Enhancing accountability for sustainable development through human rights

How can NHRIs ensure that human rights obligations are respected and fulfilled in the context of sustainable development? How can they meaningfully participate in regional processes for SDG oversight? How can they facilitate the participation of all, so no one is left behind in these processes?

These questions are increasingly important and relevant in a world where the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant setbacks to achieving many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to fulfilling their analogous human rights obligations.

“Human rights can guide efforts to get the SDGs back on track and ensure we build back better. Human rights give us a framework and methods for ensuring no one is left behind. NHRIs have legal mandates to protect and promote human rights. Therefore, they are critical actors in the transformation needed to achieve the SDGs, supporting states to live up to their human rights obligations in implementation,” says Carol Rask, Strategic Adviser at The Danish Institute for Human Rights.

Against this backdrop, NHRIs in Africa and Europe have been engaging with regional sustainable development fora to ensure a human rights-based approach is reflected, and to highlight their critical role. The NHRIs have shared experiences and good practices for furthering respect for human rights in national SDG implementation and monitoring processes, not least for those that are being left behind.

These regional engagements have taken place under the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI) and the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) with the support of The Danish Institute for Human Rights.

“NHRI engagement with the regional fora on sustainable development is critical to ensure the reflection of a human rights-based approach in regional SDG follow-up and review processes. NHRIs have been making incremental progress in this regard for the last 3 years. This year, their successful participation in these fora demonstrates the value of their human rights know-how for SDG oversight,” says Francesca Thornberry, Chief Adviser at the Institute.

The European Forum on Sustainable Development took place virtually in March. For the first time in Europe, a report by the UNECE Statistical Division on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in the region was published to support the discussions at the sessions of the Forum.

The Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD) and regional NHRI exchange workshop prior to this forum took place in Zimbabwe in February. NHRIs from Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Togo, South Africa and Zimbabwe participated. The NHRI presence at the ARFSD was the largest so far, and the Institutes successfully ensured that human rights were reflected in the Key Messages document of the forum itself. NANHRI also developed a number of Key Messages on the main themes of the forum: People, Prosperity; Planet; and Partnerships and Peace.

The Seventh Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) took place virtually on 20 May, all sessions were livestreamed, and they can be watched on YouTube. The annual theme of the 7th APFSD was “Accelerating action for and delivery of the 2030 Agenda in Asia and the Pacific” and a thematic report on “Fast-tracking the SDGs: Driving Asia-Pacific transformations” was launched at the Forum. This report is supplementing the Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2020, which is monitoring implementation and highlighting gaps to be closed to achieve the goals by 2030.

NHRI regional engagements in 2020 have highlighted the important role these Institutes play in the following areas:

Providing human rights data to ensure no one is left behind

NHRIs can bring significant added value to efforts to collect and disaggregate data that is still needed on a huge scale to monitor SDG progress. Many experiences from Europe and Africa can support other NHRIs in developing this work.

In Europe, ENNHRI and its members engaged with Forum stakeholders on the role of human rights data at a virtual roundtable on leveraging data in connection with the Regional Forum. The roundtable drew participation from several national statistical offices. ENNHRI presented examples from the region on how NHRIs are furthering integrated implementation of human rights and the 2030 Agenda. Specific focus was given to how NHRIs support participation, data disaggregation and the use of a plurality of methodologies of data collection for human rights-informed policy action in support of SDG progress.

The experiences of the NHRIs with regard to collecting data and to working with national statistical offices were also discussed at the NHRI exchange workshop in Zimbabwe. Based on experiences in Kenya, the NHRIs discussed ways in which they can work directly with national statistical offices to identify data gaps, build mutual capacity for data collection in accordance with both statistical and human rights standards, support work to fill official data gaps and support the disaggregation of data in accordance with the prohibited grounds of discrimination outlined in international human rights law.

Alignment of Human Rights and 2030 Agenda Monitoring and Reporting

In the area of monitoring and reporting, African NHRIs exchanged valuable experiences and made strong recommendations for improved NHRI engagement in Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) of SDGs; better alignment of human rights and SDG reporting; and improved alignment at national level of human rights and sustainable development policies and plans. In the UNECE region, ENNHRI shared important experiences on how NHRIs can facilitate that National Human Rights Action Plans are linked to SDGs. They also offered significant experiences on methodologies used by NHRIs in the region for engaging vulnerable communities in monitoring processes so that no one is left behind.