Event information

26 September 2018, 18:30-20:00

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Human Rights and Sustainable Development Goals

Event

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Walikale, people walk on a street during th 2011 presidential elections. Democratic Republic of the Congo, Walikale, people walk on a street during th 2011 presidential elections.

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Unlike the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be reframed in terms of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR). The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development also makes very clear links to international human rights law, envisaging ‘a world of universal respect for human rights and human dignity, the rule of law, justice, equality and non-discrimination’. In terms of follow-up and review processes, it states that these will be ‘participatory and rights-based”, and will “benefit from the active support of the United Nations system’.

This public conference builds on expert seminars organized between 2016 and 2018 with United Nations (UN) special procedures, UN treaty body members and staff of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). During these meetings, participants argued that by including the SDGs more systematically in their work, UN human rights mechanisms can fill part of the accountability gap of the 2030 Agenda.

This conference provides an opportunity to discuss the contributions of UN human rights mechanisms to the monitoring of the SDGs that seek to realize ESCR, their collaboration with the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) and links that can be made with the March 2017 initiative on human rights and the 2030 Agenda at the UN Human Rights Council. The conference also provides an opportunity to discuss recommendations made by the Geneva Academy in two recent publications on this issue: its Academy Briefing No.11 No One Will Be Left Behind, and its Research Brief on ESCR and SDGs.

These publications present the links between human rights and development, lessons learned from the MDGs period, and commitments made in relation to the SDGs and ESCR in the 2030 Agenda. They further analyse the role that UN human rights mechanisms have played – and should continue to play – in monitoring the SDGs that seek to realize ESCR. The publications draw attention to the need to fully integrate human rights into the implementation and monitoring of the SDGs and provide concrete recommendations for states, UN human rights mechanisms, OHCHR and the HLPF as to how this might be done.

Panelists

  • Peter Messerli, Director of the Centre for Development and Environment of the University of Bern, Co-Chair of the UN Global Sustainable Development Report
  • Sandra Liebenberg, H.F. Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights Law at Stellenbosch University, Member of the UN Committee on ESCR
  • Michael Windfuhr, Deputy Director of the German Institute for Human Rights, Member of the UN Committee on ESCR
  • Meskerem Geset Techane, Former Deputy Director of the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, Vice-Chair of the UN working group on discrimination against women
  • Christophe Golay, Senior Research Fellow and Strategic Adviser on ESCR at the Geneva Academy
  • Juan Eduardo Eguiguren, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations in Geneva