Nachhaltige Entwicklung und Menschenrechte

By Ranja Sengupta and Bhumika Muchhala*

Means of Implementation remains the most fiercely contested issue in the negotiations of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations headquarters in New York. 

With the release of the Co-Chairs’ revised version of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ‘Zero Draft’ on 30 June, the intergovernmental negotiations during the final session of the Open Working Group (OWG) in mid-July becomes even more critical. The OWG Co-Chairs are Ambassadors Macharia Kamau [...]

The latest report of the British NGO Christian Aid “Taxing Men and Women: why gender is crucial for a fair tax system” deals with the different effects of tax systems in men and women as well as possibilities how prudent fiscal and tax policy can contribute to gender equality. Whereas a lot of literature exists on the consideration of gender aspects on the spending side of national budgets, this report marks a first step to analyze state revenues with regard [...]

The negotiations of the Open Working Group (OWG) on a draft of goals and targets for the Post-2015 Agenda has reached its final phase at the 12th Session on 16-20 June in New York. Discussions were raised with respect to an inquality goal, which was included as a stand alone goal in the zero draft after the last session of OWG. However, an unofficial release of a new set of goals by the Co-Chairs on 16 June merges poverty reduction [...]

Aldo Caliari, Director of the Rethinking Bretton Woods Project, argues in an article published by the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) that financial and monetary reform should be a fundamental part of post-2015 development agenda. Taking this into consideration, the new agenda was a political opportunity to avoid following the imperfect path of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to include necessary means of implementation. On top of that, Caliari presents thoughts on key areas like financial regulations and [...]

One day after NGO representatives were escorted out of the 12th Session of the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by security staff, the global women’s network Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) together with other partners from Major Groups and Stakeholders wrote an Open Letter to the OWG Co-chairs and all Member States. The broad alliance of civil society organizations (CSO) critically stated that closing the session to them without providing a clear [...]

The Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) asks whether the post-2015 development proposal will meet a Human Rights Litmus Test. The test, established by Post-2015 Human Rights Caucus, a global coalition of different organizations and co-convened by CESR, is a tool that evaluates current proposals of the Open Working Group according to existing human rights norms, standards and commitments by means of eight key questions. Following this, the ‘roadmap for embedding human rights’ sets out detailed criteria linked to [...]

In a common declaration, many different Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), including NGOs from the global South and North alike, express their growing dissatisfaction with the current direction of the negotiations since the Warsaw Climate Conference in November last year. They demand serious actions by the member states of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was underlined by a protest during the climate negotiation in Bonn last week. Here, they call for increasing public support for climate action [...]

Discussions about a successful follow-up framework for the Millennium Development Goals that is shaped by country conditions influence the current international development agenda. In this context the demand for a “data revolution” is increasing in policy circles. A new “Post-2015 data test”, established by The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), The North-South Institute (NSI) and Southern Voice, contributes to this effort, while enhancing accessibility of information for governments, decision-makers and citizens. Using this information may help to track development progress [...]

The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) published a policy paper that deals with the correlation between human development and environmental change within Earth system boundaries. It indicates that the post-2015 process offers an opportunity to incorporate both dimensions in an integrative strategy for sustainable development. In doing so, WBGU refers to the so-called planetary guard rails, which have to be taken into account in the SDGs, to limit global environmental change and at the same time find a [...]

As the Millennium Development Goals come to a close and kick off a post-2015 debate, the role of corporations and their interests in development sector change significantly, Lora Verheecke underlines in a recently published article. While the UN supports new partnerships with the private sector and aid flows to the private sector are increasing, this has impacts on the multilateral systems and states. According to Verheecke, it is time to constrain corporations’ influence setting the development agenda and to remind [...]