Right to Development
As delivered by Ambassador Keith Harper
Thank you Mr. President,
The United States has long-standing, demonstrated commitments to alleviating poverty and promoting development globally through programs in food security, electrification, education, and health care, to name just a few of our Official Development Assistance-funded initiatives. As President Obama noted at the UN General Assembly this week, our active engagement in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is part of the larger U.S. commitment to promoting development around the world. No country can build an economy on external aid alone. The United States is committed to using our assistance to achieve the best results, and where conditions allow, to leverage private and domestic resources to support developing countries’ efforts to reduce their dependence on foreign aid.
This session we were pleased to co-sponsor a Side Event with the Africa Group on perspectives about human rights and development. We have engaged actively with this Working Group, and intend to do so in the future. However, the United States continues to have well-known concerns with the concept of the right to development, along with specific provisions of this resolution. We therefore will call for a vote and will vote No.