MPs spotlight human rights at heart of sustainable development

IPU has been urging the inclusion of a stand-alone Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on democratic governance. Draft goal 16 points in the right direction. ©UN

More than 160 MPs from across the world will spotlight the need to put people and their human rights at the heart of a new sustainable development agenda during a parliamentary meeting at UN headquarters in New York.

The Annual Parliamentary Hearing on 19-20 November will help inform the collective thinking of MPs on the new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when they expire at the end of 2015.

Although development thinking in recent years has evolved from a focus on just economic growth to a more people-centred approach, the reality is lagging behind.

“More and more aspects of human interaction are being commercialized because of the fundamentally flawed notion that ever growing production and consumption is the only way for an economy to function and for people to be happy,” says IPU President Saber Chowdhury.

“What needs to change in both developed and developing countries is the mind-set that we can grow fast now and worry about the consequences to human well-being and the planet later. We need a more organic growth that goes hand in hand with improved human well-being,” he adds. That includes the right of all people to participate in the decisions about their lives.

Jointly organized by IPU and the United Nations, and opened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President of the UN General Assembly Sam Kutesa and President Chowdhury, the Hearing will examine ways in which economic and social inequality can undermine people-centred development. It will focus also on the implications of a rights-based approach to the new SDGs.

Participants, including representatives from the UN and other organizations, 
will also look at the responsibility of government vis-à-vis the market and how countries can more effectively deal with their human rights responsibilities.

The IPU and the UN have held extensive consultations with their members to provide input to the SDG negotiations. These negotiations will enter a new phase in January 2015 on the basis of a first draft of the SDGs. The final set of SDGs will be adopted late next year.