Goals and indicators chosen for the Millennium Development Goals were not unfortunately rights-based and thus did not promote equity and equality. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development acknowledges human rights and the breadth of the new goals is welcome but in its absence of a consistent rights-based approach to the goals and targets, or a cohesive or integrated framing of them the risk of vertical interventions continues. This is exacerbated by the prominence given to the private sector and new international financing arrangements.
This Health and Human Rights Journal (HHRJ) series: SDGs, Human Rights and the Right to Health explores what the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) might mean for health and human rights. The right to health is not included in the text, or within any of the targets and in this resource the contributors focus on the potential of the SDGs to enhance people’s right to health and how the pursuit of the SDGs can advance human dignity and the right to health. Their responses are both complementary and contrasting. They identify difficulties and opportunities. Comprising health and human rights advocates and scholars contributors have analysed the issues and identify essential actions to operationalize human rights in the next stages of SDG development including the selection of indicators, the prioritisation of actions, planning, resourcing, implementation, follow-up and review.
Specific articles include:
- Accountability for SDGs by Paul Hunt
- Introduction: What might SDGs mean for human rights and health? by Carmel Williams and Alison Blaiklock
- Universal Health Coverage and the Right to Health by Audrey Chapman
- The Slippery Target for Child Survival and SDGs by Elizabeth Gibbons
- SDGs and the Health Impacts of Climate Change by Cecilia Sorensen and Jay Lemery
- Leaving no one behind in Sexual and Reproductive Health by Rebecca Brown
- SDGs Adopting a Rights-based Approach to Human Trafficking by Angela Duger
SUMMARY ADAPTED FROM SOURCE