PHM-Exch> New global development agenda must have human rights at its core

[Claudio Schuftan]

from: karen.mullin at amnesty.org


**

*JOINT PRESS RELEASE*
*
**New global development agenda must have human rights at its core*

World leaders must reject an aid-based model of development and instead
pursue an approach that puts human rights and justice at its core, *18
non-governmental organizations
urged*<http://www.worldwewant2015.org/es/node/346687>ahead of a
High-Level Panel report to the UN on the future of sustainable
development.

The call from Amnesty International, the Center for Economic and Social
Rights (CESR), the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID),
and 15 other organizations worldwide comes as a *high-level panel of experts
* <http://www.un.org/sg/management/hlppost2015.shtml> reviews the final
draft of a report it will submit to the UN Secretary General at the end of
May, laying the groundwork for action once the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) expire in 2015.

Any new model must ensure that people are empowered and enabled to hold
their governments and other entities to account for their conduct when
human rights are ignored or abused, the organizations said.

“The post-2015 framework must recognize that people who face poverty and
deprivation are subjects of rights, not objects of development. And it must
address the structural obstacles that keep people poor, at the national and
global levels,” said Ignacio Saiz, Executive Director of the Center for
Economic and Social Rights.

Based on the high-level panel’s findings, the UN Secretary General will
make recommendations to a General Assembly Special Event on the MDGs, which
will hammer out the basic parameters of the post-2015 plan in September
2013.

The post-2015 development agenda must at the very least respect and reflect
pre-existing human rights legal norms, standards and political commitments,
the organizations said.

They urged governments to ensure that minimum levels of social protection
are met.

While the development agenda will be primarily implemented by states,
effective citizen-led accountability mechanisms will be needed to ensure
that others – including international institutions and the private sector –
adhere to human rights standards. At the very least this must ensure that
the private sector does no harm when implementing development projects.

Better collaboration between effective institutions at the state and
international levels should form the basis of a global partnership to
tackle the structural causes of poverty, inequality and ecological
devastation.

Recent popular uprisings around the world have shown that it is essential
that governments acknowledge that both major categories of human rights –
civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights
– are indivisible and interdependent, the organizations said.

“The post-2015 development framework must be rooted in an understanding of
the interdependence of socio-economic deprivation and democratic failures,”
said Savio Carvalho Director of Amnesty International's Demand Dignity
Programme.

“Civil and political rights are inseparable from economic and social
rights, so the new agenda must be designed to promote empowerment in both
these arenas.”

>From healthcare to land and property rights to gender-based violence, women
and girls face specific challenges that need to be addressed in the
post-2015 development agenda.

“The post-2015 development framework must effectively guarantee the full
spectrum of women’s rights by tackling the structural economic issues and
property rights, ensuring the full participation of women in
decision-making at all levels, and recognizing the unpaid care economy,”
said Lydia Alpízar, Executive Director of the Association for Women’s
Rights in Development.

The MDGs have been weak in addressing other forms of inequality. This time
around, existing human rights standards to eliminate discrimination must be
reflected in any new goals and targets. Groups who are currently
disadvantaged or excluded – on grounds such as race, gender, disability,
migrant or indigenous status, sexual orientation or gender identity – must
be enabled to act as effective agents of their own development.

*Read the full 3-page statement, with the list of endorsements, here:* *
**http://www.worldwewant2015.org/es/node/346687*<http://www.worldwewant2015.org/es/node/346687>
*
For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact:*
Luke Holland, Communications Coordinator, CESR. *
**lholland at cesr.org* <lholland at cesr.org>, +1 718 237 9145

Amnesty International's press office in London, UK:*
**press at amnesty.org* <press at amnesty.org>, +44 20 7413 5566

Mayra Moro-coco, Association for Women’s Rights in Development: *
**mmoro-coco at awid.org* <mmoro-coco at awid.org>
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