63rd Human Rights Council Session: Biennual panel on the right to development - Statement by Greece

"Greece aligns with the EU Statement and thanks the Office of the High Commissioner for today’s panel discussion regarding the right to development. We emphasize once more that sustainable and inclusive development goes hand in glove with the full and effective realization of all human rights. Without having the development rooted in universality, indivisibility, interrelation and interdependence of all human rights, we are losing both the sustainability and the inclusiveness. In the end of the day, the pursuit of economic growth is not an end in itself. The right to development puts individuals at the center of the development process, so that development is aimed to improve the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in development and in the fair distribution of the resulting benefits, as explicitly mentioned in the Declaration on the Right to Development. That is why a human-rights based approach to sustainable development is embedded in all progressive financial tools. Otherwise, the funds will just exacerbate social exclusion and will promote inequalities, being a recipe for redress regarding human rights. The bearers of the right to development, being, among others, states or international organizations, have an obligation to continue their efforts in the direction of promoting and fulfilling all human rights. Greece is providing its share within the available means, having reached in 2025 the amount of 357,8 million USD according to preliminary data from OECD. Furthermore, Greece is a member state of the EU, the latter being the major provider of development assistance."