Remarks by UN Resident Coordinator at a panel discussion on Human Rights and Sustainable Development

Hon. Gail Teixeira, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance,

Hon. Dr. Ashni Singh, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance,

Ms. Alison Drayton, Assistant Secretary-General of CARICOM,

Ms. Tracy Smith, Project Manager, Department of Environment and Climate Change

My UN Country Team Colleagues, Partners, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Listeners online and on national television.

I am absolutely thrilled to be here today to mark the 75th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights. We had insightful discussion on the global human rights landscape earlier this morning where my OHCHR and UNHCR colleagues joined the EU Ambassador and Minister Teixeira. Now we’re tabling the intersection of development and human rights.

In so doing the organizers of this event, my UN system colleagues and I are responding to the UN SG’s Call to Action for Human Rights which calls on the UN system to engage in country dialogues on human rights.

In this presentation I will cover three points:

First, the UN Human Rights Mechanisms and how human rights articulate with and speak to Sustainable Development Goals, that is, on how protection and promotion of rights is integrally linked to achievement of SDG targets and goals.

Second, how UN processes promote both the human rights adherence of member states and their progress towards the SDGs in an integrated manner- fitting with the aspirations of both universal human rights and the transformative, comprehensive ambition of the SDGs.

I will conclude with some observations on the two streams and with some reflections on the Secretary General’s Call to Action for Human Rights and what that means for us here.

But before I do so, a big caveat: We are what the member states make us. I will come back to this point in my presentation on the role of the UN in both its human rights and development streams of work.  

SDGs and Human Rights:  

Adopted unanimously in 2015 by all UN Member States, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 169 targets, and 231 unique indicators shapes the direction of global and national development policies and offers new entry points and opportunities for bridging the divide between human rights and development.

The 2030 Agenda is unequivocally anchored in human rights and is explicitly grounded in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), the international human rights treaties.  

Although the specific SDGs are not framed in terms of human rights, many targets reflect the content of international standards. For instance, SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 4 (quality education), SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), and SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) reflect much of the core content of economic, social and cultural rights. SDG 16 on peace, justice, and strong institutions addresses some key dimensions of civil and political rights, including personal security, access to justice and fundamental freedoms. SDG 17 addresses issues related to the right to development and means of implementation.

Leave no one behind:

The 2030 Agenda also puts the principles of equality and non-discrimination at its heart, with a commitment to “leave no one behind” and “reach those furthest behind first”. Special attention to marginalized groups, and two dedicated goals on combatting discrimination and inequalities (SDG 5 on gender equality and SDG 10 on inequalities within and between countries), as well as a cross-cutting commitment to data disaggregation, inclusive participatory approaches (all of society and all of Government approaches), and accountability for the 2030 Agenda follow-up and review indicate that the entire Agenda was developed using a human rights-based approach, which is also crucial for its effective implementation. 

Two Streams of UN Work: Integrating Human Rights and Development.

With the SDGs, UN member states agreed to ground the new agenda in international human rights law and that the SDGs aim to realize the human rights of all.  Some 90% of the 169 SDG targets are linked to standards from the international human rights and labor rights frameworks.

The UN Human Rights Mechanisms have integrated human rights reporting with SDGs milestones. This allows for recommendations issued by the Human Rights Mechanisms to be linked to SDG targets. For example, UPR recommendations for Guyana.

In this context, allow me to also mention that of some 190 recommendations for Guyana from the UPR process, the Government of Guyana has accepted a majority of them, indicating an intention to engage international human rights mechanisms in its own domestic efforts. I commend the Government for that commitment.

Let me pick one UPR recommendation for Guyana as an example, the one which calls on Guyana to “Adopt measures to end the social and cultural stereotypes that support discrimination, particularly against children and adolescents with disabilities”. This recommendation (from Ecuador) was linked to SDG 3, 4, 7, 10 and 16, and clearly identify the population group targeted, as part of the LNOB agenda. Of the UPR 2020 recommendations, 32% of the recommendations were linked to SDG 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions; 17 % to SDG 5 – Gender Equality; 15 % to SDG10 – Reduced Inequalities; 9% to SDG 3 – Good health and well-being; and 9% to SDG 4 – Quality Education.

Recommendations from the CEDAW Committee and other treaty bodies are similarly aligned. For instance, one of CEDAW’s recommendations called on Guyana to “Allocate adequate resources for the establishment of legal aid clinics in regions 1, 3 and 7 to 9, ensure the effective functioning of all clinics in the State party and establish mobile courts in hinterland areas”.[1] This was aligned with SDG 5.1 - End discrimination against women and girls; SDG10.3 - Ensure equal opportunities and end discrimination and SDG 16.3 – promote rule of law and access to justice for all.

The reverse is also true with respect to how the development side interacts with human rights system. I am thinking here of the SDG progress reporting by member states through the Voluntary National Review (VNR) process. OHCHR provides commentary on SDG reports of countries through guidance prepared under the Secretary-General’s Call to Action for Human Rights. This guidance presents a practical eight-step approach to support the development of VNRs in a way that integrates human rights throughout the process. Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) are a key process facilitating review and course correction, as needed, in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda at the national level. There are many good practices therefore that give member states concrete and practical guidance on how VNRs can be strengthened by integrating in them the wealth of existing human rights data and analyses.  

In summary, when the UN processes on human rights and development are also integrated, we are able to elicit from member states goals, targets and actions that also leverage advances in development, development opportunities towards meeting human rights obligations – going beyond just progressive realization to really putting UPR or treaty body recommendations into national development actions/budgets and vice versa.

The Call to Action and our role as UN entities

As I mentioned at the outset, the Call to Action is directed not only to the UN entities operating in your country. It concerns our relationship and work with the Government, civil society and the people of Guyana. Ultimately the State party, the Government of Guyana is the duty bearer with the responsibility and the political intent, the policy framework and the budgetary and human resources capability to effect both the SDG transformation and the respect, protection and promotion of rights. To that end let me highlight three pertinent actions from this call which my UN Country Team colleagues and I are eager to pursue.

• Support member states to ensure that human rights principles inform implementation of the 2030 Agenda, including empowering people and creating avenues for civil society participation, as well as taking human rights-sensitive, non-discriminatory approaches to data collection, monitoring, and reporting. This is the surest way to bring the benefits of the ambitious and far-reaching agenda to all, leaving no one behind. In this context, consultations for and the anchoring of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) in the global goals including the Paris Agreement and the Escazu Agreement provide an inspiring example.  As the UN system, we continue to engage with our national partners to seek entry points to expand the positive benefits from this national Strategy towards greater alignment with global goals and for leaving no one behind.  

• Support member states and other stakeholders in making better use of the Universal Periodic Review outcomes, as well as of reports of the treaty bodies in national development planning. We were proud to support Minister Teixeira a few weeks ago to convene a training workshop on the Human Rights-Based approaches to inform national budgetary processes. We were also proud to support dedicated workshops on integrating the Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disability and of Migrant Workers in national planning. These events saw the participation of ministries, departments and constitutional commissions. Several UN colleagues and I sat through the sessions, with a keen ear to listen to the Ministry of Finance’s human rights-based approach to budgeting. I look forward therefore now to hear more from Minister Singh on how Guyana’s increasingly robust, and I must say exciting budgets, now using oil and gas revenues, enable both SDG achievement while responding specifically to UN Human Rights Treaty body recommendations. Furthermore, UN agencies, UNICEF, UNWOMEN and UNDP, to note a few, are currently or have plans to support the relevant national constitutional commissions on the rights of the child, women and ethnic relations and others.

• Continue our efforts to help design policies that support the most vulnerable and/or excluded groups, recognizing and responding to multiple and intersecting deprivations and sources of discrimination that limit opportunities and make it harder to escape poverty, live with dignity and enjoy human rights on a healthy planet. Our UN Cooperation Framework and its associated implementation plans are our agreements with the Government on how we get there. Let me give a couple examples and recall what I said at the outset; the SDGs are achieved by the state party not the UN. As I look at some of the early results of UN agencies’ work with line ministries, I am pleased to see how national ministries are meeting and exceeding some of their targets from health to education.
  • In so doing, partnerships are supporting efforts to design policies and implement activities to support the national authorities go the last mile for getting routine immunizations to riverine communities with UNICEF; or getting adolescent sexual and reproductive health education, and services to remote communities with UNFPA; or additionalities for migrant populations which we saw downstairs as reported by the Ministry of Education with UNHCR.  
  • For our part, we carefully code our interventions in terms of how they approach our own strategies for engaging youth, persons with disability through dedicated agreements with umbrella civil society organizations; and we benefit from UNWOMEN’s leadership in gender scoring our work. 
  • Our OHCHR Human Right Advisor and our Regional Human Rights Coordinator are here with us today. They are an invaluable part of our UN team so that we get it right internally. They also work with you, the State party and stand ready to support you further in aligning your remarkable SDG progress with treaty obligations and their treaty reporting. The aim is not only to have rights-based SDGs implementation but also to help use treaty reporting as a means of national development plan achievements.

In closing, today, we rededicate ourselves to work with you and our civil society partners to gather and share knowledge and data to support policy decisions and foster collective actions for achieving the SDGs. We use our platforms to bolster national efforts to meet SDG milestones; and to help build the partnerships so that those who are at risk of being left behind use their voice. Supporting, protecting and building the capacities of civil society organizations and human rights institutions will be key components of this process. 

Honorable Ministers, partners, friends, the UN will continue to utilize every opportunity to deliver on its mandate, roles and functions to support member states, to promote and protect human rights and sustainable development.

Thank you for your kind attention.