A broad alliance of civil society organizations published a joint statement critically assessing the inclusion of human rights in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda prior to the session of the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals from May 5 to May 9. The CSOs applaud the universality of a working document of the OWG proposing fifteen focus areas and specific targets for possible SDGs, which reflect the current state of negotiations within the OWG. On the other hand [...]
Sustainable Development & Human Rights - Archive
Governing for Sustainability
The Worldwatch Institute is releasing the 2014 edition of its “State of the World” series. “Governing for Sustainability” examines how action—on climate, species loss, inequity, and other sustainability crises—is being driven by local, people’s, women’s, and grassroots movements around the world, often in opposition to the agendas pursued by governments and big corporations. The book’s contributors analyze a variety of trends and proposals, including regional and local climate initiatives, the rise of benefit corporations and worker-owned firms, the need for [...]
At the Special High-Level Meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), held in New York on April 14-15, 2014, governments disscussed about features of new development goals which will replace the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. Commitments to financing the new goals are expected to play an important role in those negotiations. In this regard, human rights organizations argue that human rights should inform commitments to finance the new development agenda.
Report on Mitigation of Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) publishes the third of three Working Group reports in which it warns that climate change will have catastrophic consequences. The international body of scientists and representatives of countries from all over the world assesses and analyses the current state, risks and (possible) consequences of climate change and establishes recommendations for mitigation policies on sub-national, national and global level. In this context the new assessment report, which constitutes the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report on [...]
The dramatic rise in killings of environmental and land defenders
Killings of people protecting the environment and rights to land increased sharply between 2002 and 2013 as competition for natural resources intensifies, a new report from Global Witness reveals. In the most comprehensive global analysis of the problem on record, the campaign group has found that at least 908 people are known to have died in this time. Disputes over industrial logging, mining and land rights the key drivers, and Latin America and Asia-Pacific particularly hard hit.
Improving the Contribution of Private Finance
New report on "Financing for Development Post-2015: Improving the Contribution of Private Finance" commissioned by the European Parliament's Committee on Development and co-written by Eurodad, Development Finance International, A&J Communication Development Consultants and Development Initiatives finds that global public finance cannot be directly substituted by private finance, as it pays for public goods, is more predictable and counter-cyclical, and can be targeted at the poorest countries. Global private finance mainly goes to higher income countries and has difficultly targeting MSMEs [...]
In a new blog, the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) emphasizes that debates intensify around the role of public-private partnerships in the Post-2015 Agenda. CESR warns that many governments were pushing hard to include the private sector, however this may drown out global civil society’s demands for human rights at core of a sustainable development framework. Proponents of private-public partnership failed to recognize risks of privatizing post-2015, one reason why civil society was rallying to decrease the role [...]
Civil Society Organisations participating in an outreach event of the UN Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing on “Co-Creating New Partnerships for Financing Sustainable Development” in Helsinki issued a statement on what they perceive as key elements of the experts committee's work. The CSOs underline that there is “need to act now. […] To put the world on track for a sustainable future, all actors have to contribute to sustainable development. We need financing of good quality and [...]
on “Co-Creating New Partnerships for Financing Sustainable Development
On April 3-4, 2014 the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing holds a consultation on "Co-Creating New Partnerships for Financing Sustainable Development" in Helsinki, Finland. This committee was established by the outcome document of the Rio+20 conference, which called for committee of experts tasked with preparing a report "proposing options on an effective sustainable development financing strategy to facilitate the mobilization of resources and their effective use in achieving sustainable development objectives".
In a statement for the occasion [...]
Last Saturday, March 22, 2014, the 58th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women ended with a strong call to prioritize gender equality and the human rights of women in order to achieve sustainable development. In an article, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) analyzes the outcomes of the meeting and applaudes the governments who stood up for the rights of all individuals to live free of violence, discrimination, and barriers to accessing sexual [...]
A meeting aimed at coordinating global advocacy on a new development agenda was held last February 23-24 in Istanbul, convened by the UN Secretary-General’s adviser on development planning, the UN Foundation, the Overseas Development Institute of the UK and CIVICUS. Social Watch addressed a letter to the meeting arguing that "joint civil society action around Post-2015 has to focus on goals and commitments for the countries of the North, the necessary changes of the consumption and production patterns in these [...]
At the ninth session of the UN General Assembly's Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals, the Women's Major Group (WMG) issued a response to the 19 proposed focus areas, assembled by the OWG in February. Through their response WMG contributes to the intergovernmental processes on SDGs and reflect the broad range of areas. The WMG is pleased to see an integrated approach, recognising the inter-linkages between the focus areas. It appreciates the stand-alone focus on gender equality and [...]
Criteria and ideas for its institutional design
In a new working paper, Marianne Beisheim from the German Insitute for International and Security Affairs analyzes the options for a review mechanism for the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), a UN body created after the Rio+20 summit in 2012 and inaugurated in September 2013. The HLPF is replacing the UN's Commission on Sustainable Development and aimed at providing political leadership and guidance and a a dynamic platform for regular dialogue, stocktaking, and agenda-setting – all to [...]
In his final report to the UN Human Rights Council after a six-year term as Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter calls for the world’s food systems to be radically and democratically redesigned. “Objectives such as supplying diverse, culturally-acceptable foods to communities, supporting smallholders, sustaining soil and water resources, and raising food security within particularly vulnerable areas, must not be crowded out by the one-dimensional quest to produce more food,” he urges.
In this column, Share the World's Resources' Rajesh Makwana calls for an end to the corporate capture of sustainable development policies, especially at the international level. Makwana cautions against the growing influence of corporate interests in UN processes and the pro-market solutions they advocate for, in particular the concept of a "green economy" that does not question the growth paradigm and proposes to monetize nature. His column comes at a time when GPF has just co-published a working paper on [...]
In 2012, the Rio+20 Conference agreed upon launching negotiations for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the Post-2015 era. While the MDGs’ targets were aimed at poverty reduction, several southern countries aimed at formulating and implementing concrete goals for a new agenda for sustainability and development. In a new publication German environmental and development organizations have therefore engaged in the discussion and present a set of ecological sustainability goals to be included in the Post-2015 Agenda and to put the ecology [...]
The EU's Fifth Project
The event will bring together leading thinkers, policy-makers, and civil society representatives, on the eve of the European elections. Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food on convening the conference, said : “A genuine transition in the way we produce and consume is the only true path to sustainability. But it must be accompanied by a transition in the way we govern.”
The transition towards sustainable societies goes beyond the ecological transition alone. Though it does include [...]
flowery rhetoric, little substance
The basic parameters of the future development agenda were laid out at the autumn session of the UN General Assembly. The roadmap was presented and initial answers given as to where the global journey should be taking us from 2015 on. The train to genuine sustainability could soon jump the tracks. Moreover After four UN reports, their is no mention of the need to transform financial, trade and economic relations to reduce glaring inequalities, says Swiss coalition Alliance Sud in [...]
In a new working paper, GPF's Lou Pingeot discusses the influence of transnational corporations in the Post-2015 process. This working paper by Brot für die Welt, Global Policy Forum and Misereor provides an overview of the main corporate actors in the post-2015 process and how they shape the discourse on development. The paper advocates for more transparency around the participation of corporations in UN processes, including their financial support to UN initiatives, and for more reflection on the risks of [...]
The International Budget Partnership (IBP) has launched a special issue of its newsletter that focuses on budgeting for environmental sustainability. In his contribution, Jens Martens, Director of the Global Policy Forum lines out the idea of 'Sustainable Development Budgets' and their key role as an integral part of the post-2015 agenda. Moreover articles include examples of what countries are doing to “green” their budgets in Philippines and Canada and what shall be done about environmentally harmful subsidies.
Assessing how loans are reported as development aid
A new report by Eurodad's Stéphanie Colin deal with the issue of concessional loans in development finance. In the context of tighter budgets in OECD-DAC countries governments are looking for methods to increase official development assitance (ODA) levels without budgetary implications. One way of doing this is reporting a larger share of loans to developing countries as ODA. Other measures in this directions are ideas to leverage development resources by 'blending' public with private funds. The report discusses the main [...]
As governments meet at the United Nations this week to debate aspects of the sustainable development agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015, over 300 civil society organizations from all parts of the world have come together to demand human rights be integrated into every aspect of the new framework. Together they have issued a joint statement, advanced by a caucus of human rights organizations convened by the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), Amnesty International [...]
UN expert on WTO Summit
GENEVA (2 December 2013) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, today called for developing countries to be granted the freedom to use food reserves to help secure the right to food, without the threat of sanctions under current World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
Mr. De Schutter’s call comes on the eve of a high-level WTO summit in Bali, Indonesia, (3-6 December) which will try to reach agreement on proposals on developing countries’ [...]
"Progress And Challenges Regarding The Future We Want"
The 2013 World Conference of Indigenous Women "Progress and Challenges Regarding the Future we Want" held from October 28-30 2013, in Lima, Peru, was attended by about 300 Indigenous women leaders from Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America, the Artic, Russia and the Pacific. AWID's Gabriela De Cicco has conducted an interview with Mirna Cunningham Kain, President of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and AWID Board Member, about the conference, their agreed agenda and the issues Indigenous women consider [...]
Demand human rights-consistent tax policies
The tax structure and the level of revenue collection, budget allocations and expenditure influence the ability of governments to fulfill their human rights obligations and tackle discrimination and structural inequalities. The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, is preparing to submit a report concerning fiscal and tax policy, poverty and human rights. Governments have been asked to respond the questionnaire prepared by the Special Rapporteur in order to gather information on domestic fiscal and [...]
