Falling Short of Our Goals: Transforming the Millennium Development Goals into Millennium Development Rights

Test of Our Progress: The Translation of Economic and Social Rights Norms Into Practice

“…In contrast to this, an expert committee and a commission or a court that monitors its realization backs each major international and regional human rights instrument and in many cases has the power to receive individual or collective complaints. In comparison to this, the international accountability mechanisms for the MDGs are quite weak (OHCHR 2008;Dorsey et al 2010;Alston 2005). In particular, there are no real mechanisms to ensure that the richer countries live up to their financial commitments.…”

“…As OHCHR concludes, "the key point is that the setting of the MDGs has partly ignored the legal force and instrumental value of human rights" (2008: 4). Thus, although the content of some of the MDGs resembles ESR, disembodied from the human rights context-and in particular, the processes and mechanisms that form the core of the HR framework-it is questionable how far the MDGs will ultimately take us (OHCHR 2008;Dorsey et al 2010;Nelson 2007). Although the MDGs are purported to bring transformative change in the lives of the poor, it is ironic that the poor have no mechanisms for participation in the formulation of the goals and in seeking redress (Dorsey et al 2010).…”

“…Thus, although the content of some of the MDGs resembles ESR, disembodied from the human rights context-and in particular, the processes and mechanisms that form the core of the HR framework-it is questionable how far the MDGs will ultimately take us (OHCHR 2008;Dorsey et al 2010;Nelson 2007). Although the MDGs are purported to bring transformative change in the lives of the poor, it is ironic that the poor have no mechanisms for participation in the formulation of the goals and in seeking redress (Dorsey et al 2010). In the Social Guarantees model discussed in the next section, the identification of clear and widely communicated redress mechanisms has been an important factor in holding government and service providers accountable.…”

Did the Paris Agreement Fail to Incorporate Human Rights in Operative Provisions?

“…Although each of these three definitions appears vague and fluid, there has been growing consensus that the social dimension of sustainable development includes respect for internationally recognized human rights. 51 Philip Alston argues, for example, that the international human rights framework had already clearly featured in the Millennium Declaration, which world leaders signed in a special meeting in 2000. 52 On that occasion, 147 world leaders vowed to pursue an eight-point development agenda (also known as the Millennium Development Goals or MDGs), while committing to "spare no effort to promote… respect for all internationally recognized human rights."…”