Background

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets out a vision for sustainable development grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights norms and standards, placing equality and non-discrimination at the centre. Recognizing that human rights, including labour rights, are essential to achieving sustainable development that leaves no one behind (LNOB), the 2030 Agenda has a transformative ambition seeking “to realize the human rights of all”.

In response to the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, the UN Development System (UNDS) embarked on a reform centred around a new generation of UN Country Teams (UNCTs) and a strategic UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, with a human rights-based approach (HRBA), LNOB, gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) hardwired as guiding principles throughout support to country implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The 2020 Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR) further calls upon the UNDS to assist States in their efforts to respect and fulfil their human rights obligations and commitments under international law, as an operational activity for development and a critical tool to operationalize the LNOB pledge.

The UN Secretary-General’s Call to Action (C2A) for Human Rights launched in 2020, calls for the UN system as a whole to step up efforts and place human rights “front and centre” in its action, with one of the seven workstreams focused on rights at the core of sustainable development. This is also echoed in the Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda, envisaging a renewed social contract anchored in human rights, and highlighting the potential of human rights as a ‘problem solving’ tool for contemporary development challenges.