New paper: Human rights in Follow-up and Review to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
In September 2015, Member States of the United Nations unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Sustainable Development Goals are explicitly grounded in international human rights treaties and principles, which is underlined by the commitment to "leave no one behind".
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development have a strong human rights foundation: all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and more than 92% of the targets are intrinsically linked to human rights. The Danish Institute for Human Rights has developed a guide showing the relationship between the SDGs and targets and human rights standards: www.humanrights.dk/sdg-guide
Human rights are therefore a pillar of the 2030 Agenda. The challenge will now be to create Follow-up and Review processes that will help to hold Member States to their commitments, while at the same time conforming with the human rights principles of inclusiveness, participation, transparency and accountability.
In its new paper on “Human Rights in Follow-up and Review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, DIHR now shows how these human rights principles can guide the Follow-up and Review processes to the 2030 Agenda in practice. The paper systematically explores the opportunities emerging from a link between the human rights monitoring system and Follow-up and Review of the 2030 Agenda, drawing on a variety of examples and best practice experiences.
A key aim of the paper is to deliver an accessible and concrete overview of current thinking and emerging arrangements in Follow-up and Review at the national, regional and global level. Beyond that, it discusses three key issues for a human rights-based approach to monitoring the 2030 Agenda:
-
The contribution of human rights mechanisms to Follow-up and Review through institutionalised reporting and monitoring, qualitative assessments and detailed recommendations;
-
Opportunities and limitations related to the global indicator frameworks and the collection of disaggregated data, including through participatory arrangements;
-
The potential contribution of the private sector to Follow-up and Review procedures, including through existing reporting frameworks on human rights and sustainability impact.
We hope that the paper will serve to inspire other National Human Rights Institutions, governments, rights holders, civil society and private sector actors to develop a human rights-based approach to Follow-up and Review of the 2030 Agenda.