Statement by Singapore at the 32nd Human Rights Council Panel Discussion on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Development, on Wednesday 15 June 2016

Mr President,

2015 was a landmark year for development.

UN Member States reached agreement on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Agenda for Financing for Development, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

The challenge for UN member states now is to achieve coherence as we seek to implement the commitments that we made.

At the international level, we need a Whole-of-UN approach.

This means approaching international cooperation holistically, and taking into account the local cultural, social and political context.

States, the UN, and its human rights mechanisms, therefore need to take a pragmatic and not an ideological approach to the effective realisation of development goals and human rights.   

At the national level, States need to take a Whole-of-Government, or sometimes a Whole-of-Society approach.

For small states like Singapore, collaborative partnerships are key to developing capacity.

Singapore’s Foreign Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan launched a new Sustainable Development Programme at the UN in New York last September to support the 2030 Agenda at 3 levels:

First, to partner the Singapore-based UNDP Global Centre for Public Service Excellence to train senior civil servants around the world;

Second, to cooperate with UN-Habitat to help 100 cities in developing countries practise sustainable urbanisation;

Third, to partner UN agencies like UN-Water and UNICEF to provide practical and local solutions in water and sanitation.

Later this year, UNISDR and Singapore will conduct the second specialised training course since the 2015 Sendai World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction to help developing countries, in particular SIDS, to implement the Sendai Framework. The course will impart practical knowledge on the nexus between disaster risk reduction, the 2030 Agenda and climate change.

Singapore will also be hosting a workshop in July for practitioners to share best practices on maintaining religious tolerance as part of the Istanbul Process for HRC resolution 16/18.

Mr President,

Implementation is everything.

The international community must use every tool at its disposal and strengthen partnerships at all levels to help countries achieve their development goals and build inclusive and resilience societies for all.

I thank you Mr President.

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