20 June 2018: Franciscans International has published a toolbox to review, compare and contrast review mechanisms related to human rights, the SDGs and climate change. Titled, ‘Human Rights, Sustainable Development and Climate Policies: Connecting the Dots,’ the publication focuses on international mechanisms that can help protect human rights at the local and national levels, and ensure a rights-based approach to sustainable development efforts, including combating climate change and eradicating poverty.
Highlighting the interlinkages between human rights, climate change and sustainable development, the toolbox explores new initiatives and challenges, opportunities to improve coherence and promote a human rights-based approach, and tools and ideas for integrating such an approach in sustainable development and climate change policies and programmes.
The toolbox visually demonstrates how the mechanisms address different topics and possible areas of overlap, and provides guidance on how civil society can promote better coherence between the mechanisms and ensure they systematically integrate human rights in their work.
The toolbox maps existing instruments and review mechanisms, describes relevant monitoring and advocacy mechanisms, and provides information on government reporting schedules and submission of information. It discusses available mechanisms, including their assessment and areas of overlap, in: human rights protection systems, such as treaty bodies, Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council and the the Universal Periodic Review mechanism; the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs at the national, regional and international levels; and the climate change regime, including mechanisms under the Paris Agreement.
The 2030 Agenda requires implementing the SDGs in compliance with international human rights law to ensure development programmes and policies do not exacerbate inequalities.
The toolbox explains that the international community has increasingly recognized that sustainable development and climate policymaking can impact on, and thus have relevance for, realizing human rights. For example, in achieving access to cleaner energy, governments might implement projects involving the construction of hydroelectric dams that impact on food, water and housing for local communities.
The publication acknowledges that the 2030 Agenda requires implementing the SDGs in compliance with international human rights law to ensure development programmes and policies do not exacerbate inequalities. Similarly, the Paris Agreement mentions that when taking action to combat climate change, governments must respect, promote and consider their human rights obligations.
The toolbox aims to help civil society promote a human rights-based approach to sustainable development, poverty eradication and environmental justice by, inter alia, highlighting the importance of rights-based monitoring of sustainable development and climate change policies and outlining how human rights violations can harm or hinder SDG implementation and increase vulnerability to climate change.
The publication warns that robust review and/or accountability mechanisms have not been created, and most mechanisms operate “in silos,” with limited channels for human rights mechanisms to feed into those on climate change and sustainable development. For example, while the SDGs promote the role of the private sector and public-private partnerships (PPPs), accountability mechanisms that hold businesses and governments accountable for non-compliance with human rights are lacking.
Franciscans International, which was established in 1989, aims to promote and protect human rights and environmental justice, and works to translate grassroots voices in human rights advocacy into action at the UN. [Publication: Human Rights, Sustainable Development and Climate Policies: Connecting the Dots] [Franciscans International Press Release]