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Where justice fits in the UN's vision for the SDGs.
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Read our analysis of the UN Secretary-General's s Synthesis Report on the Sustainable Development Goals.

December 2014

Justice in the New Development Goals
You Took Action, Where do We Stand?

 
Dear Friends,
Thank you for taking action to incorporate justice in the new global development framework. Ban Ki Moon just released his report to set up the last phase of negotiations.  We want to update you on where we stand now.

The headline news from the report is that justice and civil society both remain crucial components of the new development agenda as envisioned by the UN.

 

Justice is one of six essential elements that need to be reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals

In a key passage the Secretary-General  writes:
Access to fair justice systemsaccountable institutions of democratic governance, measures to combat corruption and curb illicit financial flows, and safeguards to protect personal security are integral to sustainable development. An enabling environment under the rule of law must be secured for the free, active and meaningful engagement of civil society … Press freedom and access to information, freedom of expression, assembly and association are enablers of sustainable development. The practice of child, early and forced marriage must be ended everywhere. The rule of law must be strengthened at the national and international level, to secure justice for all.”

Taken with the prominence of justice in Goal 16 of the Open Working Group’s outcome document, we can hope justice is becoming a must-have element in the goals that will be negotiated by States during 2015. To have come this far with such a central position for justice is a victory for you and all of the civil society organizations that have spoken up.

Also positive is the role envisioned for civil society. This is as part of the process of developing the goals: The direct and active engagement of parliamentarians, business and civil society has also been critical and in the future. The SG envisions a role for civil society in ensuring targets are met: institutions of civil society must have the capacity to perform their critical, independent role”.

Yet the report is not perfect and there are grounds for some concern

The language of the report focuses on state justice systems and institutions so we must work to ensure the SDGs do not exclude the kind of innovative, civil society-led grassroots justice efforts undertaken by members of the global legal empowerment network. There is also no mention, among the references to right to information and accountable institutions, of legal identity, an omission we must seek to ensure is not repeated in the final goals and targets.

And while we can welcome the SG’s assertion that women and girls must have rights to own land and other assets, the report reflects the omissions of the Open Working Group (OWG) in that it also fails to mention the importance of community land rights.

As we argued when the OWG reported, so many millions live without secure rights to, or a say in the governance of, their lands, forests and pastures that equitable development will be impossible without this crucial, missing element.

On a wider level the focus on justice as an enabling measure has led to some concerns that the justice principle could be hollowed out in the proposed process of editing down the OWG’s 17 goals to a less ambitious number. We must resist any attempt to reduce justice to a preamble with no substantive targets to measure its achievement.
Taken in full the SG’s report is an ambitious and encouraging statement ahead of the negotiations that will start in January. Together we must ensure that one particularly inspiring line is not rendered meaningless by the horse-trading to come:

This is no time to succumb to political expediency, or to tolerate the lowest common denominators. The stars are aligned for the world to take historic action to transform lives and protect the planet.”

In Solidarity, Paul, Abby, Vivek and everyone at Namati.

PS - We are still encouraging more people and organisations to sign our open letter. Please forward this email to anyone you believe shares your concern for justice.
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