DEVELOPMENT & HUMAN RIGHTS The Global Goals In September 2015, all 193 UN member states negotiated and unanimously approved a wide-ranging and ambitious set of goals for the world for the next 15 years. This new set of Global Goals build on the eight Millennium Development Goals that were established in 2000 and aimed to significantly reduce extreme poverty and disease. The eight goals catalyzed international support around these issues and helped: Move 600 million people out of extreme poverty; Avert 4.3 million deaths from malaria; Improve access to drinking water for 2.3 billion people; Achieve gender parity in primary education; Cut maternal mortality in half. The U.S. and the UN in 2016: Congressional Briefing Book 1
NO POVERTY ZERO HUNGER GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING QUALITY EDUCATION GENDER EQUALITY CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE REDUCED INEQUALITIES SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION CLIMATE ACTION LIFE BELOW WATER LIFE ON LAND PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS The framework for the Global Goals was formed after three years of consultation and input from every government and millions of their citizens. This is especially true in the United States, where 75,000 people across 50 cities engaged in the dialogue through our country consultation both online and on the ground. The U.S. played a major role in helping to shape the negotiations and played a vital role in ensuring important U.S. priorities remained a part of the final document. The creation of the Global Goals marks a significant milestone as the UN and its member states seek to improve the lives of people around the world. The 17 goals encompass the best thinking about how development priorities can be achieved. It is well understood that we cannot end extreme poverty if we do not focus on governance and peace and security because half of all people living in extreme poverty are in conflict affected states. It is also understood that we cannot end extreme poverty without focusing on access to jobs and rewarding entrepreneurship, tackling global health challenges that strain government s budgets and sap productivity, strengthening educational systems, or enhancing infrastructure and achieving more livable cities. The 17 Global Goals take account of these and other priorities. It was also recognized that the goals wouldn t be achieved without the help of the private sector, faith-based organizations, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and all governments. The business community was approached early on in the negotiations to see how they could be a part of the solution to ending extreme poverty. Many of the largest and smallest businesses from around the world have made commitments to helping achieve the Global Goals, because they see it as good business to help expand markets and create a better environment for everyone to succeed. Like the Millennium Development Goals that preceded them, the Global Goals are not legally-binding. Nevertheless, they do mirror much of what the U.S. is already doing on development and diplomacy around the world. By engaging throughout the negotiations, the U.S. was able to get long bipartisan priorities into the final goals. Targets and goals like ending deaths from malaria, targeting human trafficking, and gender empowerment have long been prioritized by Congress and past administrations. 2016 Briefing Book 2
Financing Development Prior to the finalization of the Global Goals, the UN organized a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss how to finance the international community s development objectives. With many countries around the world currently facing budgetary constraints, stakeholders recognized that we cannot rely on Overseas Development Assistance alone in tackling the problem of extreme poverty. The Addis Ababa conference focused on how we can accelerate domestic resource mobilization to achieve a better life for all citizens without an over reliance on contributions from donor countries like the U.S. The conference also examined how governments can increase transparency and efficiency and how the business sector can make a difference in development through their current and new investments. The Global Goals will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the U.S. Government s own investments in development by leveraging funds from many different actors to achieve our development and diplomacy objectives. 2016 Briefing Book 3
Human Rights Council The UN Human Rights Council is an intergovernmental body made up of 47 member states responsible for promoting and protecting human rights around the world. Established by the UN General Assembly in June 2006, the Human Rights Council replaced an earlier UN human rights body which had been criticized as ineffective and politicized. Initially, the United States declined to run for a seat on the new body. As a direct result, the Council struggled to fulfill its mandate. In 2009, however, the U.S. changed course, successfully running for a seat on the Council with the goal of changing the body s dynamics. In 2012, following an exceptionally active first term, the U.S. ran for and was overwhelmingly elected to a second three-year term by the General Assembly. Two consecutive terms of U.S. membership on the Council have produced tangible, positive outcomes on a number of core American foreign policy objectives. Investigating Grave Human Rights Violations North Korea: The Council, with U.S. support, established a Commission of Inquiry (COI) to investigate human rights violations in North Korea. In February 2014, the Commission released a detailed report unprecedented in scope implicating the North Korean regime in a wide range of crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, rape, enslavement, and forced abortions. As a result, the human rights situation in North Korea was added to the official agenda of the UN Security Council, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) established a field office in Seoul to track human rights violations in North Korea. According to Human Rights Watch, [The UN Office] is something that Kim Jong Un should be staying awake at night thinking about, because he is going to be facing a determined team of professional investigators looking and speaking to people to find out the abuses that are taking place against them. Burundi: In December 2015, the U.S. organized and led an emergency Council special session on the human rights situation in Burundi. The special session resulted in a consensus resolution supporting an investigation of human rights abuses in the country. Syria: The Council established a Commission of Inquiry on the human rights situation in Syria, which has helped gather evidence against specific individuals for their involvement in crimes against humanity. In 2015 the COI moved to share its findings, including a perpetrators list with international judicial bodies, a key step towards accountability. This list includes the heads of Syrian government detention facilities and intelligence branches involved in torture, military commanders and leaders of armed groups who target civilians, and officials overseeing airports from where barrel bomb attacks are launched, among other alleged human rights violators. Iran: The U.S. worked with other Council members to establish a UN special rapporteur to scrutinize the human rights situation in Iran. These investigators have unique international legitimacy and a March 2015 report concluded that a variety of Iranian laws undermine the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, while individuals contin- 2016 Briefing Book 4
ue to suffer torture and other forms of inhumane treatment. The report also documented an enormous rise in executions with 753 occurring in 2014 alone, including 33 carried out in public. ISIS: In September 2014, the UN Human Rights Council convened a special session focused on human rights violations and alleged atrocities committed by ISIS. In a unanimous resolution, Council members, including the U.S., voted to dispatch an investigation focused on ISIS s rights abuses. Historic Action on LGBT Rights With U.S. leadership, the UN Human Rights Council passed two historic resolutions on combatting discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity in 2011 and 2014. Both created mandates for unprecedented global-level reporting on international human rights challenges facing LGBTI individuals, including extrajudicial killings, brutalization, and criminalization of consensual same-sex relationships. These two landmark UN actions made clear that LGBT rights were not just Western notions but had the unrivaled legitimacy of a world body. Improved Treatment of Israel Council membership has aided U.S. efforts to normalize Israel s treatment at the UN. While there is still an inordinate amount of focus on Israel in some parts of the UN system, both the proportion of Israel-specific resolutions and special sessions in the Council have significantly declined since the U.S. joined the Council as member. With U.S. backing, Israel also officially joined a key UN regional group in 2014, providing a new platform for Israel to pursue its interests while collaborating with relevant partners at the Council. Participation in these regional coordinating groups matter because they are where much of the behind-the-scenes work at the UN gets done. Equally important, Israeli participation allows it to apply for membership in the Security Council, which it plans to do in 2019. quick facts In December 2015, the U.S. organized and led an emergency Council special session on the human rights situation in Burundi. The special session resulted in a consensus resolution supporting an investigation of human rights abuses in the country. With U.S. leadership, the U.S. Human Rights Council passed two historic resolutions on combatting discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity in 2011 and 2014. In September 2014, the UN Human Rights Council convened a special session focused on human rights violations and alleged atrocities committed by ISIS. In a unanimous resolution, Council members, including the U.S., voted to dispatch an investigation focused on ISIS s rights abuses. 2016 Briefing Book 5