Human rights ‘core to sustainable development’: deputy UN chief

“Human rights are core to the 2030 Agenda, and sustainable development is a powerful vehicle for the realization of all human rights,” the UN’s Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, said in a speech to the Human Rights Council, on Thursday.

The 2030 Agenda, the UN’s “plan of action for people, planet and prosperity,” contains a commitment to “realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls,” through the implementation of the Agenda’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Realizing the objectives of the SDGs means that people are able to fulfil their rights to adequate housing, clean water, health care, education and food as well as their right to participate in the decisions that affect their lives,” continued Ms. Mohammed, who assured the Council of the UN’s “rock-solid commitment to delivering on people’s rights and well-being through implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.”

I want to reinforce our rock-solid commitment to delivering on people’s rights through the Sustainable Development Goals Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed

The deputy UN chief reminded delegates that the Agenda is “a promise to secure peace and prosperity, founded in the respect for people’s rights and their dignity,” and a pledge to go beyond “business as usual” and address emerging global challenges.

However, Ms. Mohammed warned the Council that the world is off track to achieving the 2030 Agenda. “We are falling behind in achieving the promise to ‘leave no one behind’. We say that youth are the future, and yet youth unemployment is at record highs. And where is the leap forward we promised women and girls?”

Other targets are not being hit, she added, due to low investment in the poorest countries, unregulated migration and insufficient climate action. This is often, she said, a result of “entrenched patterns of inequalities and discrimination, and policy choices at both the national and global levels.”

The way to address the problem and “stop the slide and reset the ambition with urgency,” is for global cooperation to bring about human rights for all, said Ms. Mohammed, using all parts of the UN system to help countries to implement the 2030 Agenda at a national level.

Despite the many challenges, she expressed her conviction that the international community will bring about a world that leaves no one behind, and respects human rights for all: “let’s keep hope alive for the millions who live a life of hunger, fear, and atrocities beyond our imagination. It is our job to be their voice, so they may all know peace, prosperity and a life of dignity.”