Hostname: page-component-5447f9dfdb-bxsvz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-30T07:53:42.863Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assessing the sustainable development goals from a human rights perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Thomas Pogge  and
Mitu Sengupta
Thomas Pogge*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Yale University, New Haven, CT06520, USA
Mitu Sengupta
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and Public Administration, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaM5B 2K3
*
*Corresponding author. Email: thomas.pogge@yale.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Though they improve upon the millennium development goals (MDGs), the new sustainable development goals (SDGs) have important draw-backs. First, in assessing present deprivations, they draw our attention to historical comparisons. Yet, that things were even worse before is morally irrelevant; what matters is how much better things could be now. Second, like the MDGs, the SDGs fail to specify any division of labor to ensure success. Therefore, should progress stall, we won't know who is responsible to get us back on track. We won't “end poverty in all its forms everywhere” without an agreement on who is to do what. Third, although the SDGs contain a goal calling for inequality reduction, this goal is specified so that the reduction need not start till 2029. Such delay would cause enormous death and suffering among the poor and enable the rich to shape national and supranational design in their own favor.

Keywords

sustainable development goalshuman rights

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 32 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Social Policy and the Transformative Potential of the SDGs , June 2016 , pp. 83 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).Google Scholar
Cingano, F. (2014). Trends in income inequality and its impact on economic growth (Working Paper No. 163). Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Retrieved from http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/content/workingpaper/5jxrjncwxv6j-enGoogle Scholar
Cobham, A., & Sumner, A. (2013a). Is it all about the tails? The palma measure of income inequality (Working Paper 343). Center for Global Development. Retrieved from http://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/it-all-about-tails-palma-measure-income-inequality_edit.pdfCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cobham, A., & Sumner, A. (2013b). Putting the Gini back in the bottle? The Palma as a policy-relevant measure of inequality (Unpublished). Retrieved from http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/sga/idi/people/Sumner/Cobham-Sumner-15March2013.pdfGoogle Scholar
Deacon, B. (2016). Assessing the SDGs from the point of view of Global Social Governance. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FAO, IFAD, & WFP. (2015). State of food insecurity in the world. Paris: Food and Agriculture Organization. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4646e.pdfGoogle Scholar
GeoHive. (2013). Population of the entire world yearly [Dataset]. Retrieved January 23, 2016, from http://www.geohive.com/earth/his_history3.aspxGoogle Scholar
Louise, J., Fyson, C., Alexander, R., Gutschow, J., Rocha, M., Cantzler, J., & Blok, K. (2015). 2.8 Degrees celsius is not enough-we can get lower (Briefing). Climate Action Tracker. Retrieved January 25, 2016, from http://climateactiontracker.org/assets/publications/briefing_papers/CAT_Temp_Update_COP21.pdfGoogle Scholar
Manyika, J., Woetzel, J., Dobbs, R., Remes, J., Labaye, E., & Jordan, A. (2015). Can long-term global growth be saved? McKinsey & Company. New York, NY: McKinsey & Company. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/employment-and-growth/can-long-term-global-growth-be-savedGoogle Scholar
Muchhala, B. (2014, March 14). North-South debate in the UN with context of sustainable development goals. Retrieved from http://www.twn.my/title2/unsd/2014/unsd140303.htmGoogle Scholar
NASA. (2016). GIS surface temperature analysis. Retrieved April 3, 2016, from http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs_v3/Google Scholar
Piketty, T., & Saez, E. (2003). Income inequality in the United States, 1913–1998. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1), 1–41. http://doi.org/10.1162/00335530360535135CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pogge, T. (2010). Politics as usual: What lies behind the pro-poor rhetoric. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Pogge, T. (2016). The hunger games. Food Ethics, 1(1), 9–27. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41055-016-0006-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pogge, T., & Mehta, K. (Eds.) (2016). Global tax fairness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pogge, T., & Sengupta, M. (2014). Rethinking the post-2015 development Agenda: Eight ways to end poverty now. Global Justice: Theory Practice Rhetoric, 7, 3–11.Google Scholar
Sachs, J. (2006). The end of poverty: Economic possibilities for our time. New York, NY: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Sengupta, A. (2002). On the theory and practice of the right to development. Human Rights Quarterly, 24(4), 837–889. http://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2002.0054CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shah, A. (2013, January 7). Poverty facts and stats. Retrieved February 7, 2015, from http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-statsGoogle Scholar
Trotta, D. (2013, March 14). Iraq War Costs U.S. More that $2 Trillion: Study. Reuters. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-war-anniversary-idUSBRE92D0PG20130314Google Scholar
UN General Assembly. (1966). International covenant on economic, social and cultural rights. United Nations, Treaty Series, Vol. 993, p. 3. Retrieved February 27, 2016, from http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b36c0.htmlGoogle Scholar
UN General Assembly. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 sustainable development Agenda, 70th Session, UN Doc, A/Res/70/1.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Program. (2007). Human development report 2007–2008. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved on March 30, 2016, from http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/268/hdr_20072008_en_complete.pdfGoogle Scholar
UNU-WIDER. (2015). World income inequality database (WIID3c) [Dataset]. Retrieved January 24, 2016 from, https://www.wider.unu.edu/project/wiid-world-income-inequality-databaseGoogle Scholar
World Bank. (2015). World development indicators [Dataset]. Retrieved on January 24, 2016, from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.DYN.MORT?page=5Google Scholar
World Bank. (2016). PovCal: An online analysis tool for global poverty monitoring [Dataset]. Retrieved on April 3, 2016, from http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/)Google Scholar
World Health Organization. (2008). Global burden of disease: 2004 Update. Geneva: World Health Organization Publications. Retrieved from www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/2004_report_update/en/index.htmlGoogle Scholar