the forum to address issues covered in-depth by other bodies will only further decrease its relevance.