As governments meet at the UN to debate the future sustainable development agenda, over 300 organizations have called for human rights to be at the core of the new framework.
Published on International Human Rights Day, the joint statement “Human Rights for All Post-2015” will be presented to the Open Working Group (OWG) on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at its 6th session later this week. It sets out 10 practical, baseline implications of embedding existing human rights standards into the core of the sustainable development agenda.
The join statement states that the post-2015 framework must at the very least respect and reflect pre-existing human rights legal norms, standards and political commitments to which governments have already voluntarily agreed.
Anchoring the post-2015 agenda in human rights for current and future generations implies that the framework:
1. Upholds all human rights for all.
2. Stimulates transparency and genuine participation in decision-making at all levels
3. Integrates meaningful institutions and systems to ensure human rights accountability of all development actors
4. Is backed by national mechanisms of accountability
5. Ensures that the private sector, at the very least, does no harm
6. Eliminates all forms of discrimination and diminishes inequalities, including socioeconomic inequalities.
7. Specifically and comprehensively supports women's rights.
8. Enables the currently disadvantaged and commonly discriminated against and excluded groups to be effective agents of their own development
9. Upholds the legal obligation to fulfill the minimum essential levels of economic, social, and cultural rights, without retrogression.
10. Tackles structural drivers of inequality, poverty and ecological devastation at the global level.
More details on Center for Economic and Social Rights website