UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré>

A Practical Manual

On the Role of UN Human Rights Mechanisms in Monitoring the SDGs that Seek to Realize Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

30 June 2020

Many of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their 169 SDG targets aim to contribute to the realization of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR), and the commitments to leave no one behind and to achieve gender equality can give concrete meaning to the human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination.

United Nations (UN) human rights mechanisms – with their unique expertise in monitoring the realization of ESCR, promoting equality and non-discrimination, and pushing for the adoption of laws, policies and programmes that target the most vulnerable or those who are left behind – can provide guidance in the implementation of the SDGs, as well as a much-needed accountability framework.

Garment factory, Sri Lanka Workers at their stations on the garment production line.

ILO Asia and Pacific

Practical Guidance on the Role of UN Human Rights Mechanisms

Our new Practical Manual precisely outlines the role of UN human rights mechanisms – UN Treaty Bodies, the UN Human Rights Council and UN Special Procedures – in monitoring the SDGs that seek to realize ESCR.

‘Via more than 20 examples of best practices, and direct link to more than 100 UN documents, we show how UN human rights mechanisms can transform the beneficiaries of the laws, policies and programmes implemented to achieve the SDGs into rights-holders’ explains, Dr Christophe Golay, Senior Research Fellow and Strategic Adviser on ESCR at the Geneva Academy and author of the Manual.

‘We have ten years left to implement the SDGs and we know that this cannot be done without fully integrating human rights norms and monitoring mechanisms in implementation strategies. UN human rights mechanisms must therefore play a central role and are also key to ensure participation, accountability, non-discrimination, transparency, human dignity, empowerment, the rule of law and solidarity in the implementation of the SDGs’ he adds.

UNDP

Olivier de Schutter, Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty

UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

A session of the UN Human Rights Committee

CCPR Centre

HLPF Session in July and Launch Event in September

Participants to the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development’s session in July 2020 can use this practical manual. A launch event with experts and practitioners will be organized in September 2020 to discuss the content of the manual and steps that UN human rights mechanisms can take in the upcoming ten years to monitor the implementation of the SDGs and the full realization of ESCR.

A Series of Publications and a Training Course on ESCR and the SDGs

This Practical Manual builds on our publication No One Will Be Left Behind that looked at the role of UN human rights mechanisms in monitoring the SDGs that seek to realize ESCR. A shorter Research Brief provides a summary of this publication’s findings and recommendations.

A dedicated Training Course on ESCR and the SDGs will take place in Geneva and online from 7 to 11 September 2020. It will explore the relationship between ESCR and SDGs and provide participants with practical tools to include ESCR and the SDGs in their work. Few seats are still available for interested candidates.