The international community should cooperate in the spirit of solidarity to complement national efforts in implementing the right to development, Chinese Ambassador Sha Zukang said Tuesday at the 60th annual session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

“The right to development is an inalienable human right. It is necessary to create an enabling environment at the international level,” said Sha, who is also chief of the Chinese delegation to the CHR session being held from March 15 to April 23.

“A fair, equitable and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system and effective participation in international decision-making is indispensable for developing countries to realize the right to development,” he said.

Sha made the remarks on behalf of the Like Minded Group of States (LMG), which was founded in 1997 and reflects developing countries’ opinions on human rights.

The LMG comprises Algeria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

Describing the challenge of realizing this right as “daunting,” the ambassador noted that “most of the developing countries, including the least developed countries, are becoming more and more marginalized in the process and their basic right to survival is under threat.”

“The LMG believes that states bear the primary responsibility for the realization of the right to development,” Sha said.

“Development should be human-centered. Development strategies should be well-balanced and well-coordinated in terms of rural and urban, coastal and inland, economic and social, environment and development etc. Only thus can a country’s development be sustainable, and its people be the beneficiaries,” he said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2004)