In September 2015, agreement was reached on a new global development plan: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Overshadowing and influencing the long debate towards the Sustainable Development Goals’ adoption was the experience of the Millennium Development Goals, many of whose targets remained unfulfilled, and whose legacy from the human rights perspective is in many respects problematic. 



One of the central issues that CESR argued must be addressed in the new agenda was the question of accountability. The absence of meaningful accountability mechanisms in the original MDGs was one of the main reasons that progress has been so limited. If states and other powerful actors are not answerable for the commitments set out in development plans, even the most laudable of socio-economic targets are likely to fall victim to the pressures of short-sighted economic demands or political inertia.
 Placing human rights accountability at the very heart of the post-2015 agenda will be critical to make sure the commitments made are honoured in practice.



It is for this reason that in 2012 CESR and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published “Who Will Be Accountable? Human Rights and the Post-2015 Development Agenda”. The document was intended to help position human rights in policy debates and international negotiations concerning the future development agenda, and provided a foundation for CESR’s subsequent advocacy around the question of monitoring and accountability for the Sustainable Development Goals, including around questions of indicators for measuring progress.

Moreover, accountability must be complemented by the other key principles of the human rights framework if the new development agenda is to have a genuinely transformative impact. The operational principles and standards of conduct required to make sure the post-2015 plan delivers on its promises were set out in another CESR publication, "A Matter of Justice". In accordance with international human rights law, any development plans must be ever-mindful that states are legally obliged to make adequate efforts to ensure access to health care, housing, education, and other economic and social rights – as well as to tackle rampant inequalities, including extreme economic inequality. The human rights framework can also ensure that all those involved in the development process - ranging from governments and donor agencies to international financial institutions and the private sector - are answerable to the communities and individuals their actions affect.

Viewing development through a human rights lens further requires that principles such as participation, non-discrimination, equality, empowerment and progressive realization, are taken into consideration. These standards are critically important, as it has become abundantly clear that economic growth alone is not an adequate measure of development. Indeed, the real test of progress must surely be the degree to which ordinary people can access their inherent human rights and enjoy freedom from both want and fear, without discrimination.



In recent years CESR’s efforts to hold governments to account for their obligations to fulfill economic and social rights, and its use of the Millennium Development Goals in this endeavor, has made it a leading voice on the synergies between the human rights and development agendas. CESR is one of the co-convenors of the Post-2015 Human Rights Caucus (alongside Amnesty International and the Association for Women's Rights in Development), a diverse coalition of development, environment, trade union, feminist and human rights organizations worldwide. It was also the human rights focal point (and former Executive Committee member) of Beyond 2015, the global civil society campaign of over 1000 organizations pushing for a robust and people-centred set of development commitments to succeed the MDGs. It also works in alliance with other networks campaigning for a transformative global development framework, including the Campaign for People's Goals.

Our continuing efforts in this arena come as the international community prepares to implement the SDGs. Although a number of significant human rights commitments were reaffirmed in the final 2030 Agenda, persistent pressure and new policies will be necessary to shift the trajectory of global development onto a just, sustainable and human rights-realizing path. Most importantly, the disheartening statistics and technocratic language that so often dominate the discourse of international development represent real human lives and unnecessary suffering on a massive scale. It is for this reason that the failures of the past cannot and must not be repeated in the implementation of the new sustainable development agenda.