On March 14, 2025 Dr. Elena Pribytkova presented her work-in-progress “From International to Global: Reconceptualizing Obligations of Development Assistance” in an interactive session titled “Influencing the Politics of Human Rights and Justice”.

In her presentation, Dr. Pribytkova suggested some directions for radical rethinking and reforming contemporary normative and institutional framework governing obligations of development assistance embedded in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. She demonstrated that the existing mechanisms and practices of development assistance are extremely insufficient, inefficient, very often fail to consider the actual needs of the addressees of assistance and violate human rights, and are frequently used as tools of (neo-)colonial domination. Since they are indispensable for creating and maintaining a just and sustainable global order, reducing poverty and inequality, and empowering the poor, the reconceptualization and furtherance of obligations to assist is a task of paramount significance. This is also essential for preparing for the post-2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Dr. Pribytkova proposed some important measures for  reshaping state-centric international assistance and supplementing it with person-centric global assistance: (a) enabling marginalized individuals and their democratically represented communities, as primary holders of the right to assistance, to submit direct requests for global assistance; (b) ensuring individuals’ and communities’ participation in, and control over, the processes of seeking, receiving, and distributing international assistance that should be facilitated by states; and (c) fairly distributing obligations to assist among all members of the international community (states, non-state actors, and individuals).

The interactive session allowed to receive a significant feedback, questions, and suggestions from scholars and practitioners working in the field.