The Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights ― A Critical Early Review

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015. The SDGs make the central promise to Leave No One Behind and include a dedicated goal to reduce inequalities. Human rights advocates have put great hopes in the SDGs as an instrument for transformative change. But do they bring about the much-needed paradigm shift? Or were the extensive consultations and negotiations much ado about nothing?

"Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights: A Critical Early Review" follows two central lines of inquiry. The chapters examine to what extent do the SDGs live up to the promise to reduce inequalities and provide for monitoring and policies that address the needs of marginalized and invisible populations. They further suggest transparent and binding accountability processes and mechanisms to ensure that the SDGs are more than lofty goals and bring power to their promise.

The volume begins with three chapters that focus on different aspects of SDG 10 and the commitment to reduce inequalities. From this cross cutting SDG, the following three chapters look at the translation of equality and accountability into specific sectors: health (SDG 3) and labour (SDG 8).

The chapters were originally published in a special issue of The International Journal of Human Rights.

Inga Winkler is a lecturer in the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. She leads the programming on economic, social and cultural rights. Prior to joining Columbia, Inga was the Legal Adviser to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation.

Carmel Williams, PhD, is a senior research officer in the Human Rights, Big Data and Technology project at the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex. She is also the Executive Editor of the Health and Human Rights Journal, published at the FXB Center, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston.