Welcome to the United Nations
Introduction
1. Pursuant to its resolution 37/24, the Human Rights Council held on 16 January 2019 the first of two intersessional meetings for dialogue and cooperation on human rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The theme of the meeting was “Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”,1 which is to be the theme in 2019 of the high-level political forum on sustainable development, which will review global progress in achieving the following Sustainable Development Goals: 4 (quality education), 8 (decent work and economic growth), 10 (reduced inequalities), 13 (climate action), 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) and 17 (partnership for the Goals). The programme of the meeting consisted of five sessions.
2. Morten Jespersen, Permanent Representative of Denmark to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, chaired the meeting. The President of the Human Rights Council, Coly Seck, and the Rapporteur, Michael O’Flaherty, Director of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency, made brief remarks. Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, gave her assessment of the promise and challenges of the 2030 Agenda.
3. At the second session, on the topic “Reflections and a conversation on human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals”, Mary Robinson, Chair of the Elders and President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, delivered a keynote address. Thereafter, Ms. Robinson joined Asako Okai, Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Crisis Bureau of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Jeffrey Sachs, Sustainable Development Goals Advocate and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Colombia University and of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and Catalina Devandas Aguilar, Member of the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures and Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, on a panel to discuss how promoting and protecting human rights and progress towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals were interrelated and mutually reinforcing. Imogen Foulkes, United Nations BBC Correspondent in Geneva, moderated this panel.
4. At the third session, the topic “Building synergies between human rights and Sustainable Development Goal implementation at the national level” was examined. Jean de Dieu Yakouma Bambara, Director-General of Defence of Human Rights at the Ministry of Justice of Burkina Faso, Noelia López, Director of the Human Rights Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay, and Kanchana Patarachoke, Director-General of the Department of International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, described how each of their respective countries were building on the relationship between human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals at the national level. Eva Grambye, Deputy Executive Director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, described what the Institute had learned from examining the complementarity of the work of United Nations human rights mechanisms and the Sustainable Development Goals and presented tools that make their findings available to all. Gianni Magazzeni, Chief of the Universal Periodic Review Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), moderated the panel discussion.
5. During the lunch break, organizations working on the relationship between human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals presented their work at a knowledge fair.
6. At the fourth session, Nicole Ameline, Member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Kitrhona Cerri, Director of Social Impact of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Francesco d’Ovidio, Head of the Solutions and Innovation Unit of the International Labour Organization, Paul Ladd, Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Alaa Murabit, Sustainable Development Goals Advocate and Founder of the Voice of Libyan Women, and Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programme Officer of the World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS), discussed global partnerships to support the synergies between human rights and Sustainable Development Goal implementation. Nadia Isler, Director of the SDG Lab, moderated the discussion.
7. At the closing session, on bringing the human rights narrative to the high-level political forum on sustainable development, Marion Barthelemy, Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Support and Coordination for Sustainable Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat, and Peggy Hicks, Director of the Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division of OHCHR, shared their key conclusions from the meeting. The Rapporteur provided a synthesis of the meeting.
