International Law and the Right to Development: Assessing Nigeria’s Implementation of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development

This study analyses Nigeria's implementation of the right to development as articulated in the UN Declaration on the Right to Development (1986) and subsequent instruments, focusing on whether Nigeria's development governance framework meets international standards of participation, equity, and accountability. The right to development, while not binding as a treaty norm, reflects a consensus framework that links economic development to human rights obligations and establishes duties of international cooperation. Using an analytical legal methodology combined with assessment of development governance data from the National Bureau of Statistics, UNDP Human Development Reports, and civil society monitoring, the study examines Nigeria's performance against the Declaration's core elements including participatory development, equitable distribution of benefits, and access to essential services. It applies the framework across Nigeria's six geopolitical zones, identifying regional disparities that undermine equitable realisation of the right to development. The paper fills a gap in the literature by providing the first comprehensive zone-by-zone assessment of Nigeria's right to development compliance, contributing both methodologically and empirically to the literature on the right's domestic implementation. Findings indicate significant regional inequity in development outcomes, particularly between the North West and North East zones and the South West, raising questions of systemic discrimination in development resource allocation. An original right to development scorecard for Nigerian states is developed. Recommendations include rights-based development planning frameworks, independent accountability mechanisms, and affirmative resource allocation for historically underserved zones. Keywords: right to development, UNDP, Nigeria, human rights, regional equity.