This article**[China**Net];
The imbalance of global economic and political forces leads to uneven development, and the developed countries fail to fulfill their obligations to aid and promote development, resulting in the failure of developing countries to guarantee their right to development. China, on the other hand, has made outstanding contributions to reducing global poverty and supported the codification of the right to development. In order to better protect the development rights of developing countries, more international cooperation is needed for future development, including fiscal cooperation, reform, and the resolution of the global debt crisis.
Author: Robert Walker.
robert walker)
Honorary Research Fellow at Greentempleton College, University of Oxford, and Professor at the School of Sociology, Beijing Normal University.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the big four accounting firms in the world, recently released an assessment report pointing out that the international landscape is undergoing drastic changes. The report makes special reference to the international tax landscape and cautions that large multinationals need to take these changes "very seriously".
Of course, one could argue that this change is too slow, and that the big multinationals – and PwC's clients – symbolize the global political and economic imbalance that has long "locked up" other countries' right to development.
However, PwC's analysis of the reasons for the change is undoubtedly accurate. The report notes that "regardless of the views of the G7 and other large economies", the UN's tax agenda cannot be ignored given that "countries in the Global South and civil society want to contribute to the development of the UN".
In December 1986, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Right to Development, establishing the right to development as a human right. The right to development has the same status as all other human rights, both as an individual right and as a collective right. This means that it applies to everyone and gives all of us the right to participate, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development. This right also concerns all "peoples", that is, the right to development, regardless of nationality or culture.
With rights come corresponding obligations. These obligations apply to individual countries and to the international community as a whole, and they all have an obligation to work together to create conditions conducive to development in order to "remove obstacles to development", "promote more rapid development of developing countries" and build "a new international economic order based on sovereign equality, interdependence, mutual benefit and cooperation among nations".
These obligations are also borne by "all those actors whose acts and/or omissions have an impact on human rights and the environment in which they are realized" – this obviously includes most multinational corporations.
Since the adoption of the Declaration, the global poverty rate has fallen – largely as a result of China's economic success, which lifted 800 million people out of extreme poverty. However, since the start of the pandemic in 2020, the number of people living in extreme poverty has increased by 75 million globally. Many countries have not been able to cope with this growth because high debt interest rates limit their fiscal space.
China's economic development has also led to a reduction in income inequality between countries, but at the same time inequality has increased within some countries, particularly in the United States, India, and Russia. As a result, the world's poorest half of the world's population now accounts for less than half of the world's income as it did in 1820. Over the past 30 years, per capita FDI in rich countries has been 11 times that of developing countries.
To understand why, it is necessary to recall the vote at the time of the adoption of the declaration: while 146 countries voted in favour, the United States voted against and eight rich countries abstained.
The United States has always maintained that development is not "a right that everyone can claim from his or her own country." The implication is that the United States does not believe that it is obligated to take responsibility for the economic well-being of its citizens. As others have noted, this reflects an unfounded belief that the constraining effect of poverty on work will be eliminated, entrepreneurship will be weakened, and economic freedom will be violated.
The developed countries had also violated their obligation to provide the developing countries with appropriate means and facilities to facilitate their overall development.
What are the benefits of the Declaration on the Right to Development for individuals?It is indeed difficult to articulate this issue concretely, but Surya Subedi, professor of international law at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom and a distinguished scholar of international law, noted that the declaration "helps to integrate economic, social and cultural rights into the functioning of international institutions".
The next step is to make the right to development legally binding. In 2018, a draft convention on the right to development with legal force began to be drafted, but only three wealthy countries supported it, all in the Middle East. The draft convention was a set of legal principles and a blueprint for development based on international cooperation. It retains the responsibility of countries to raise market revenues through strategic investments, promote sustainable development, and in turn further increase spending on physical and human capital through taxation, and provide social protection to strengthen education and health services, and promote social protection.
The draft stresses the fundamental obligation of States to cooperate individually or jointly. This means that rich countries will have to meet the international overseas development goals agreed in 1970 by setting 0 percent of their gross national product7% for overseas development – a target that has not yet been achieved. In fact, China has spent about $843 billion on foreign aid over the past 18 years, more than the G7 countries.
This cooperation also includes the long-awaited reforms, which are a prerequisite for achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The draft advocates "a rules-based, universal, open, non-discriminatory, fair, transparent and inclusive multilateral system".
Representation and voice of developing countries also need to be strengthened. For example, voting power – or influence – within a world organization must reflect the current balance. In the 40s of the last century, the United Nations was expected to establish an "international ** organization", but it was ultimately failed to be established due to the opposition of the United States, and such a situation must not be repeated.
In response to the global debt crisis, the draft calls for "debt sustainability through policies aimed at promoting debt financing, debt relief and debt restructuring". With greater fiscal space, countries** can act in the interests of their own people, rather than prioritizing the interests of international banks.
The draft also recognizes the need for special **. For example, global social protection**, proposed by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and extreme poverty, could provide adequate health care, education and social insurance to all low-income countries at minimal cost.
International cooperation requires partnerships like China's Belt and Road Initiative. Investments in physical and virtual infrastructure under the Belt and Road Initiative have covered some 150 countries. International cooperation also requires fair competition, as referred to in the draft convention on the right to development, "financial integrity and transparency". The report "Promoting Inclusive and Effective International Tax Cooperation at the United Nations", launched by the Group of 77 and China and released by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on August 30 this year, is a response to this question, which deserves attention. The recommendations made in the report are a solid step towards a fairer global order.
This article was originally written as:"insisting on the right to development"
Editor-in-charge |Liu Xia
Edit |Zhang Zhao
Interns Tong Yafan, Qin Jiale and Yan Ruojing also contributed