Chapter 14

Global Human Development and Sustainable Development Goals

• The 2014 Human Development Report introduced the concept of "human vulnerability" to describe factors that threaten people's capabilities and choices, such as human-made crises, financial instability, and environmental pressures like climate change.
• According to the UNDP Multidimensional Poverty Index, 1.5 billion people in 91 developing countries live in poverty, with overlapping deprivations in health, education, and living standards.
• Inequality within and between countries is recognized as a major challenge, with the new Inequality-Adjusted HDI (IHDI) measuring disparities and showing that as inequality increases, human development decreases.
• The Inequality-Adjusted HDI takes into account how human development is distributed, revealing that countries with greater inequality have lower human development scores.
• The average loss due to inequality for countries with high HDI values was 12.1 percent, with OECD countries averaging 13.3 percent.
• The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer improvements on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by addressing systemic barriers to sustainable development such as inequality, unsustainable consumption patterns, weak institutional capacity, and environmental degradation.
• Sustainable development is defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, and it involves improving the standard of living while protecting human health, conserving the environment, using resources efficiently, and advancing long-term economic competitiveness.
• The UN Millennium Declaration in 2000 committed nations to a global partnership to reduce extreme poverty, setting out eight time-bound targets known as the MDGs, which included addressing hunger, disease, gender inequality, and access to water and sanitation.
• The final MDG Report found that since 1990, the number of people living in extreme poverty has declined by more than half, undernourishment in developing regions has fallen by almost half, and primary school enrollment has reached 91 percent in developing regions.
• Progress has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, with declines in under-five mortality rates and maternal mortality worldwide, as well as improved access to improved sources of water.
• Sustainable development is becoming central to the programs of many governments, businesses, educational institutions, and non-government organizations worldwide, requiring the integration of environmental, economic, and social priorities into policies and programs.
• Recognizing the importance of issues like inequality, poverty, pollution, and climate change, the UN is calling on world leaders to come together to create change and address these global challenges.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights

• The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015, aiming to end poverty and mitigate climate change by 2030, incorporating 169 targets.
• International human rights instruments include declarations, adopted by bodies like the UN General Assembly, and conventions, which are legally binding under international law.
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, is a foundation document for human rights and consists of 30 articles further elaborated in subsequent treaties and legislation.
• The three types of human rights are negative rights (liberty), positive rights (equality), and collective rights (fraternity), aligning with the watchwords of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
• Social work gradually integrated the promotion of human rights, gaining renewed importance after the two world wars and political upheavals of the twentieth century.
• The International Federation of Social Work (IFSW) adopted the International Policy on Human Rights, affirming human rights as a common standard and guide for social workers, emphasizing the opposition to human rights violations.
• The history of human rights is rooted in the struggle against exploitation, based on the recognition of basic rights founded on the inherent dignity and worth of every individual.
• The concept of human rights is based on the acknowledgment of individuals possessing certain inalienable political and civil rights, with origins in ancient religions and philosophies, gaining significance during the Enlightenment and revolutions in the eighteenth century.
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, although non-binding, has been widely used to apply political and moral pressure to governments violating its principles, proving to be a powerful instrument in advancing individual rights globally.
• Human rights include individual political, civil, collective cultural, social, and economic rights, reflecting rights inherent to human nature and without which individuals cannot live as human beings.
• The struggle to defend and advance human rights continues, as individual and collective human rights are not always respected in practice.
• The SDGs will guide policy and funding for the next 15 years, with a historic pledge taken in 2015 to end poverty everywhere, permanently.