Brazil and Nicaragua
Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals
Human Rights, the Right to Development and Global Governance
December 12, 2013
Statement by Brazil and Nicaragua
Both subjects considered today, human rights and global governance, are extremely important and, to the extent that we can adequately address them in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, we will be expanding the scope of the original MDG exercise in a very positive direction.
The Rio+20 outcome document refers to both issues in very clear terms. At the outset, it declares the right to development and to an adequate standard of living as overarching objectives. Subsequently, it states the importance of broadening and strengthening the participation of developing countries in international economic decision making, calling for a reform of the governance structures of the Bretton Woods institutions to better reflect current realities and enhancing the voice and participation of developing countries.
So it is not a matter of whether to include these issues the in Post 2015 Agenda, but how to do it. Should they be stand alone areas of concern or cut across all individual elements of the Agenda?
Human Rights
The relationship between human rights and sustainable development should be mutually supportive.
This can be achieved through a commitment to reducing inequality and inequity, both within and among countries, together with the goal of poverty eradication and environmental sustainability.
We should specifically address groups traditionally excluded due to race, age, gender, disabilities, indigenous background and any other kind of visible or invisible discrimination.
During our last session we emphasized the importance of job creation. The ILO Decent Work agenda provides a foundation for ensuring the rights of workers and for promoting decent jobs and dignity for working families.
We strongly support this agenda and believe it provides a model for a mainstreaming human rights into the Post 2015 Development Agenda. We favor minimum wage enhancing policies and cash-transfers programs that provide a basis for social justice and social inclusion. Through public policies such as these we can effectively put into practice the fundamental right to development and to an adequate standard of living.
The importance of grass roots movements, organized communities, popular organizations and civil society is critical to engaging society in support of the far-reaching transformations we wish to accomplish through a Post 2055 Development Agenda. Access to information, to learning and to education, to technology, to health , on a universal and affordable basis , is extremely important in this context.
Global Governance
The elaboration of the Post-2015 Development Agenda is a historic opportunity to consider the legitimacy and effectiveness of international economic institutions and the United Nations Development System.
The 2008 crisis, and its continued global effects, have demonstrated the need for multilateral financial coordination so as to prevent a repetition of the bad policies and regulations that were at the root of the debacle to begin with.
The Bretton Woods Institutions were clearly inefficient and ineffective in providing the international community with an early warning of the impending disaster in the run up to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in November of 2008, with all the dire systemic aftershocks and consequences still at play up to this very day. They were not in a position to provide sound advice to countries at the origin of the crisis and to their banking and capital market systems, clearly overexposed to unreasonable and unsound risk taking. This should not repeat itself. We need to reform the governance structures of these organizations so that a broader perspective with respect to the global economy and to development can help renew their damaged credibility and role as stabilizers of the global economy and supporters of development.
The Rio+20 Conference made an incremental contribution towards a more universal a representative global governance structure by creating the high-level political forum to provide political leadership, guidance and recommendations for the Post-2015 Development Agenda, including on the means to its implementation.
The creation of the Forum, along with the strengthening of ECOSOC and the indispensable role of the General Assembly, contribute to strengthening the institutional framework for sustainable development. The challenge now is make this framework coherently in an effective, efficient and forward-looking fashion.
The issue of partnerships, frequently mentioned, must be considered in light of its possible negative implications in terms of a more effective Member-Driven governance of the United Nations Development System.
If the private sector is being called to take up a much greater role in the financing for development, Member States should better define the rules of transparency, accountability and ethics governing all outsourced UN programs and activities, so that they are aligned with the UN's intergovernmental mandates.
The Rio+20 Conference also recognized the role of South-South cooperation in promoting the eradication of poverty and sustainable development. In this regard, we believe that the cooperation among developing countries would benefit from greater institutional support, in particular, the strengthening of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation.
As a concrete and specific suggestion on governance and its effectiveness, we should reaffirm, improve and further strengthen the commitments expressed in MDG-8, providing targets and indicators related to ODA for the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
Human Rights, the Right to Development and Global Governance
December 12, 2013
Statement by Brazil and Nicaragua
Both subjects considered today, human rights and global governance, are extremely important and, to the extent that we can adequately address them in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, we will be expanding the scope of the original MDG exercise in a very positive direction.
The Rio+20 outcome document refers to both issues in very clear terms. At the outset, it declares the right to development and to an adequate standard of living as overarching objectives. Subsequently, it states the importance of broadening and strengthening the participation of developing countries in international economic decision making, calling for a reform of the governance structures of the Bretton Woods institutions to better reflect current realities and enhancing the voice and participation of developing countries.
So it is not a matter of whether to include these issues the in Post 2015 Agenda, but how to do it. Should they be stand alone areas of concern or cut across all individual elements of the Agenda?
Human Rights
The relationship between human rights and sustainable development should be mutually supportive.
This can be achieved through a commitment to reducing inequality and inequity, both within and among countries, together with the goal of poverty eradication and environmental sustainability.
We should specifically address groups traditionally excluded due to race, age, gender, disabilities, indigenous background and any other kind of visible or invisible discrimination.
During our last session we emphasized the importance of job creation. The ILO Decent Work agenda provides a foundation for ensuring the rights of workers and for promoting decent jobs and dignity for working families.
We strongly support this agenda and believe it provides a model for a mainstreaming human rights into the Post 2015 Development Agenda. We favor minimum wage enhancing policies and cash-transfers programs that provide a basis for social justice and social inclusion. Through public policies such as these we can effectively put into practice the fundamental right to development and to an adequate standard of living.
The importance of grass roots movements, organized communities, popular organizations and civil society is critical to engaging society in support of the far-reaching transformations we wish to accomplish through a Post 2055 Development Agenda. Access to information, to learning and to education, to technology, to health , on a universal and affordable basis , is extremely important in this context.
Global Governance
The elaboration of the Post-2015 Development Agenda is a historic opportunity to consider the legitimacy and effectiveness of international economic institutions and the United Nations Development System.
The 2008 crisis, and its continued global effects, have demonstrated the need for multilateral financial coordination so as to prevent a repetition of the bad policies and regulations that were at the root of the debacle to begin with.
The Bretton Woods Institutions were clearly inefficient and ineffective in providing the international community with an early warning of the impending disaster in the run up to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in November of 2008, with all the dire systemic aftershocks and consequences still at play up to this very day. They were not in a position to provide sound advice to countries at the origin of the crisis and to their banking and capital market systems, clearly overexposed to unreasonable and unsound risk taking. This should not repeat itself. We need to reform the governance structures of these organizations so that a broader perspective with respect to the global economy and to development can help renew their damaged credibility and role as stabilizers of the global economy and supporters of development.
The Rio+20 Conference made an incremental contribution towards a more universal a representative global governance structure by creating the high-level political forum to provide political leadership, guidance and recommendations for the Post-2015 Development Agenda, including on the means to its implementation.
The creation of the Forum, along with the strengthening of ECOSOC and the indispensable role of the General Assembly, contribute to strengthening the institutional framework for sustainable development. The challenge now is make this framework coherently in an effective, efficient and forward-looking fashion.
The issue of partnerships, frequently mentioned, must be considered in light of its possible negative implications in terms of a more effective Member-Driven governance of the United Nations Development System.
If the private sector is being called to take up a much greater role in the financing for development, Member States should better define the rules of transparency, accountability and ethics governing all outsourced UN programs and activities, so that they are aligned with the UN's intergovernmental mandates.
The Rio+20 Conference also recognized the role of South-South cooperation in promoting the eradication of poverty and sustainable development. In this regard, we believe that the cooperation among developing countries would benefit from greater institutional support, in particular, the strengthening of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation.
As a concrete and specific suggestion on governance and its effectiveness, we should reaffirm, improve and further strengthen the commitments expressed in MDG-8, providing targets and indicators related to ODA for the Post-2015 Development Agenda.